Construction

The new Wheeler® 38 was constructed at the Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Maine.

The hull was designed by Bruce Marek, and the rest of the new boat was designed by Bill Prince in Madison, Wis. All of the boat’s dimensions were derived from actual measurements of the Pilar in Havana, Cuba.

The construction of the Wheeler 38 was entirely hand crafted by Brooklin using the finest wood materials, including ultra-strong douglas fir, African mahogany, and teak decks. Every inch of this boat was built by hand.  The interior was custom designed to reflect the actual Wheeler of the period. Hardware was cast and custom cut to match the Pilar. All of the equipment, navigation and electronics are state of the art to provide the performance expected of today’s finest yachts.  Follow our progress in Maine with these photos, and listen to Eric Stockinger, our Project Manager, describe how this boat was built.

Setting up the mold for the new boat

Laying out the first layer of planking

Fitting the first layer of topsides planking

Getting ready to post-cure. Heating the resins in the hull past room temp to avoid print thru in the final finish

Heat blanket in place, water circulating in the orange pipe to heat the hull

Bottom paint!

Right side up!

The house beams are coming along nicely!

Two is better than one!

More cockpit beams

Cabin house coming down!

Foredeck will be finished soon

Finished the deck

Just a few more wires...

Bulkhead installed!

Custom teak captain’s chair

Dinette, Wheeler was the first to offer the convertible dinette/sleeper