From The Editor

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.

March 2022

Reacquainted

Relaunching the sneakbox LUNA after a prolonged storage

Our editor built a sneakbox in 1984 and rowed and sailed it from Pittsburgh to Cedar Key, Florida, in the winter of the following year. Since then, it had been largely idle and hadn’t been afloat for about 20 years. It was time to spruce it up and get reacquainted.

February 2022

Swamp Creek

Our editor had passed by Swamp Creek many times while rowing the river it flowed into. He explored the creek only after discovering its existence while browsing satellite images.

January 2022

Hijacked

After graduating from college, our editor had wanted to pursue a career as an artist, but after building a kayak and a dory skiff, his aspirations took a sudden and dramatic shift.

December 2021

Refuge in the Rain

Boating in the off season

For those who don’t mind the rain, boating season in Washington’s Puget Sound area never really ends. For some, the rain is not the bug but the feature and is the reason for launching.

November 2021

Disappointment

Built for long-distance cruising, paddled only a few yards

Forty years ago, our editor put his best work into building a replica of a King Island kayak. The goal was to use it for cruising, but shortly after his first outing in it he put it away and never paddled it again.

October 2021

A Light-Blue Tarp

From dumpster to camp-cruiser

A simple homemade tarp sewn of lightweight nylon pulled out of dumpster pulled more than its own weight and provided shelter for a variety of cruises that covered thousands of miles.

September 2021

A Coracle

The history of coracles stretches back to Roman times, as much as 2,000 years. Made of sticks and string, small and shaky, there are still things to be learned from building, portaging, and paddling one.

August 2021

Inches to Feet and Feet to Inches

Building boats and making models

Making models and building boats have had a practical connection for centuries. While technology has changed the nature of models used to develop designs, a handmade model will always have roles closer to the heart.

July 2021

Father’s Day

In 1988, our editor built a tandem lapstrake canoe to a century-old design with a 2,300-mile cruise down the Missouri River in mind. That voyage never happened, but a 12-mile outing with his son was reward enough for having built the canoe.

June 2021

Checking my work

Plywood of a certain age

Our editor takes a look at how the plywood has held up in some of the boats he has built over the past four decades. The boatbuilding books he’d read had left out the most important factor in deciding what finish to apply to it.

May 2021

Chagudax̂

The Aleut bentwood visors of Andrew Gronholdt

The baidarkas built by Aleut hunters were extraordinarily sophisticated vessels; the bentwood visors they wore, called chagudax̂, were no less elegant in their design and inspired our editor to make a version for cruising.

April 2021

Hannes Lindemann

Dr. Hannes Lindemann made one of the most daring ocean crossings ever attempted by taking on the Atlantic in a stock folding kayak in 1956. An important part of his training was fixing in his mind that he would succeed and conquer whatever hardships he would encounter.

March 2021

Palau

A lesson in history

Palau was the site of an historic battle during World War II, and while some remnants of the fighting remain, most are now concealed by lush forests, white coral sand beaches, and turquoise waters.

February 2021

“Not because they are easy”

Almost 60 years ago President John F. Kennedy said we’d go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard. The same holds true for boatbuilding; many of us are drawn to it precisely because it’s not easy.

January 2021

Lost in Thought

After a slight deviation in a routine repeated hundreds of times, our editor drove off to go paddling without tying his delicate mahogany kayak to the roof racks. He examines the damage to the boat and to his psyche.

December 2020

Not Home for the Holidays

While the holiday season is best spent with family and friends, this year many of us will have to forgo the usual gatherings. Our editor takes a look back to 1985 and a Thanksgiving and a Christmas spent while rowing the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

November 2020

A Magnificent Clutter

While the Friday Guild boatbuilders were busy planking a Nordfjords faering, master boatbuilder Jay Smith gave us free rein to explore his Aspøya Boats shop and boat sheds. We take a look at two boats there and the impressive array of tools and lumber that created them.

October 2020

Twin Ponds

During the pandemic lockdown, when boat ramps were closed, our editor longed to get afloat and took his smallest boat, a 4-1/2’ folding coracle, to circumnavigate a pair of ponds hidden in an urban forest.