From The Editor

May 2025

A Brief Encounter

Remembering Carl Cramer

Carl Cramer was publisher at WoodenBoat Publications for 25 years; the editor recalls her first meeting with him.

April 2025

The Promise of Spring

A late snowfall sends the editor back to dreaming

When spring is a long time coming there's always dreaming and getting boats and trailers ready for the big day.

March 2025

Adventures in Retirement

Finding excitement in small boats after retiring

When many people would think about slowing down and staying home, some small-boat owners are taking to the water and finding new adventures.

February 2025

John Watkinson and the Elliott Brothers

Origins of the Drascombe designs

Most Drascombe boats are fiberglass but in the 1970s a small yard in Devon, England, custom-built Drascombes in wood.

January 2025

Utility, Beauty, and Longevity

Why some boats survive long after they’ve outlived their purpose

The care that designers and builders put into their work often assures their boats remain valued for decades, even centuries.

December 2024

You’re Never Too Old

Learning a new skill as an adult may not always be easy, but that's no reason not to give it a go.

November 2024

The Can-Do of Small Boaters

Why small boats challenge, unify, and enrich our lives.

October 2024

Living with Small Boats

The new editor reveals an inherited affinity with small boats.

September 2024

Our 10th Anniversary and a Change of Watch

From September 2014 to September 2024

Small Boats made its debut with the release of the September 2014 issue. We begin the second decade with a change of watch.

August 2024

Hand-Me-Down

A welcome diversion

A newly acquired Bolger pirogue, built in 1995, needed more work than anticipated, but it promised to be a welcome diversion.

July 2024

Maligiaq

Greenland’s longest-reigning kayak champion

Maligiaq Padilla, the grandson and great-grandson of Greenlanders who hunted from kayaks, started on his way to become the country’s longest-reigning kayak champion when he was just 16 and since then he has been preserving and promoting native skills at home and abroad.

June 2024

A Rainy Sunday Afternoon

On a dull and rainy afternoon, an outing with a coracle and an umbrella provided a restorative break from a day spent indoors.

May 2024

To Dream, Perchance to Sleep

Bedding down in a lapstrake canoe

When a long-anticipated outing on a small pond didn’t go at all as planned, the thought and preparation for it were not for naught.

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.