Wood Boat Building

Litchfield's Forman School students auctioning hand-crafted boat

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Wooden boat building: An ancient craft still afloat on the North ...

The business of building wooden boats is alive and well on the North Fork.

Some say it’s a revival, but others say it’s simply a continuation of what they’ve been doing for years.

Just ask Anders Langendal. He’ll tell you he’s been building and repairing wooden boats for 50 years, most of them at Greenport Yacht and Ship Building Company on Carpenter Street, in space provided by company owner Steve Clarke. And for the last four years, Donn Costanzo and his partner Bruce Wahl have followed the old ways at Wooden Boat Works, their company at Hanff Boatyard on Sterling Street.

They were invited there by owners John and George Costello, who Mr. Costanzo said believe in and support marine historical renovation.

“John and George have been so wonderful to me,” he said. Pat Mundus, daughter of noted shark fisherman Frank Mundus, served as the matchmaker, bringing the boat builder together with the Costello brothers.

At the outset of her own career, Ms. Mundus was torn between boat building and a more practical pursuit. After graduating from SUNY Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, she spent 17 years as an Exxon oil tanker captain. Now she can indulge her love of boat building by helping Mr. Costanzo.

“Before it was a fishing village, Greenport was a boat building village,” Ms. Mundus said.

The eyes of those who toil in natural planking and decking rather than steel and fiberglass take on a special gleam when they talk about and work on historic boats in need of tender loving care.

Giving a tour of his yard, Mr. Langendal, 67, points out with pride boats from 1917 and 1920 on which he and his two sons are laboring.

“We’re kind of snobby that way,” he said about the love of working on the old boats. “Boats that have a soul.”

He’s not so snobby that he turns down work on more modern craft. Still, he said the older vessels present the most interesting challenges.

Mr. Langendal came to Greenport from his native Sweden in 1965 looking for adventure after a turn in the Merchant Marine and work at a Swedish shipyard. Through the 1960s, much of his time was devoted to maintaining racing sailboats.

Mr. Costanzo, 59, similarly sought adventure, traveling to Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain and Italy, where wooden boat building was in its renaissance. He returned to the East End about 12 years ago and employed his skills in Hampton Bays and Speonk before finding a building in Aquebogue, which he and Mr. Wahl maintain for boats too large for their Greenport space.

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