From The Editor

April 2024

The First Caledonia Yawl

The prototype of Iain Oughtred’s classic double-ender

The editor recalls the first ever Caledonia Yawl, which he rowed 20 years ago, and finds his way back to the noteworthy boat and her current owner in northwest Washington State.

March 2024

Iain Oughtred

1939–2024

On February 21, the small-boat community lost Iain Oughtred, the designer of over 100 boats, many of them popular with amateur boatbuilders around the world.

February 2024

Rowing into Gray

The radiance of a dreary day

An overcast January afternoon might have looked uninviting, but rowing in the dim and fading light turned out to be illuminating.

January 2024

Getting Lost

Cruising before GPS

Taking months-long cruises in the ’80s, long before the proliferation of GPS-equipped devices, our editor usually knew where he was, but for days and weeks on end no one else did.

December 2023

Orphaned

A lapstrake canoe with a lost lineage

When a Piccolo canoe, given up by a couple moving to a new home, became the latest addition to his fleet, our editor grew to appreciate its unknown builder.

November 2023

Accidental

A Piccolo lapstrake canoe made by an unknown builder falls into the editor's hands.

October 2023

To the Rescue, After a Fashion

The only casualty was pride

Knowing what to do in an emergency isn’t the same as putting a practiced response into action. The two approaches can produce very different results.

September 2023

Brother Jim’s Paddle

A featherweight beauty

When Jim Schroer passed away, his wife was left with his life’s work and more boats than she could keep. The canoe paddle our editor bought from her is a fine example of Jim’s extraordinary work.

August 2023

Bark

Beautiful materials from windfalls

While making a birchbark canoe was beyond our editor’s aspirations and abilities, he enjoyed working with bark harvested from downed birch and cedar trees.

July 2023

Memorable

Seattle’s Duwamish River

An industrial river, a muddy island, and an unseasonably cold downpour were the unlikely makings of a pleasant afternoon outing.

June 2023

Galápagos Islands

Differing with Darwin

During a kayaking cruise in 2005, the Galápagos Islands were very much as they were when Charles Darwin landed there in 1835.

May 2023

Purposeless

Leaving the to-do behind

There are times when the most rewarding boating is going nowhere and doing nothing.

April 2023

ISLAND BIRD

A chance encounter leads to an exciting sail

A canoe outing in 1988 near St. Michaels, Maryland, led to chance meeting with Judge John C. North and an invitation to sail aboard ISLAND BIRD, a Chesapeake log canoe built by North’s grandfather in 1882.

March 2023

Risk-Taker?

Finding value in adversity

Looking back on being presented on TV as a “risk-taker” after completing a solo 2,400-mile voyage in a 14’ boat in winter

February 2023

Launched

From backpack to bicycle to boat

A life devoted to boats and writing, let alone a career as an editor, wasn’t what our editor had in mind during or after his schooling, but getting hit by a car during a bicycle ride sent him flying in that direction.

January 2023

Forlorn

Languishing under the eaves

Tucked under the eaves, a skin-on-frame Greenland kayak built decades ago has been a constant presence and yet all but forgotten.

December 2022

#100

It has been more than eight years since WoodenBoat Publications launched Small Boats Monthly, now Small Boats Magazine. This December edition is the 100th issue.

November 2022

Menorca

A coast of caves

The south coast of Menorca, one of Spain’s Mediterranean islands, is a 25-mile-long stretch of limestone cliffs and caves, a landscape that can only be explored and appreciated by kayak.

October 2022

Lit

Like a moth to a flame

Building a boat off the grid in the early ‘80s called for some unusual methods of powering tools and illuminating the work. Some worked better than others.

September 2022

Blackberries for Ali

Under power for picking

When our editor’s daughter came home to celebrate her August birthday, the blackberries were ripe and the best way to pick them was by boat.

August 2022

Greenland

Chilling memories

In the midst of a heatwave in Seattle, fond memories of kayaking among icebergs and glaciers in Greenland 20 years ago help bring the temperature down.

July 2022

Mercer Slough

An indelible memory

The Mercer Slough in Bellevue, Washington, flows from a concrete culvert at one end and under 14 elevated freeway lanes at the other, but in between it is surrounded by greenery and songbirds.

June 2022

A Bad Wrap

Sheltering boats with plastic tarps

For the boats that don’t have a roof and four walls to surround them, the only protection they have from hail, rain, sunlight, and snow comes from plastic tarps.

May 2022

By a Landslide

Buried and broken

In James Michener’s novel, "Chesapeake," his fictional Devon Island was slowly obliterated by erosion. At Kent Island, erosion is all too real and once tried to take a canoe down with it.

April 2022

I Spy

Lost and found in a small workshop

After collecting tools and materials for boatbuilding over the past 44 years, our editor has everything he needs in his one-car garage shop. While it’s all practically within arm’s reach, that doesn’t mean he can lay his hands on it.