Old Poke is a twenty six foot launch . She was originally purchased by an enthusiastic hobbyist from New Brunswick from a broker in Gravenhurst back in the mid eighties . After about 11 years the owner had managed to re-rib the boat , but had run out of steam and decided to sell  it . The world is full of unfinished boats .  The boat was purchased sight unseen by Whitey Smale ( supposedly a Ditchburn ? ) . Whitey is an avid boater and does a lot of his own work but upon first laying eyes on his new acquisition decided that it was time to look around for help . During the restoration of Old Poke my saturday mornings would often start off earlier than normal with a phone call from Whitey on his cell phone approaching my driveway , eager to see what had happened the week before , and to put plugs in the new planks , or any odd job that could be done during the morning .

When the previous owner had started the job he had cut off the curved transom , and was going to make it square and the boat a bit shorter . Before bringing the boat to my shop Whitey used the boat as a form and extended the back with temporary plywood sides and rebuilt a new curved transom frame .