BROOKLIN — For Ernest Hemingway fans, there are few images more iconic than photographs of the mustachioed “Papa” aboard Pilar, his beloved 38-foot Wheeler Yacht fishing boat.

Hemingway frequently fished off the boat in the waters of Key West and the Gulf Stream off the Cuban coast. His time aboard reportedly influenced his books “The Old Man and the Sea” and “Islands in the Stream.”

Hemingway died in Idaho in 1961, and the original Pilar is now a museum exhibit in Cuba, but the spirit of the boat is being rekindled at the Brooklin Boat Yard.

Last year, the Wheeler Yacht Company commissioned the boat yard to build a replica of Hemingway’s boat. Just a few days ago, the crew at the yard turned the cold-molded wooden hull right side up and began installing her interior systems, fixtures and furniture.

The boat is a synthesis of boat-building history and modern technology. Like her famous predecessor, she is built from wood, but using completely modern epoxy cold-molded construction techniques that make her mahogany hull and cabin immensely strong and still beautiful.

The new Wheeler 38 bristles with high technology, including iPad and iPhone control of most onboard systems and modern twin diesel engines.

The new Pilar is scheduled for launching in the spring of 2020.

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