Boat Profile

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.

July 2019

O’Day Day Sailer

A proven performer for 61 years

Famed designers Uffa Fox and George O’Day teamed up in 1956 to create the O’Day Day Sailer. The first Day Sailer was sold in 1958 and immediately became popular in the recreational and racing markets, with over 10,000 boats hitting the waterways. It is a very versatile boat, easy to rig, sail, transport, and store.

June 2019

Ed Monk Skiff

A working tender from 1943

Edwin Monk, a Seattle-based naval architect renowned for designing handsome motor-yachts for cruising, applied his talents to a number of handy small boats. His 13’6” flat-bottom skiff, drawn in 1943, is a no-nonsense workboat for oars and outboard.

June 2019

Salt Bay Skiff

Easy to build, impressively functional

Described by its designer as “a quick-and-dirty boat in swan’s clothing,” Chris Franklin’s Salt Bay Skiff is well suited to first-time boatbuilders and families looking to introduce kids to building, sailing, and rowing a small boat.

May 2019

Chester Yawl

A shapely pulling boat

The Chester Yawl from Chesapeake Light Craft is a 15’ Whitehall-type pulling boat with beautiful lines and a complexity in the building of it that is just enough to feel like an accomplishment without being daunting.

May 2019

Moccasin 14

A tripping canoe from B & B

Simply sweet and sweetly simple, the Moccasin 14 from B & B Yachts is a solo canoe for a double-bladed paddle. It is quick to build, easy to cartop, and a breeze to paddle.

April 2019

Jumbo

A Tolman Alaskan Skiff for cruising

Renn Tolman designed three skiffs that have become quite popular in Alaskan waters. The largest of them, the Jumbo, offers economical motoring and comfortable cruising almost anywhere.

April 2019

The Cosine Wherry

A strip-built pulling boat

The Cosine Wherry was designed on a computer by an engineer using a trigonometric curve as a starting point. The result is a strip-built pulling boat that is as easy on the eyes as it is at the oars.

March 2019

Sei

A Welsford double-ender

For the Sei, a 14’ 7” double ender, John Welsford found inspiration in the workboats of Norway’s southern fiords. He took away the keel, gave the hull a flat, beach-friendly bottom, and kept weight to a minimum with glued-lapstrake plywood construction.

March 2019

Whitehall 17

A classic form, strip-built, from Glen-L

Glen-L is well known for designs for plywood boat building, but their 17’ Whitehall is designed to be strip planked. The lightweight cedar hull is easily driven, runs straight, and can easily sustain 4 knots with a solo rower at the oars.

February 2019

Belle Daysailer

A 16' daysailer

BELLE, a 16’ daysailer, was drawn up by Daniel Gonneau for his own use, but the lightweight glued-plywood lapstrake hull, combined with classic steam-bent coamings and gaff rig, commanded the interest of small-boat aficionados, and there will no longer be one BELLE but many.

February 2019

Parker Dinghy

A shapely mid-century workboat

In the 1940s, Lindon Parker designed and built a carvel-planked boat for tending the herring weirs around Deer Island, New Brunswick. The design would have been lost if the last of the shapely carvel dinghies had not caught the eye of Harry Bryan, who cleaned it up and took its lines.

January 2019

Classic 17

A snug outboard from Bateau.com

The Classic 17, a design for homebuilders from Bateau.com, is a compact outboard cruiser with a 1950s vibe and contemporary stitch-and-glue plywood construction.

January 2019

Morbic 11

A new Vivier design

Gary Brown asked François Vivier if his Morbic 12 could be built strip-planked rather than lapstrake plywood, and he replied: “Yes, with some modification.” The simple question inspired a thorough redesign and the creation of the Morbic 11.

December 2018

St. Ives Punt

Local boat, wide appeal

The tenders serving the fishing fleet of St. Ives, on the north coast of Cornwall, had a rough life. When the seas were breaking in the harbor, the tenders at anchor would get battered by breaking waves at the water’s edge with each turn of the tide. Jonny Nance designed his St. Ives sailing punt to be stout enough to survive.