Series

July 2019

DeWalt’s Benchtop Planer

DeWalt's DW734

DeWalt’s DW734 bench-top planer can handle lumber up to 12” wide and 6” thick. Its three-blade cutter head spins at 10,000 rpm, making 96 cuts per inch. With powerful feed rollers, it can cut up to 1/8” in a single pass.

July 2019

Quickloader Retractable Ratchet Straps

A better ratchet strap

Quickloader’s retractable ratchet straps are thoughtfully engineered and simple to use. The QL15 model has a reach of 12’ and neatly coils its 1” polyester webbing around a spring-loaded drum. The strap feeds out and retracts like a tape measure so there’s never any slack to get knotted, tangled, or twisted.

July 2019

DREAM WEAVER

College credit

Two industrial design students at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, furthered their education by designing and building a kayak. Their strip-built kayak is as much an artistic expression as a seaworthy vessel.

June 2019

Ed Monk Skiff

A working tender from 1943

Edwin Monk, a Seattle-based naval architect renowned for designing handsome motor-yachts for cruising, applied his talents to a number of handy small boats. His 13’6” flat-bottom skiff, drawn in 1943, is a no-nonsense workboat for oars and outboard.

June 2019

Salt Bay Skiff

Easy to build, impressively functional

Described by its designer as “a quick-and-dirty boat in swan’s clothing,” Chris Franklin’s Salt Bay Skiff is well suited to first-time boatbuilders and families looking to introduce kids to building, sailing, and rowing a small boat.

June 2019

Lessons from Penobscot Bay

In pursuit of thrills

Arch Davis, the New Zealand-born, Maine-based designer of small boats, set out in a brisk northwesterly wind, hoping for an exciting sail on Penobscot Bay. He got more than he bargained for and the memories and the lessons from that day have stayed with him for 30 years.

June 2019

Maintaining Trailer Bearings

Greasing the wheel before it squeaks

Trailer bearings have a difficult job to do. The weight of the trailer, the boat, and everything in it bears on handful of steel rollers and races that have to endure dunkings at the ramp and high speeds on the road. We take a look at bearing care and replacement.

June 2019

16” Wandel Bandsaw

An economical DIY project

Matthias Wandel, a Canadian engineer, woodworker, and YouTuber makes many of his shop tools out of wood and offers remarkably detailed plans for his creations. His 16” bandsaw is a rewarding project for frugal do-it-yourselfers.

June 2019

WS-3000 Tool Sharpener

Turning sharpening upside down

Work Sharp’s WS-3000 tool sharpener uses see-through sanding disks, tempered-glass wheels, and an air-cooled guide to make quick, accurate work of sharpening chisels, plane irons, and other edge tools.

June 2019

WEE LASSIE SURVIVOR

A memory to hang on to

As a teenager, James Shamis worked for a boatwright who happened to have an old Wee Lassie canoe, and the joy of paddling that diminutive vessel stuck with him for decades. The memories even helped him pull through a bout with cancer. Two days after his last treatment, he started building Gentry’s skin-on-frame version of that classic.

May 2019

Chester Yawl

A shapely pulling boat

The Chester Yawl from Chesapeake Light Craft is a 15’ Whitehall-type pulling boat with beautiful lines and a complexity in the building of it that is just enough to feel like an accomplishment without being daunting.

May 2019

Moccasin 14

A tripping canoe from B & B

Simply sweet and sweetly simple, the Moccasin 14 from B & B Yachts is a solo canoe for a double-bladed paddle. It is quick to build, easy to cartop, and a breeze to paddle.

May 2019

Zaire, 1986

The Sankuru and Kasai Rivers by pirogue

In 1986, when the country once known as Zaire was under the rule of a dictator, Tom DeVries, his college roommate, and a Peace Corp volunteer rendezvoused in Central Africa country to paddle down serpentine Zairean rivers in a hand-carved dugout pirogue.

May 2019

Compact Routers

Better visibility, easier handling

A lot of the jobs a router can do don’t require a lot of heft and horsepower. A compact router that is easily managed with one hand will quickly prove its usefulness in the boat shop.

May 2019

Versa Vise

Making itself useful since 1901

A bench vise is an essential tool and the Versa Vise, with its smooth-faced jaws and ability to pivot in four different ways, can handle wood, brass, and bronze without damaging them.

May 2019

Sharpening Files

Putting acid to work

A file is like any other boatbuilder’s cutting tool: its edges get dull with use and eventually need to be sharpened. Chemistry has a solution for putting the bite back in a file’s countless tiny teeth: pitting acid against iron.

May 2019

BLUE PEARL

Time and money well spent

Mark Bonnette’s grandson, Henry, asked if they could go fishing. When “Grampy” replied, “We don’t have a boat,” Henry said, “Well, let’s build one.” With the design criteria established—two seats, an anchor, oars, and a motor—the pair went to work.

April 2019

Jumbo

A Tolman Alaskan Skiff for cruising

Renn Tolman designed three skiffs that have become quite popular in Alaskan waters. The largest of them, the Jumbo, offers economical motoring and comfortable cruising almost anywhere.

April 2019

The Cosine Wherry

A strip-built pulling boat

The Cosine Wherry was designed on a computer by an engineer using a trigonometric curve as a starting point. The result is a strip-built pulling boat that is as easy on the eyes as it is at the oars.

April 2019

Roll on Columbia

100 miles upriver by oar and sail

A 12’ skiff is a small boat for a river as big as the Columbia. Torin Lee launched his Salt Bay Skiff near Astoria, Oregon, and worked his way 100 miles upriver, dodging ships, dragging his boat across the marsh, and finishing on the Willamette River in Portland.

April 2019

Knots and Toggles for Bungee Cord

The Zeppelin Bend and the Angler's Loop

Bungee cord is useful stuff but it doesn’t take kindly to the most commonly used knots. We take a look a couple of very old knots that do work, one anglers tied when fishing line was made of gut and the other used for mooring Zeppelins.

April 2019

A High-Thrust Caulk Gun

The Newborn 250

If you’ve squeezed hard on the grip of a caulking gun and couldn’t get a bead of thick caulk or adhesive flowing from the tip of a cartridge, it’s not you, it’s the gun. The Newborn 250 puts the mechanical advantage in your favor.

April 2019

Pocket Chainsaws

Making the cut without the motor

Where there’s shoreline, there’s usually driftwood that can be useful around camp or worth taking home for woodworking projects. When it’s too big to move or carry, a pocket chainsaw can cut it down to size.

April 2019

CHIPS

Carl Kaufmann’s Block Island 19

Carl Kaufmann’s CHIPS is a Block Island 19, a handsome daysailer that he designed and built on Rhode Island’s Block Island. Carl makes guitars and other stringed instruments and brings that level of craftsmanship to his boatbuilding.

March 2019

Sei

A Welsford double-ender

For the Sei, a 14’ 7” double ender, John Welsford found inspiration in the workboats of Norway’s southern fiords. He took away the keel, gave the hull a flat, beach-friendly bottom, and kept weight to a minimum with glued-lapstrake plywood construction.