Boat Profile

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

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.

Small Boats Annual 2023March 2022

Handy Billy

An outboard out of sight

Handy Billy, Harry Bryan’s V-bottom launch, has classic lines inspired by William Hand’s deep-V inboards of the early 1900s but gets its power from a modern 4-stroke 25-hp outboard. Concealed by a housing over the motorwell, the outboard is hidden from view and as quiet as it can be.

Small Boats Annual 2023March 2022

Colonia Dinghy

A 17' daysailer from N. G. Herreshoff

In 1901, N. G. Herreshoff designed a 17’ sailing dinghy for the steam yacht COLONIA. The boat proved successful, and 36 more Colonia dinghies were built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Sea trials aboard a 1975 copy suggest the design would be well worth reviving.

Small Boats Annual 2010

Drake

A faering for today’s oarsman

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - Looking for a seaworthy boat suitable for fast solo or tandem rowing in open water, Clint Chase found his inspiration, as many small-craft designers do, in the faerings of Scandinavia.

Small Boats Annual 2010

Black Skimmer

A Phil Bolger sharpie

The 25'3" Black Skimmer floats in 10" of water and sails handily in not much more. She stays with, or ahead of, most stock boats of comparable size on all points (including to windward)...and nearly always outdistances cruisers of similar cost.

Small Boats Annual 2023February 2022

Utility Launch

Zimmer's

Nelson Zimmer designed his Utility Launch to shuttle people between towns and fishing camps in Canada’s North Woods. Powered by a small diesel motor, it’s efficient and elegant, and what he regarded as a “good, common-sense little boat.”

Small Boats Annual 2023February 2022

Outer Banks 26

Cruising in comfort for two

The Outer Banks 26 is the newest and longest of the three Outer Banks cruisers from B&B. They are designed for economical cruising for a couple, with the 26 providing more features and additional room for multi-week adventures.

Small Boats Annual 2010

Kingfisher and Kookaburra

These birds can fly

Graeme King has devoted his career to designing and building wooden rowing shells. He developed the Kingfisher single for the home builder who desires a fast and elegant recreational shell.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Penguin Class

A family-friendly racing dinghy

Designed by Philip Rhodes in 1933, the Penguin has had an enduring legacy as a racing dinghy, with more than 9,700 built. The plywood, hard-chined boats are simple to build.

Small Boats Annual 2010

Grey Seal

A Norse spirit in modern wood construction

Grey Seal is a comfortable pocket cruiser. Her double-ended shape, strong sheer, and lapstrake planking hearken to her Scandinavian influence. Glued lapstrake construction makes her accessible to the home builder.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Morris 17′ Model A

The height of romance in the wood-and-canvas canoe

After World War II, aluminum canoes chipped away at the wood-and-canvas canoe’s popularity, and by the mid-1960s fiberglass ruled the market. However, in the mid-1980s, a few impassioned builders led a wood-and-canvas revival. Among them was canoe-builder Rollin Thurlow. He chose the Morris 17' Model A as one of the designs to help lead the charge.

Small Boats Annual 2023January 2022

Sand Dollar

A skiff for oar, sail, and outboard from Arch Davis Design

Arch Davis designed the Sand Dollar as a boat that a novice woodworker could build. The flat-bottom skiff can be rowed, propelled with a small outboard, or equipped with one of the three sailing rigs detailed in the plans.

January 2022

Port Aransas Skiff

A shallow-draft outboard

The Port Aransas Skiff was developed in a Texas Gulf Coast fishing town for fishing and duck hunting in the flats and shallows of the nearby barrier islands. Originally designed for sailing and rowing, the skiffs are now built for outboard power.

Small Boats Annual 2010

North Star Kayak

A modern take on an ancient design

Basing his design on the skin-on-frame baidarkas used by the Aleutian hunters, sculptor and boatbuilder Rob Macks developed the North Star kayak, a stripped version of the type.

Small Boats Annual 2010

Biscayne Bay 14

Genius on a small scale

The Biscayne Bay 14, designed by N.G. Herreshoff, is a delightful, low-cost daysailer that transports easily and is a good performer. Jim Austin built his for exploring Muscongus Bay, Maine, with his wife, Darcy.

Small Boats Annual 2010

KATIE

Harry Bryan’s 20' cruiser

Inspired by N.G. Herreshoff’s Buzzards Bay 12 1⁄2-footer and Joel White’s Flatfish, the 20' cruiser KATIE, designed and built by Harry Bryan, cuts a handsome profile underway.

Small Boats Annual 2023December 2021

Ptarmigan 17

A Selway Fisher pocket cruiser

Created by Paul Fisher of England’s Selway Fisher Design, The Ptarmigan 17 is a pocket cruiser with a comfortable cabin with berths for two and the choice of a gaff sloop or gaff yawl rig.

Small Boats Annual 2023December 2021

66 Canoe

A canoe-building system from Cape Falcon Kayak

The 66 Canoe from Cape Falcon Kayak was not designed as a set of plans for a single canoe, but as a system to create canoes of different sizes and for different purposes.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Ladybug Pram

It’s a wheelbarrow, and it’s a boat

The Ladybug pram, a small dinghy with a wheel permanently fixed in a case in its bow, allows for a nearly seamless transition from the water to a beach, all the while keeping its passengers’ shoes dry. The boat can be built in either a 6' or a 7' model.

Small Boats Annual 2023November 2021

Devon Scaffie

A trailerable keelboat for camp cruising

The Scaffie was designed by John Watkinson, founder of the Drascombe line of small boats, and has been in production in the U.K. since 1978. It is 14′9″ long with a beam of 5′9″ and, at 462 lbs fully rigged, ideal for trailering behind even small vehicles.

Small Boats Annual 2023November 2021

Deblois Street Dory

Clint Chase designed the Deblois Street Dory in the spirit of New England’s dories. The lapstrake hull, graceful curve of the bow, the tombstone transom, and low sweep of the sheer are all Swampscott dory.

Small Boats Annual 2009

The Hvalsoe 16

On its way to becoming a Northwest classic

Although its construction is substantially different from the classic Whitehall pulling boat, representing as it does a compromise between good rowing and sailing performance, the Hvalsoe 16 is squarely in the tradition of the historical type.

Small Boats Annual 2009

GRACE’S TENDER

Easy to love, easier to build

GRACE’S TENDER is a kindly little plywood boat that Arch Davis designed to build with his daughter, Grace. This handsome and capable craft is an exceptionally good first boatbuilding project.

Small Boats Annual 2009

The Hird Island Skiff

Comfortable—and quiet

The reedy shallows of Georgia call for a shoal-draft boat that can easily navigate the channels—and with its electric motor, the Hird Island Skiff can do so without disturbing the peace and quiet.