Boat Profile

July 2020

Spira’s Hudson Skiff

An easy-to-build outboard skiff

The Hudson Skiff from Spira International is a simple 15-footer for outboard power. Typical of Spira designs, the skiff can be built with inexpensive common lumber by novice boatbuilders with modest woodworking skills and limited access to tools.

July 2020

Crawford’s Gunning Dory

A classic form in fiberglass

Crawford Boat Building is best known for their fiberglass Melonseed Skiff, but their Gunning Dory is equally able and attractive. The 15’ adaptation of a 19th-century Massachusetts predecessor has an appealing lapstrake appearance at a fraction of the weight.

June 2020

John Dory

Swampscott style in plywood

The John Dory is Iain Oughtred’s adaptation of a classic dory form for glued-lap plywood constriction. At less than half the weight of a traditionally built Swampscott, the John Dory offers time-tested seaworthiness with easy handling at the ramp and the beach.

June 2020

Bella 10

A breeze to build, a pleasure to row

Sam Devlin designed the Bella 10 to be built from a single 5x10 sheet of plywood, eliminating the need to scarf pieces together. The boat not only was well suited for the boatbuilding classes he was teaching, but also is an inexpensive project and an able rowing boat for the home boatbuilder.

May 2020

Laughing Gull

A working sharpie redesigned for exciting sailing

Arch Davis designed the Laughing Gull with youthful sailors in mind. The gunter-sloop rig had traditional roots but it had to provide plenty of power for exciting sailing, even planing downwind. And with youth being as they are, the boat had to recover easily from capsizes.

May 2020

Grumman’s 17′ Double-Ender

An enduring and durable classic

Grumman, renowned for making fighter planes during World War II, began making canoes as the war came to a close in 1945. The same care that went into aircraft went into the canoes, and the tooling and jigs that were created at the beginning are still in use. Grumman’s 17’ Double Ender is a classic that still serves paddlers 75 years after it first went into production.

April 2020

Carolinian Carolina Dory

An outboard skiff from Spira

Boats built to plans from Spira International are designed for readily available lumber and plywood and modest woodworking skills. The Carolinian design is no exception and produces an easily driven and versatile outboard skiff.

April 2020

Vermont Dory

A new guideboat in Kevlar

The Vermont Dory from the Adirondack Guideboat Company was developed to build upon the capabilities of the guideboats used in the Northeast since the 1800s. Its Kevlar hull can stand up to some hard use.

March 2020

Weekender

A Stevenson project

The Weekender from Stevenson Projects is a plywood pocket yacht that made its debut in Popular Science in 1981. Its gaff rig, cuddy cabin, trail boards, and ship’s wheel give the little 16-footer the look of the Friendship sloops that inspired its designer.

March 2020

PocketShip

Echoes of a British pilot cutter

Chesapeake Light Craft’s PocketShip is under 15’ long and trailers docilely behind a compact car and yet offers comfortable sleeping quarters for two in the cabin or cockpit and carries a powerful sailing rig. Stitch-and-glue makes construction amateur friendly.

February 2020

A Gaff Sloop

Paul Gartside's design No. 218

Paul Gartside’s 16’ Gaff Sloop has its roots in double-ended Scandinavian work boats. The New York-based designer created several different versions of the type and the final iteration kept the traditional construction but adopted a transom and, at a builder’s request, took on a bowsprit.

February 2020

Lighthouse Tender Peapod

A Maine classic updated

The original Maine peapods were well adapted to fishing and hauling lobster traps, but their full, round bilges made them difficult to build. Designer John Harris took an interest in the type decades ago, and recently drew his 13’ 5” Lighthouse Tender Peapod; Chesapeake Light Craft now offers his peapod in an easy-to-build kit.

January 2020

Jimmy Skiff II

Redesign adds outboard to sail and oar

Chesapeake Light Craft’s Jimmy Skiff has been popular for two decades, but the design’s success didn’t mean it couldn’t benefit from a thorough makeover. The latest version, the Jimmy Skiff II, has flotation-tank side benches and a transom that can take a small outboard.

January 2020

Yankee Tender

Classic construction

For the traditional-minded boatbuilder, the Yankee Tender, with its origins dating back a century, is an exercise in classic boatbuilding methods and produces a versatile small rowing skiff.

December 2019

Wolfgangsee skiff

A century-old Austrian design revived

A lapstrake rowing skiff that has been in a friend’s family in Austria for generations inspired a young boatbuilder to document it and build a new one at an English boatbuilding school. Rowed solo, tandem, with or without a passenger, the skiff has an enduring appeal.

December 2019

Autumn Leaves

A canoe-yawl pocket cruiser

Chesapeake Light Craft’s designer, John Harris, set out to create a coastal cruiser in the spirit of designs by Phil Bolger and Albert Strange. The straight-sided hull simplifies and speeds construction; deftly curved lines give it eye appeal.

November 2019

Glen-L Bo-Jest

An accommodating 18-footer

Glen-L’s power pocket cruiser, the Bo-Jest, manages to pack comfortable and roomy accommodations into its 18’ x 8’ footprint. There’s standing headroom in the wheelhouse, a 7’-long V-berth in the trunk cabin, and seating for four in the cockpit.

November 2019

CLC’s Team Dory

For friends and friendly competition

The Team Dory from Chesapeake Light Craft offers clubs an affordable way to get crews of five rowing enthusiasts on the water in safety and in style. The ample freeboard and buoyant hull can take on a bit of rough water and still keep the crew dry.

October 2019

Song Wren

A Devlin gaff-rigged cutter

The Song Wren from Devlin Designing Boat Builders is a handsome gaff-rigged cutter with a comfortable cockpit and cabin. For easy trailering it has a tabernacle mast and can be built with a swing keel. The full-keel option opens up space in the cabin.

October 2019

Elf

A plywood faering from Iain Oughtred

Traditional Norwegian faerings are elegant boats that require exceptional boatbuilding skills. Iain Oughtred’s Elf captures the form and function beautifully in plywood and makes the ancient type accessible to contemporary amateur builders.

September 2019

Campion’s Apple 16

Light, fast, and well mannered

The Apple 16 is a stitch-and-glue plywood dayboat designed by Thomas Dunderdale of Campion Sail and Design. It has classic lines, a jaunty plumb bow, and a traditional balanced lug yawl rig, but a flat aft section of the hull allows the boat to get up on a plane.

September 2019

Oughtred’s Auk

An adaptable tender

Iain Oughtred’s Auk is one of several plywood lapstrake dinghies that is well suited to recreational rowing and sailing as well as serving as a tender to a larger vessel. While the shortest version of the Auk is 7’11”, the plans can easily be stretched a foot or more longer.

August 2019

Oxford Wherry

Simplicity and speed

The Oxford Wherry from Angus Rowboats is a fast, lightweight cruiser and a sliding-seat rowing trainer. Its stitch-and-glue construction is straightforward enough for a first-time boatbuilder.

August 2019

Super Sailfish

A wild and wet ride

The Alcort company in Waterbury, Connecticut, designed the 11’7” Sailfish in 1947. The boat gained popularity after an article in LIFE magazine in 1949 and inspired the creation of a big sister, the Super Sailfish.

July 2019

Shenandoah Whitehall

Light enough to carry solo

Gentry’s Shenandoah Whitehall is a modern boat with traditional lines that’s large enough to take an adult and a kid camping, relatively seaworthy, efficient under oars, and light enough to toss on the roof of the car. For a few hundred dollars and a few dozen hours, it can provide a novice with both a manageable entry into boatbuilding and rowing adventures.