To the Black Sea

December 2022

A Simple Sling Lift

Raising a small boat with minimal effort

A pair of easily made, inexpensive slings provide an effective way to lift a small boat off its trailer and flip it upside down, even single-handedly.

December 2022

MEASURE AGAIN

Building a boat and a friendship

A chance meeting at a wooden-boat festival brought together two couples who quickly bridged the broad gap in their ages, experience, and resources.

November 2022

French Whipping

A quickly whipped grip

While ropework can be made very complex to be especially decorative, it can be kept simple and still be attractive and functional. A French whipping’s spiral of hitches looks good and provides a non-slip grip.

November 2022

AL DEMANY CHIMAN

A skin-on-frame outrigger canoe

Tim Shaw grew up by the water in Manchester, Massachusetts, and has never drifted too far from boats. After building a few small boats, he was intrigued by the outrigger canoes he saw in Hawaii and years later designed and built one for his family.

October 2022

Sail Care

Offseason maintenance for small-boat sails

Sails get you where you want to go without burning gasoline or calories and deserve to be treated kindly to give them a long and useful life.

October 2022

DERRY

A project for the pandemic

Most serial boatbuilders don’t really need another boat, they just need an excuse to build one. The pandemic provided just that for Gary Hardy of Melbourne, Australia: building a Skerry would be an important mental-health measure during a lockdown.

September 2022

A DIY Sling Tote

A handy carryall for small-boat gear

A sling bag is a project suitable for a home sewing machine and saves time and effort when loading miscellaneous gear aboard a boat at the beach or launch ramp.

September 2022

DREADNOUGHT

A tarred-canvas curragh

When James Baker of England decided he needed a second tender for the 42′ wooden gaffer he built, a paddling curragh native to County Donegal in Ireland was his inspiration.

August 2022

A Folding Outboard Stand

An easy, inexpensive shop project

A folding, shop-made stand makes it easy to work on a small outboard motor and then can be stowed out of the way when it’s not needed.

August 2022

WAYLO-WAYLO

A peapod built by family and friends

In retirement, Richard Honan of Winthrop, Massachusetts, turned his attention to building boats and spending time with his grandchildren. A peapod is the latest family-built boat.

July 2022

Dehydrating for Cruising Cuisine

Home-prepared foods that travel well and taste great

With a food dehydrator, you can prepare a wide array of camp-cruising foods that won’t spoil or crush, require refrigeration or protective packaging, or take up much cooking time and fuel.

July 2022

MEGOLA

From corrugated roofing and rusty nails to cypress strips and epoxy

Ernest Pattillo cobbled together his first boat at the age of 10 and built his last, MEGOLA, an electric runabout, at 78. Although his six boats may come and go, his memories of them remain.

June 2022

A Spinnaker for Rowers

Running without rowing

With one oar for a mast, the other for a rudder, and a homemade spinnaker, you can put a following breeze to good use and take a pleasant break from rowing.

June 2022

Thrown for a Curve

A second step, a leap forward

Reader Built Boat alumni Joe Lanni is back with his second boatbuilding project, an 11′ plywood double-paddle canoe

May 2022

A Take-Apart Boat Cart

An interlocking plywood frame for hand-truck wheels

A pair of hand-truck wheels, some bits of ¾” plywood and a steel axle are about all that’s needed to make a small-boat cart that comes apart for easy storage on board.

May 2022

The Education of a Serial Boatbuilder

When the work is its own reward

A Florida man confesses he’d rather build boats than go boating. With a half-dozen boats in his largely unused fleet, he’s running out of room to keep them.

April 2022

A Small-Boat Chart Holder

Taming Paper in an Open Boat

While electronic navigation devices are exceptionally useful, there are still good reasons for carrying a printed chart. A simple homemade holder protects charts and make them easier to use on an open boat.

April 2022

LAZY LIGHTNING

An electrically adorned strip-built kayak

When Dave Feder built his first boat—a cedar-strip kayak—he wanted to give it some personal artistic touches and did what any other electrical engineer might do. He had high-voltage electricity do the work.

March 2022

It’s a Wrap

Clamping with stretch wrap and inner tubes

Gluing laminates for spars, oars, and paddles can be fussy and messy jobs for clamps. Stretch wrap and rubber strips are a better way even if you have enough clamps, and inexpensive if you don’t.

March 2022

HOPEWELL

Staying afloat

When an artist with an affection for boats suffered a heart attack, he was in the midst of a multi-year project of building a small outboard runabout. The challenges he faced in building boats gave him valuable insights about meeting the unexpected challenges of life.

February 2022

Removable Floorboards

Removable panels to protect and preserve

Floorboards are often fastened directly to steam-bent frames in traditionally built lapstrake boats. Boatbuilder Eric Hvalsoe developed a system to make floorboards that are easily removable and don’t damage the frames.

February 2022

TRIO

Divide by three and conquer

A small living room for a shop and a small car for storage and transport didn’t stand in the way of Paul Sesto’s dream of building a boat; he designed and built a sectional boat with three nesting pieces.

January 2022

Oarlock Extensions

DIY devices for forward-facing stand-up rowing

If you want to get a good look at where you’re going while you’re rowing, a pair of oarlock extensions is all you need. Ben Fuller explores the ways Maine watermen rowed standing up and facing forward.