Boat Profile

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 Chebacco Boats

A trio of options

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - There were three original Chebacco boats, all designed by Phil Bolger for Brad Story. Story was a friend of Bolger’s and a boatbuilder, now retired, of considerable talent in Essex, Massachusetts. All three boats feel very much alike on the water.

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 2010

Swallow Boats SeaRaider

A purpose-designed Raid boat

The SeaRaider, a design from the UK-based kit boat manufacturer Swallowboats, was purpose designed for point-to-point small-boat racing events called Raids.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Kingfisher Power Dory

A self-bailing power dory

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - Kingfisher is an outboard-powered skiff whose lineage can be traced back to New England dories. Her topsides are planked in lapstrake plywood, and she has a double bottom that provides both flotation and self-bailing capability.

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 2010

The AF4 Beach Cruiser

A weekend cruiser from Jim Michalak

AF4, an outboard powered beach cruiser with 4" of draft, can boldly go where most boats can't.

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.

Small Boats Annual 2009

Sunshine

A much-admired yacht tender

With excellent load-carrying capacity and rowing characteristics, low weight, and great looks, the Sunshine makes a wonderful yacht tender.

Small Boats Annual 2009

MARCUS NOER

A Danish four-sail double-ender

MARCUS NOER is a particularly fine example of a traditional double-ender from Denmark, with a shapeliness to her hull that will take your breath away. The design is one descendant—one of many—of a Nordic boatbuilding tradition that should properly stand beside the great cathedrals of the world and the sculptures of antiquity as among the loveliest creations ever made by…

October 2021

Alamitos

An outboard V-bottom skiff from Spira International

The Alamitos is a 15’ V-bottom dory designed by Jeff Spira for quick and affordable construction. Its ample 7’ beam provides plenty of stability for fishing and taking on a bit of offshore chop.

Small Boats Annual 2022October 2021

The Rhodes 19

An uncommonly enduring one-design

The Rhodes 19 didn’t catch on when the design was introduced as a wooden boat in the late ‘40s, but when it was reproduced in fiberglass in the ‘50s by George O’Day, the daysailer gave rise to a popular and enduring one-design class.

Small Boats Annual 2009

RETRO-ROCKET

Glen-L’s Super Spartan makes a splash

RETRO-ROCKET was built from Glen-L Marine Design’s plans for Super Spartan, a three-point hydroplane. Constructed in marine plywood, RETRO-ROCKET weighs less than 100 lbs and darts across the water, mostly on a cushion of air.

Small Boats Annual 2009

Fenwick Williams’s 18’ Catboat

A frisky little cat

Fenwick Williams designed 17 catboats from 8' to 30' in length. All of them are legendary; but his first, an 18-footer created during the height of the Great Depression in 1931, stands out as a little gem.

Small Boats Annual 2009

Duckling

A sliding-seat skiff

When Sam Devlin of Devlin Designing Boat Builders was commissioned to build a rowing skiff to be carried aboard a 45' motoryacht, he was given two requirements: it had to be short enough to fit on the yacht’s cabintop, and it had to be equipped with a sliding-seat rowing rig.

Small Boats Annual 2009

BUFFLEHEAD

A high-end hybrid for paddle and sail

While you may not want to try building BUFFLEHEAD without some experience under your belt, when ready, your hard work will pay off in an eye-pleasing, seaworthy craft for daysailing or extended coastal passages.

Small Boats Annual 2022September 2021

Bobcat

Bolger's adaptation of the Beetle Cat for tack-and-tape construction

Phil Boger designed the Bobcat as an adaptation of the legendary Beetle Cat for tack-and-tape construction to put a small, stable catboat within the reach of amateur boatbuilders.

Small Boats Annual 2022September 2021

Ellen 12

Pretty in plywood

This 12’ glued-lapstrake skiff, designed by John Brooks for oar, sail and outboard, is a complex boat, but detailed plans and a comprehensive 281-page book devoted to it pave the way for a first-time builder.

Small Boats Annual 2009

Diablo

A fast and stable outboard-powered skiff

BONITO’s Diablo design is derived from the Amesbury skiff—itself a dory-derivative. The plywood hull is easily built, and easy on the eyes. A narrow bottom and wide, angled bilge panels combine to give Diablo an efficient planing surface and predictable banking in turns. She has great dynamic stability at speed.

Small Boats Annual 2009

Beetle 14

Sequel to a legend

The Beetle 14 (14'4") is the big sister of the 12' 4" classic. Lest you think 2' is not much of a difference, consider the designer’s observation that “You could fill two [original] Beetles with water and empty them into this boat.”

Small Boats Annual 2009

BEATRICE

A modified Saint-Pierre Dory

BEATRICE is a modified Saint-Pierre dory—a type once common on the waters of Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Born on the islands of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland (French possessions to this day), the Saint-Pierre dory was a local response to a French government requirement for cheap, durable, and safe fishing craft for local fishermen.