Series

December 2021

Downed Trees and Muddy Feet

Rowing the Chippewa River Floodplain

For his rowing cruise of Wisconsin’s Chippewa River delta, Tom Pamperin intended to find a loop of the interconnected waterways but found only one dead end after another.

December 2021

Magswitches

Hold-downs for shop machinery

Table saws, drill presses, and bandsaws often require feather boards or fences to do work safely and accurately, but clamping these devices is awkward. Magswitches hold them to ferrous tables and can be turned on and off.

Small Boats Annual 2023December 2021

Ptarmigan 17

A Selway Fisher pocket cruiser

Created by Paul Fisher of England’s Selway Fisher Design, The Ptarmigan 17 is a pocket cruiser with a comfortable cabin with berths for two and the choice of a gaff sloop or gaff yawl rig.

Small Boats Annual 2023December 2021

66 Canoe

A canoe-building system from Cape Falcon Kayak

The 66 Canoe from Cape Falcon Kayak was not designed as a set of plans for a single canoe, but as a system to create canoes of different sizes and for different purposes.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Chebacco Boats

A trio of options

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - There were three original Chebacco boats, all designed by Phil Bolger for Brad Story. Story was a friend of Bolger’s and a boatbuilder, now retired, of considerable talent in Essex, Massachusetts. All three boats feel very much alike on the water.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Ladybug Pram

It’s a wheelbarrow, and it’s a boat

The Ladybug pram, a small dinghy with a wheel permanently fixed in a case in its bow, allows for a nearly seamless transition from the water to a beach, all the while keeping its passengers’ shoes dry. The boat can be built in either a 6' or a 7' model.

Small Boats Annual 2010

Swallow Boats SeaRaider

A purpose-designed Raid boat

The SeaRaider, a design from the UK-based kit boat manufacturer Swallowboats, was purpose designed for point-to-point small-boat racing events called Raids.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The Kingfisher Power Dory

A self-bailing power dory

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - Kingfisher is an outboard-powered skiff whose lineage can be traced back to New England dories. Her topsides are planked in lapstrake plywood, and she has a double bottom that provides both flotation and self-bailing capability.

Small Boats Annual 2023November 2021

Devon Scaffie

A trailerable keelboat for camp cruising

The Scaffie was designed by John Watkinson, founder of the Drascombe line of small boats, and has been in production in the U.K. since 1978. It is 14′9″ long with a beam of 5′9″ and, at 462 lbs fully rigged, ideal for trailering behind even small vehicles.

Small Boats Annual 2023November 2021

A Tale of Two Boats

Building the PM-38 once as a teen and again 50 years later

A 7-1/2-page article published in a 1962 issue of Popular Mechanics might seem, by any standard, to be an insufficient guide to building a boat, but Terry McIntyre built the magazine’s PM-38 twice, once in 1962 and again in 2019.

November 2021

A Hitch Mount Canoe Loader

With the help of a trailer-hitch-mounted loader, you only have to lift one end at a time—safer for your boat and your back.

Loading a heavy canoe or kayak on a roof rack can be difficult, if not impossible, if you try to lift it all at once. With the help of a trailer-hitch-mounted loader, you only have to lift one end at a time—safer for your boat and your back.

Small Boats Annual 2023November 2021

Deblois Street Dory

Clint Chase designed the Deblois Street Dory in the spirit of New England’s dories. The lapstrake hull, graceful curve of the bow, the tombstone transom, and low sweep of the sheer are all Swampscott dory.

November 2021

A DIY Roller

A table-saw accessory for ripping and crosscutting

While roller stands make it easier to rip long boards on a table saw, a do-it-yourself roller made of a 2x4, fender washers, and joist-hanger nails works for ripping and crosscutting, too.

November 2021

Drop-Center Sawhorses

Better support for boats

Reuel Parker’s drop-center sawhorses do what ordinary sawhorses can’t. They’ll hold a flat-bottomed or round hull upright, upside down, and at almost any angle in between.

November 2021

HIYU and CLATAWA

Pondering pedal power

After taking a few liberties to improve upon a classic Edwin Monk design, inveterate tinkerer Clay Wright equipped the 9’ skiff with a pedal drive of his own design with twin props and on-the-fly shifting from forward to reverse—a masterpiece in pulleys, pillow blocks, and copper pipe.

Small Boats Annual 2010

The AF4 Beach Cruiser

A weekend cruiser from Jim Michalak

AF4, an outboard powered beach cruiser with 4" of draft, can boldly go where most boats can't.

Small Boats Annual 2009

The Hvalsoe 16

On its way to becoming a Northwest classic

Although its construction is substantially different from the classic Whitehall pulling boat, representing as it does a compromise between good rowing and sailing performance, the Hvalsoe 16 is squarely in the tradition of the historical type.

Small Boats Annual 2009

GRACE’S TENDER

Easy to love, easier to build

GRACE’S TENDER is a kindly little plywood boat that Arch Davis designed to build with his daughter, Grace. This handsome and capable craft is an exceptionally good first boatbuilding project.

Small Boats Annual 2009

The Hird Island Skiff

Comfortable—and quiet

The reedy shallows of Georgia call for a shoal-draft boat that can easily navigate the channels—and with its electric motor, the Hird Island Skiff can do so without disturbing the peace and quiet.

Small Boats Annual 2009

Sunshine

A much-admired yacht tender

With excellent load-carrying capacity and rowing characteristics, low weight, and great looks, the Sunshine makes a wonderful yacht tender.

Small Boats Annual 2009

MARCUS NOER

A Danish four-sail double-ender

MARCUS NOER is a particularly fine example of a traditional double-ender from Denmark, with a shapeliness to her hull that will take your breath away. The design is one descendant—one of many—of a Nordic boatbuilding tradition that should properly stand beside the great cathedrals of the world and the sculptures of antiquity as among the loveliest creations ever made by…

October 2021

Meeting in the Middle

A strip-lapstrake hybrid

Paul and Sharon LaBrie have been enjoying boating together for their 40-plus years of marriage; a difference of opinion between the two led to a novel hybrid hull that combines two different types of construction.

October 2021

The Hornet-Lite

A packraft from Kokopelli

For small camp-cruisers that are better left at anchor instead of beached, a tender can come in handy, but most would take up too much space. An inflatable packraft can serve the purpose and yet be easily stowed.

October 2021

A Quiet Time in a Big Estuary

A Columbia River cruise

Bruce Bateau takes a California couple cruising on his home waters, the tidal reaches of the Columbia River that form the border between Oregon and Washington.

October 2021

Alamitos

An outboard V-bottom skiff from Spira International

The Alamitos is a 15’ V-bottom dory designed by Jeff Spira for quick and affordable construction. Its ample 7’ beam provides plenty of stability for fishing and taking on a bit of offshore chop.