Boat Profile

Small Boats Annual 2012

Devlin’s Pelicano

Inspired by pangas, in three flavors

“…saucy-looking, efficient, and seaworthy, and still unfancy enough that an ambitious amateur can realistically aspire to building one.”

Small Boats Annual 2012

The Norwalk Islands 18 and Its Cousins

A family of sharpies

“Having no jib, changing tacks on a sharpie is a matter of simply pushing the tiller over. The two sails look after themselves. ”

Small Boats Annual 2012

FOX

A double-paddle canoe

The 14’7” Fox double-paddle canoe, which weighs only 44 lbs, is casually portable. Its 6’8”-long cockpit offers considerable room, yet can be securely sealed with a spray skirt.

Small Boats Annual 2012

D-18 Myst

A camp-cruiser with good looks

The D-18 Myst has a striking profile and sail plan, and her general appearance prompts thoughts of British fishing boats of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

July 2022

Norwalk Islands Sharpie 23

The NIS 23 is the second to the smallest in a family of Norwalk Islands Sharpies designed by Bruce Kirby, who gave the world his Laser. He called the NIS 23 a “cruising Laser for grownups.”

Small Boats Annual 2023July 2022

Excursion

A strip-built kayak for novice boatbuilders and beginning paddlers

The Excursion is a stable recreational kayak for quiet coastal waters and lakes. The kit from Newfound Woodworks can provide a novice with an easy introduction to strip-building boats.

Small Boats Annual 2012

Marsh Punt

A simple boat for calm waters

The punt, with its flat bottom and square ends, is among the simplest form of boats. Tad Lyford’s 13’6” Marsh Punt is meant for rowing in protected waters, and poling in shallows.

Small Boats Annual 2012

Goliath Mini-Tug

A fanciful cruiser with workboat roots

The Goliath mini-tug from Glen-L Marine, at only 18' overall, is more than a simple caricature: It’s a bona-fide pocket-cruising powerboat, well proportioned and well performing.

Small Boats Annual 2012

Starry Nights

A magic carpet on the water

The 20' Starry Nights launch from Onion River Boatworks is a picnic launch in the finest tradition. Powered by a 3-hp electric motor, she is a gentle, quiet presence on the water.

Small Boats Annual 2012

A Nesting Dinghy

PT 11, a fine balance of form and function

By extensive ocean cruising, Russell Brown came to know what he valued in a nesting dinghy, and his PT 11, which weighs just 85 lbs, balances conflicting purposes of sailing, rowing, light weight, and compact stowage while still remaining a handsome boat.

Small Boats Annual 2012

The Old Town Dinghy

A classic in cedar and canvas

The Old Town dinghy, a classic yacht tender, was once a staple offering in the catalog of the Old Town Canoe Company. It’s a lightweight beauty with a bright-finished interior and a painted, canvas-sheathed hull. Structurally, it looks like a canoe, but it has the shape of a versatile small boat—one that motors, sails, and rows respectably.

Small Boats Annual 2012

Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff

A forgiving outboard-powered boat

The Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff seen here is a strip-planked, fiberglass-sheathed copy of a plank-on-frame hull designed by Joel White and built by Jimmy Steele in the 1970s.

June 2022

Brockway Skiff

A budget-friendly skiff for professional and recreational watermen

Richard Earle Brockway of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, built 5,000 boats before he passed away in 1996 at the age of 76. His utilitarian 14′ plywood skiff is quick and inexpensive to build.

June 2022

microBootlegger

A decked canoe with a Roaring Twenties flair

Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks combined the function of an 1880s Rushton double-paddle canoe with the look of a 1920s speedboat, to create an elegant strip-built tandem paddlecraft.

Small Boats Annual 2023May 2022

Little Crab

Doug Hylan’s 13’ V-Bottomed Skiff for Sail and Oar

The Little Crab is a 13’ flat-bottomed skiff by Doug Hylan to serve as a tender to a yacht, a weekend camp-cruiser for two, or a boat for exploring protected waters under oar and sail.

Small Boats Annual 2023May 2022

The Six-Hour Canoe

An easily built 15' double-blade plywood canoe

Designed by Mike O'Brien in 1977 to put two extra sheets of plywood to good use, the Six-Hour Canoe has been an introduction to boatbuilding and boating for thousands.

Small Boats Annual 2011

JANE ANN

A traditional daysailer

This 18’ cat-ketch, designed by Connecticut-based naval architect Rob Pittaway for New England’s coastal waters, is equally at home on the Great Lakes or inland waters, under sail, auxiliary outboard power, or oars.

Small Boats Annual 2011

Sailing Surf Dory

A great all-around performer from Lowell’s Boat Shop

A comparatively round-sided dory, the Sailing Surf Dory handles well under sail or oars. This boat is a 14-footer, and Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts, also builds 16’, 18’, and 20’ versions.

Small Boats Annual 2011

Townsend Tern

A small cruiser full of ideas and innovations

For a 23’6” boat, the Townsend Tern packs in plenty of the necessities of life for a cruising couple. She is designed to be simple to sail singlehanded, with unstayed carbon-fiber masts that are hinged at the tabernacles to make them easy to lower for trailering.

Small Boats Annual 2023April 2022

Hunky Dory

A beach-launched outboard fishing skiff

Patterned after the outboard dory skiffs of the Oregon Coast, Glen-L’s Hunky Dory has a wide flat bottom and an upturned bow, features that make it possible to launch from a broad sandy beach and safely negotiate the surf zone.

April 2022

La Paz

A plywood deep-V sportfisher

Glen-L’s La Paz is a center-console sportfishing boat with a deep-V hull that smooths the ride in rough water. The 100-gallon fuel tank under the cockpit sole gives the boat enough range to reach far-flung fishing holes.

Small Boats Annual 2011

Ocean Pointer

An updated legend

The David Stimson–designed Ocean Pointer, a 19 1⁄2' center-console outboard skiff, stands on the broad shoulders of a long Maine tradition.

Small Boats Annual 2011

The PT Skiff

Seakindly and fuel-efficient

The fuel-efficient PT Skiff handles well under a range of conditions and speeds, can carry a load, and moves well with just a 20-hp outboard.

Small Boats Annual 2010

DN 60 Iceboat

A tinkerer’s dream

America’s Great Depression was in full swing in the mid-1930s when The Detroit News held a design competition for a simple, inexpensive racing iceboat that could be built in a garage or basement workshop, and be easily transported on top of a car. The result was a 12' craft that appealed to Detroiters looking for an affordable diversion from their…

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Beachcomber-Alpha Dory

A classic racer from Marblehead, Massachusetts

Small-boat designer and builder Daniel Noyes launched his Beachcomber-Alpha dory—with some alterations—in 2008 as a kind of tribute to maritime historian John Gardner. John Gardner drew his lines for the Beachcomber-Alpha dory in the early 1970s.