To the Black Sea

Small Boats Annual 2007

PETITELISA

A simple girl

PETITELISA is a synthesis of Gilles Montaubin’s long experience with sail-and-oar boats. Unlike many boats of this type, she is not reminiscent of any traditional working boat type. Instead, she incorporates some very contemporary features. Montaubin, for example, has intensively tested the use of water ballast on many boat designs, and its use on PETITELISA allows her displacement to be…

Small Boats Annual 2007

Blackbird

A striking outboard cruiser

Conceived in the early 1980s by Ken Bassett, Onion River Boat Works, and massaged into her final form by Phil Bolger, BLACKBIRD embodies the spirit of carefree mobility found in the lyrics of the Mort Dixon/Ray Henderson song “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Pack up all my cares and woe, here I go, singin’ low, bye bye blackbird.” BLACKBIRD evolved on the…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Flatfish

An inspired daysailer

Every sailor has his own vision of the perfect daysailer. For many, this ideal boat is based on the Herreshoff 12 1⁄2, Nathanael G. Herreshoff’s iconic daysailer, which debuted in the summer of 1915. For others, it’s the larger Fish class or the still-larger Alerion—two more masterworks from the hand of Herreshoff. These boats have been the subject of imitation…

Small Boats Annual 2007

Coho 17

Elegant and able home-built kayak

People are always drawn to the warmth and the visual texture of a varnished wood kayak, but the beauty of a plywood kayak can and should be more than skin deep. Not only do the sweeping curves of the Coho 17’s multichined hull and beveled deck offer up an elegance that sets a kayak like the Coho apart from main-…

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Small Boats Annual 2022March 2021

Down East Workboat

Blending seakeeping ability with speed

John Gardner’s Down East Workboat is an 18’ version of a type that has proved useful on the Maine coast for vessels in many sizes up to 30’. With a 25-hp outboard at one-third throttle, it planes easily at 12 knots.

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Small Boats Annual 2022March 2021

The Crawford Melonseed Skiff

From a 19th-century gunning skiff to a classic sailer in fiberglass

Roger Crawford was once asked to repair an aging wooden sailing skiff and was so impressed by its sailing abilities when he had it afloat again that he used it as a mold to produce the boat in fiberglass. Decades later, his Melonseed Skiff is a classic.

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March 2021

A River Row

Oregon’s Willamette River

Jordan, Jon, and Hart were all on the same crew when they were in college, training for years to row as fast as humanly possible. Two decades later, with their 30s now trailing astern, they were content to lower the stroke rate and enjoy the scenery on Oregon’s Willamette river.

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March 2021

Making a Mock-Up

Trying a boat on for size

When Tom Hepp designs a boat he wants to build, the best way he has found to avoid unpleasant and expensive surprises is to build a mockup. For his 17’ pocket cruiser, it allowed him to try the boat on for size, work out the bugs on inexpensive materials, and create a full set of templates.

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March 2021

Spur Grommets

Sturdy eyelets with bite

Small boat cruising can involve a lot of fabric: sails, dodgers, covers, and tarps. The grommets that work best for outdoor use are spur grommets, with teeth that grip the fabric. They’re stronger than ordinary grommets and have their own tools to set them.

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March 2021

nCamp’s Multi-Fuel Stove

Cooking with gas, alcohol, wood, and more

This sturdy stove, made of aluminum and stainless steel, folds to make a compact package, is easily stowed, and can burn a wide variety of fuels. You can use liquid or gas fuels for clean burning and wood when there is nothing left in the cans.

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March 2021

SKIMMER

A rowing skiff with an auxiliary diesel

For his first boatbuilding project, John Carswell took on a boat with a complex strip-built hull that has a box keel to keep the boat upright while the tide’s out and a tunnel to protect the propeller when motoring across shallows and weeds.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Boothbay Harbor One-Design

A fast and wholesome daysailer-racer

The Boothbay Harbor One-Design, a short-ended Burgess, moved to mid-coast Maine and hired Geerd daysailer with a long waterline, is a particularly handsome boat that has proven itself in the choppy waters off Boothbay and Pemaquid, Maine. It’s an easy boat to sail, while being both maneuverable and fast, and its design is the product of some of the best…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Christmas Wherry

A Maine example of a traditional design

The Christmas Wherry possesses two characteristics that should be critically important to anyone looking for a small boat to use in open waters. It displays classic beauty and, as the boat’s designer, Walt Simmons of Lincolnville, Maine, says, “It will take you out, and bring you back home.”

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Small Boats Annual 2022February 2021

Savo 650D

Fast rowing, Finnish style

Finland has so many lakes that it was inevitable that people living on their shores built fast rowing boats to make a living and get from one place to another. The contemporary Savo 650D is a speedy double with deep roots in the country and the culture.

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Small Boats Annual 2022February 2021

The Wittholz Catboat

A classic adapted for plywood

In the 1960s, Naval architect Charles W. Wittholz drew several catboats including a 17-footer with a classic catboat profile, a beamy single-chine plywood hull, and the option of a marconi or gaff rig.

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Small Boats Annual 2022February 2021

Don’t Tell Me I Can’t

Isabelle Heker's Greenland kayak

When Isabelle Heker decided to build a Greenland-style kayak, her friends and family doubted she was up to the task. In spite of her lack of woodworking experience, tools, and a place to work, she forged ahead and proved something to everyone, including herself.

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February 2021

Waxed Canvas

Classic fabric for home-sewn projects

While waxed canvas has lost the important role it once had in military, maritime, and recreational activities, it is a handsome and durable material for DIY sewing projects for boat and workshop.

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February 2021

LEDs for Trailers

Long-lasting submersible lights

Incandescent light fixtures have long been the standard outfitting for trailers, but they don’t hold up well to the dunkings boat trailers subject them to. It’s easy to replace them with submersible LED fixtures.

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February 2021

Harken Roller Furlers

Tending headsails from the cockpit

Roller-furling jibs are common features on large sailboats, but there is scaled-down hardware to bring the convenience and speed of roller furling to small boats. We take a look at Harken’s smallest standard and continuous-line furlers.

Small Boats Annual 2008

MARTHA

A soulful little pocket cruiser

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Sam (S.S.) Crocker designed the 19' 9" pocket cruiser Sallee Rover as a yawl in 1953; later, in 1955, he drew the sloop-rigged version seen in the accompanying photographs. Making just a few changes to her for aesthetic purposes, Joel White built this sloop in 1967 for his father, E.B. White, and named…

Small Boats Annual 2008

JOLENA III

An electric-powered “steam” launch

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - "I’ve been the subject of a helluva lot of flattery over the past three days—not to say that I don’t appreciate it,” said Jim Hulm, beaming, while working his fantail launch alongside a floating dock at Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport. It was a Sunday in June, the third day of the 2007 WoodenBoat Show,…

Small Boats Annual 2008

The 18′ 8″ Mackinaw Boat

A mini Lake Michigan workboat

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - This boat is a pint-sized version of a well-known and respected type that worked Lake Michigan from the late 19th century until the beginning of World War I. It’s called a Mackinaw boat—though historically that name applied to a range of boats that have only tenuous family connections.

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Small Boats Annual 2008

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…

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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.

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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.

Series

PETITELISA

Blackbird

The Flatfish

Coho 17

Down East Workboat

The Crawford Melonseed Skiff

A River Row

Making a Mock-Up

Spur Grommets

nCamp’s Multi-Fuel Stove

SKIMMER

The Boothbay Harbor One-Design

The Christmas Wherry

Savo 650D

The Wittholz Catboat

Don’t Tell Me I Can’t

Waxed Canvas

LEDs for Trailers

Harken Roller Furlers

MARTHA

JOLENA III

The 18′ 8″ Mackinaw Boat

Living with Little Boats

Sweet Pea

Droleen

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