Series

Living with Little Boats

A guide to orderly storage and transport

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Little boats are...well...little. By my definition, they can be towed by four-cylinder cars and ride on trailers without brakes. They are usually less than 400 lbs and often are powered by only wind, muscle, or both. The smallest ones can be placed on roof racks and carried atop a car. They are the…

January 2021

Sweet Pea

An Instant Boat for oar and sail, with a removable keel

Phil Bolger and Dynamite Payson put their heads together to create an easily built plywood boat that would be at home on the waters of the Maine coast. Crossing elements of a peapod with a light dory led to their 15’ double-ender, Sweet Pea.

January 2021

Droleen

Long lost, finally found

The Droleen was designed in Ireland in 1896 and enjoyed a few decades as a racing-class boat, but was entirely forgotten in the aftermath of WW I. The plans resurfaced in 1996 and the 12’ lapstrake catboat was given new life.

January 2021

The Texas Coastal Bend

An escape to barrier islands

Roger Siebert takes us on another sail-and-oar adventure, this time to the barrier islands of the Texas Coastal Bend. The protected bays, mild November weather, and company of boater friends and dolphins made a memorable getaway.

January 2021

Megaphones

DIY projects to make yourself heard

There are times when you need to make yourself heard over the noise of wind and waves or across distance. Cupping your hands around your mouth helps, but old-school megaphones are easy to make and surprisingly effective.

January 2021

Halcyon Rugged Varnish

Water-based bright finish

Halcyon Rugged Varnish is not just a water-based alternative to traditional spar varnish, but a step up in ease of application, lack of sagging, recoating without sanding, and durability when cured.

January 2021

A Convenient Camping Grill

A dual-fuel camp grill from Gas One

Food cooked on a grill has a special flavor, but a charcoal grill is inconvenient and messy. Gas One’s portable camping grill, fueled by propane and butane, opens quick, appealing options for camp cruising fare. Burgers, pizza, and toast anyone?

January 2021

PUDDLE DUCK

A pram started in 1945 and launched in 2020

Ritchie With’s father started building a plywood pram in 1945, but the plywood parts he cut out gathered dust for 75 years. Only when Ritchie’s daughter-in-law needed a pandemic project to keep his grandkids occupied did the pieces get put together.

The Melonseed Skiff

Daysailer and duckgunner

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - This fine gunning skiff from the bays and coastal lagoons of southern New Jersey might have evolved from the lapstrake beach skiffs that worked the exposed Atlantic beaches of the Garden State. Similarities of line and construction between the beach skiffs and the melonseeds seem too powerful to ignore.

Dad’s Ol’ Outboard Skiff

A dreamboat for the rest of us

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - In a sea of wooden boats that are out of reach for many of us, here is one that offers some respite—Dad’s Ol’ Outboard Skiff. She’s the brainchild of Michigan builder Mike Kiefer, who has been building boats and teaching wooden boat building at the Great Lakes Boatbuilding Company, for well over 20…

The Moosabec Reach Boat

New life for a striking 14-footer from the 19th century

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - I never met John Gardner, but I’ve spent many an afternoon with him. Leafing from one chapter of his books to another, it’s easy to get distracted by the down-to-earth practicality, the enthusiastic descriptions of traditional boats, and the ringing call to action to see these boats built anew and put to use.…

Night Heron

A fast and handsome 18' kayak

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Have you noticed all of those kayaks riding along atop cars and trucks on their way to waterborne adventures? Their owners have seen the light. These slender double-ended boats require little initial investment, not much maintenance, and can be put on the water in seconds. In them we’ll cross open water, and when…

December 2020

A Skiff to Fill the Time

Boatbuilding during a lockdown

Richard Nissen lives on the River Thames and has surrounded his houseboat home with a fleet of small boats. Working on them is half the pleasure of owning them, so when the pandemic lockdown started, Richard started building a new skiff.

December 2020

ResQFlare

A USCG-approved substitute for pyrotechnic flares

ACR recently introduced the ResQFlare, a floating, battery-powered, SOS-flashing distress signal that meets U.S. Coast Guard requirements, and, when paired with the distress-signal flag it’s sold with, replaces pyrotechnic flares.

December 2020

DeWalt’s Cordless Air Inflator

Quick, precise tire inflation

Kent and Audrey Lewis have a fleet of boats that requires a fleet of trailers and dollies to move them around. A digital rechargeable air inflator helps them keep all of the tires pumped to the proper pressure.

December 2020

A Quarantine Cruise

Wisconsin’s West Coast by sail and oar

When travel restrictions prevented Tom Pamperin from getting to his usual cruising grounds, he looked for possibilities closer to his Wisconsin home. Over half of the state’s western border is created by the Mississippi River, so he set out to cruise a section of Wisconsin’s “West Coast.”

December 2020

Atlantic 17 Dory

Jon Persson's fast double-ender

Jon Persson’s Atlantic 17 Dory is a 17’ double-ended pulling boat with plenty of speed, the seakeeping qualities of a gunning dory, and very simple plywood-on-frame construction. Christophe Matson reports on the Atlantic 17 he built.

December 2020

Good Little Skiff

Pete Culler's perfect boat

The Good Little Skiff is Pete Culler’s response to a call in 1970 for rowing enthusiasts to design the perfect boat. Ben Fuller takes a look at the 13’ version of this versatile flat-bottomed skiff for sailing, rowing, and sculling.

December 2020

Five Practical Tips

A handful of useful projects

Five of our readers share tips they came up with for sailing without steering, rowing with better visibility, restoring rusted steel tools, making a portable vise, and making trailer launching easier.

Skerry

A Norse-inspired kit boat

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - My penchant for Scandinavian boatbuilding techniques once prompted Matt Murphy at WoodenBoat to tell me that it seemed as though I was trying to “get in touch with my inner Viking.” But when I look around, I see that I am hardly alone. Some aesthetics—think of Japanese architecture, Italian stonework, New England barns—have…

The Long Point

A center-console skiff

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - There’s something nearly archetypal about the Long Point skiff. This 15-footer has high sides and a flat bottom, and is driven by a small four-stroke outboard motor. “It used to be that everyone had one of these things,” said the designer, Tom Hill, as we skipped across a modest chop on Penobscot Bay…

November 2020

A Kinney Dory

From Skene's Elements of Yacht Design

Dave Reynell, who lives in a coastal town at the southern tip of Africa, rescued a plywood rowboat that was languishing in a local boatyard. He took it home, and underneath a delaminating layer of fiberglass and polyester resin, found a gem of a dory built to the drawings in Skene’s classic, Elements of Yacht Design.

November 2020

The Tiller Comb Stop

A hinged version from Victory

If you’re looking for a way to hold the tiller in place while you tend to other duties or just relax, the stainless-steel Tiller Comb Stop from Victory Products is an elegantly simple device that is there when you need it and instantly out of the way when you don’t.

November 2020

Edge Hotknife

Cutting and fusing synthetics

For sewing your own sails or boating and camping gear, a hot knife is an essential tool for heat-sealing synthetic fibers to keep them from unravelling. We take a look at the Edge Hotknife from Sailrite.

November 2020

A Quick Tick Stick

An Evolution from the Joggle Stick

A joggle stick is a shopmade tool for creating a pattern for a complex shape, but the sawtooth design was cumbersome to use and could create a confusing jumble of tracings. There’s a better way—the quick tick stick.