Boat Profile

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Sailing Skiff 15

A simple, striking, affordable boat

All youngsters might begin their waterborne adventures in flat-bottomed rowing/sailing skiffs. Easy to build, but difficult to design properly, these honest little boats teach lessons in seamanship and self-reliance. At the other end of life’s voyage, a good skiff will take gentle care of old folks as they sail comfortable miles to nowhere in particular. Here’s a flat-bottomed 15'4" sailing…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Macomber 15

A fast and heavy skiff from Westport, Massachusetts

You can walk across the Westport River in southern Massachusetts at low tide. It's a mile or so across in some places, but the depth at full ebb is only 4′. If you want to cross that water with dry feet, then you need a shallow-draft boat. If you want to venture on that water to clam flats or to…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The WindSprite 26

An easy-to-build, multichined hull for performance daysailing

Frank Pedersen designed a light-displacement planing hull, and WINDSPRITE's abilities as a performance daysailer have been anything but a disappointment to him. With basic accommodations and without expensive electrical or mechanical systems, she’s all about fast daysailing at minimal cost.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Annapolis Wherry

Quick to build, fast to row

Faster than a typical skiff, yet more stable than a recreational shell, the light (65 lbs) Annapolis Wherry from Chesapeake Light Craft offers healthy exercise and satisfying speed. The Wherry goes together LapStitch fashion, which produces a clean interior with few frames.

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September 2020

Ultra-Light Solo Packboat

A versatile Kevlar rowing boat

The 12’ Ultra-Light Solo Packboat weighs just 34 lbs, about as light as a boat designed for rowing can be. With a Kevlar composite hull and cherry trim, it is both tough and comely.

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Small Boats Annual 2021September 2020

Midget Flyer

A smart little runabout from 1938 designed by Bruce N. Crandall 

The 10’ Midget Flyer made its debut in the January issue of Motor Boating in 1938 and might have quietly slipped into obscurity if not for Mark Kaufmann’s desire to have an exciting boat he could power with an antique outboard motor he had restored.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Ben Garveys

Simple boats for work or play

Boats don’t always need to have pointy forward ends. Here we have two easily built, square-ended workhorses that will handle all sorts of waterfront chores—and look just fine while they’re about it. Designed by Maine boatbuilder Doug Hylan, the 15' 9" and 19' 0" Ben Garveys will earn their wages.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Norwalk Islands 26

Fast, shoal-draft, and self-righting

The sheet-plywood Norwalk Islands Sharpie can easily be built in the backyard, yet it outperforms more expensive yachts. Its simple cat-ketch rig needs no standing rigging (wire shrouds and stays that support the masts). The outboard-motor lifts into its own house when idle—no ugly mounting bracket, no hydrodynamic drag.

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August 2020

Duck Trap Wherry

Forty years a classic

Walt Simmons first offered plans for the Duck Trap Wherry in 1980 as a pulling boat for traditional construction. Later, in response to requests from his customers, he created a lighter version in glued-lapstrake plywood and added a sailing rig.

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August 2020

Gartside’s Centerboard Lugger

Old ways at work

Paul Gartside drew the inspiration for his Centerboard Lugger from British workboats of a century ago. With its traditional lapstrake hull and lug-yawl rig, it’s nearly identical to the boats of the past. The addition of a centerboard trunk is the only notable “upgrade” from the original.

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.

Small Boats Annual 2021April 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.

Small Boats Annual 2021March 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.

Small Boats Annual 2021March 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.

Small Boats Annual 2021February 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.

Small Boats Annual 2021January 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.

Small Boats Annual 2021December 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.