He doesn't need a bigger boat

One thing Moisey Baudoin doesn’t need is a bigger boat.
The one he’s been building for the past three years is all he wants, and it’s not even for him.
Baudoin, 82, stopped in Eunice last week on his way back to Delcambre from Boyce, where a craftsman applied the finished coats to the mahogany and cypress boat built piece by piece by Baudoin.
Baudoin, who has worked with wood all his life as a contractor, begin the project at the suggestion of a daughter.
“She said I should build a boat for her son, something that would create a lasting heritage. He was 26 when I started, now he’s 29.”
The boat carries the name Vera Kate, named for his great-granddaughter, born a year after the boat project started.
The Vera Kate is a show-stopper as it travels on its trailer down the highway, and surely will be when it’s put on the water.
She is a 24-feet-long, fashioned of Louisiana cypress and Honduras mahogany, materials secured through the efforts of retired lumber broker Richard Landry of Alexandria.
“It was just one piece at a time,” Baudoin said when asked how one goes about building such a craft.
And it was one dollar at a time, amounting to about 55,000, not counting his labor, by the time the project is finished, he said.
Compare that to similar craft in showrooms of the Northeast, where wooden boats remain the rage, at costs of $250,000 to $500,000.
Vera Kate is powered by a 350-horsepower inboard engine, which turns a 14” prop built with a 30-degree pitch.
Until sea trials are held, her top speed and her ideal cruising speed won’t be known.
Is she a candidate for the Wooden Boat Show next April on Bayou Teche in Franklin? Baudoin says that’s an owner decision. By then, Baudoin likely will be on to his next project.