Boat Profile

April 2017

The Glen-L Utility

Classic 1950s style in a boat that's simple to build, a joy to use

The Utility, a small general-purpose outboard, was designed in 1953 and is among Glen-L’s earliest designs. For over six decades, it has endured as a standard offering in the Glen-L catalogue, and with good reason. It was specifically designed to be affordable and easy to build for the first-time amateur builder.

March 2017

Fairhaven Flyer

A light dory for solo or tandem rowing

The Fairhaven Flyer from Devlin Designing Boat Builders is a versatile 20’ light dory that can be rowed solo or tandem, with fixed thwarts or sliding seats, and used for exercise or adventure.

March 2017

Saturday Night Special

More Bang for the Buck

The Saturday Night Special was John Welford’s idea for a fast beach cruiser that was so simple to build that you could arrive a few days early at a multi-day small boat cruise or raid, build the boat, participate in the event, and fly back home, leaving the boat behind for someone else to use.

February 2017

Maine Coast Peapod

Joel White's classic

The peapod might be one of the most easily identifiable, traditional small craft found on the coast of Maine today and Joel White’s classic take on this timeless design is perfectly suited for both sailing and rowing.

February 2017

Tadpole Tender

Cottrell's 10' Whitehall

The Tadpole Tender from Cottrell Boatbuilding is a scaled-down Whitehall that can do well as a tender, a rowing trainer for kids, or a lightweight rowboat you can carry by cartop.

January 2017

Seaclipper 16

A folding trimaran for the home builder

The Seaclipper 16 can be built as an open-cockpit cruiser or a daysailer with a tandem cockpit. Equipped with side decks between the akas, it offers good options for seating, moving around while under sail, and sleeping aboard while moored.

January 2017

Wee Lassie

A classic in skin-on-frame

In the 1880s, Henry Rushton designed the original Wee Lassie as a beautiful lapstrake canoe and since then, his iconic design has been rendered many times, in many ways, by many builders. The skin-on-frame (SOF) version is 10′ 6″ by 27″, just like the original, and, at 19 lbs, about a pound less.

December 2016

Lightning Bug

Quiet power, stately pace

The Lightning Bug’s range of 35 miles between charges will theoretically get it to points with a 17-mile radius from home. That’s a lot of territory, but a boat that is so easy on the eyes and ears isn’t about merely getting from one place to another. The vessel is in and of itself the destination: a place to relax, enjoy solitude or the company of friends, and take in the view, both within and beyond the boat.

December 2016

Milgate Duck Punt

Simple rig, rewarding sailing

Mersea Island, tucked into England’s Essex coast about 50 miles east northeast of London, is only truly an island twice a day, when the high tide covers the causeway that connects it to the mainland. There’s open water to the island’s southeast side at the junction of the Colne and Blackwater estuaries, and to the northwest mile after mile of tidal salt marsh with a wealth of wild waterfowl. This is the spiritual home of the Milgate duck punt.

November 2016

Odyssey 165

A front-facing rower for touring and fitness

The Odyssey 165 is an unusual rowboat for touring and exercise. It is specifically for use with the FrontRower, a drop-in forward-facing rowing system. With the oars fully supported by the rowing rig, there’s no need to make the boat wide enough to provide a workable span for conventional rowlocks, nor stout enough to take the strain of rowing on the gunwales. The Odyssey has the proportions of a canoe, offers the same view over the bow, and is similarly efficient converting effort into forward progress.

November 2016

Seaford Skiff

A versatile thin-water cruiser

Seaford skiffs first appeared in the shallow marshes around the New York town of Seaford, Long Island, in the early 1870s. They are an evolutionary product of skiffs commonly used by local baymen for hunting waterfowl, digging clams, and fishing. Boatbuilder Samuel Gritman is credited as the primary originator of the Seaford type, but other builders such as Paul Ketcham of Amityville, and Charles Verity and his son Sidney of Seaford, built many and contributed their own modifications to the design from its inception through the 1950s.

October 2016

Little Miss Sally

An electric micro-boat

This micro-boat—easy to build, store, and transport, and powered by a modified electric trolling motor—will tootle protected waterways for hours.

October 2016

Flint

A versatile Ross Lillistone skiff

This plywood skiff's fine lines make efficient use of power, whether it’s from oars, sail, or small outboard.

September 2016

Compass Skiff

A lightweight, nimble, outboard skiff

The Compass outboard skiff, designed by Clint Chase to build during a weekend festival, is a good boat for a family to build together and for introducing children to the pleasures and responsibilities of boating.

September 2016

Guillemot

An Iain Oughtred sail-and-oar skiff

Iain Oughtred is best known for his modern glued-lapstrake adaptations of traditional hull forms, but his Guillemot skiff looks especially handsome when done with larch planking riveted to bent chestnut frames.

August 2016

Honker

Eminently adaptable

Sam Devlin’s Honker can be pressed into service as an open boat for fishing, a floating blind for waterfowling, or a cold-weather coastal cruiser with a removable pilothouse and cabin.

August 2016

Navigator

A beach-cruising centerboard yawl

The Navigator started out as a sailing club’s racing trainer, but it became John Welsford's most popular design after he turned it into a long-range cruising dinghy.

July 2016

Glen-L 15

Building experience

When Kelsey Johnson decided he wanted a boat for exploring the lakes near his British Columbia home, he had never sailed a boat, let alone built one. The Glen L-15 turned out to be the perfect introduction for both boatbuilding and sailing.

July 2016

Atkinson Traveler

The pinnacle of wilderness canoes

The Atkinson Traveler is Rollin Thurlow’s favorite canoe, and that’s saying something because Rollin has been building canoes in Maine for 38 years. We’ll take a look at what makes this wood-and-canvas canoe stand out among all the others he has built.

June 2016

Hvalsoe 18

A new design for solo cruising

Seattle boatbuilder Eric Hvasloe was asked to draw up a boat for cruising the Inside Passage under sail and oars. We put his latest design, the Hvalsoe 18, through its paces.

June 2016

Squirt

A Glen-L runabout

The 11’ Squirt runabout was the biggest boat Art Atkinson could build in his basement, but it didn’t come up short on the performance it delivered. He gives us a good look at this offering from Glen-L.

May 2016

Chaisson Dory

More than a tender

The Chaisson dory was designed a century ago as a tender, but it still has a lot to offer even if you don’t have a yacht to attach to the other end of its painter.

May 2016

Arctic Tern

A modern yoal

Iain Oughtred’s Arctic Tern is in the middle of the range of his popular double-ended beach cruisers that were inspired by the workboats of the Shetland Islands.

April 2016

Duckling 17

Fast solo rowing

Although Sam Devlin envisioned the Duckling 17 as a performance rowing craft, not as a load-carrying boat, with a designed working displacement of 350 lbs, it has the capacity to carry gear for fast and light weekend touring.

April 2016

Abaco Dinghies

Built like little ships

Nobody knows for sure when the first Abaco dinghy was built, or who built it, but the type has been around as a small fishing boat since the late 1800s. During the middle decades of the 20th century Abaco boatbuilders on Man-O-War Cay and at Hope Town launched hundreds of dinghies for fishing, daysailing, and racing.