To the Black Sea

Small Boats Annual 2007

Endeavour 17

A kayak for just about everybody

The Steve Killing–designed Endeavour 17, a kayak built of cedar strip planks and fiberglass, combines beauty, fast lines, load-carrying capacity, and relatively easy construction. Let’s have a look at each of these points—the last one, ease of construction, in some detail.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Gloucester Light Dory

A classic design for plywood construction

In the early 1980s, I bought Phil Bolger’s plans for the 15′ 6″ LOA Gloucester Light Dory. I was living in an apartment at the time, and I was intending this boat to be my first built to an “official” design. I had built furniture in my living room, and in those single-man days my dining room table was a…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Lake Oswego Boat

A small lapstrake gem

Few joys in life are simpler than a morning row. Oars over the shoulder, hollow footsteps along a wood-decked float, the boat quivering with the first step aboard, the sharp ring of the oarlocks as they slip into place, the soft purling of water against lapstrake planks as they leave the first wake of the day...all these seem to require…

Small Boats Annual 2007

Fiddlehead

A solo canoe for double paddle

Harry Bryan, a boatbuilder and designer from New Brunswick, Canada, designed the Fiddlehead, a 10 1⁄2' double-paddle canoe, in 1992 after his sister-in-law introduced him to her Wee Lassie. The Wee Lassie is a small double-paddle canoe designed by J. Henry Rushton around 1893. Bryan had always rowed small boats, rather than paddled them. He had “never faced forward in…

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October 2020

Kestrel 2000

Measuring wind speed and temperature

If you sail, you need to pay close attention to the wind, and an anemometer takes the guesswork out of assessing wind speed. The Kestrel 2000 provides accurate readings of wind as well as air and water temperature.

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October 2020

External Frames for Strip-Building

Quick and hole-free strips

Building a cedar-strip kayak without rows of staple-hole blemishes requires some way to hold the strips to the molds. Dan Newland created a technique that does the job well and greatly speeds planking.

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October 2020

Swan’s Island

A Maine Coast Circumnavigation

Each summer, a group of five friends usually get together with their sail-and-oar camp-cruisers to enjoy the island-studded Maine coast. This year, the three who were free to travel during the pandemic circumnavigated Swan’s Island.

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Small Boats Annual 2022October 2020

The Guider

A capable and comfortable camp-cruiser

John Guider cruised more than 6,000 miles in Chesapeake Light Craft’s Skerry Raid. But when he entered the Race to Alaska, he asked CLC to design a new bigger boat, The Guider, which would be better able to take on whatever the Inside Passage might dish out.

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Small Boats Annual 2022October 2020

Elfyn

Iain Oughtred's other faering

Iain Oughtred’s Elfyn is his adaptation of a traditional Norse hull for glued-lapstrake plywood construction with the same three wide strakes and all of the beauty of its precursors.

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October 2020

Sailrite’s Ultrafeed LSZ-1

A walking-foot sewing machine

Sewing sails and outdoor gear requires a sewing machine that can handle everything from slippery lightweight nylon to multiple layers of thick canvas or sailcloth. Sailrite’s walking-foot sewing machine can handle it all.

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Small Boats Annual 2022October 2020

CELESTE

Inlays out of this world

Dan Newland made his career working on boats and rockets, so when he designed and built his cedar-strip kayak, CELESTE, it was only natural that he would adorn the deck with inlays of celestial objects: planets, moons, and a comet.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Sailing Skiff 15

A simple, striking, affordable boat

All youngsters might begin their waterborne adventures in flat-bottomed rowing/sailing skiffs. Easy to build, but difficult to design properly, these honest little boats teach lessons in seamanship and self-reliance. At the other end of life’s voyage, a good skiff will take gentle care of old folks as they sail comfortable miles to nowhere in particular. Here’s a flat-bottomed 15'4" sailing…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Macomber 15

A fast and heavy skiff from Westport, Massachusetts

You can walk across the Westport River in southern Massachusetts at low tide. It's a mile or so across in some places, but the depth at full ebb is only 4′. If you want to cross that water with dry feet, then you need a shallow-draft boat. If you want to venture on that water to clam flats or to…

Small Boats Annual 2007

The WindSprite 26

An easy-to-build, multichined hull for performance daysailing

Frank Pedersen designed a light-displacement planing hull, and WINDSPRITE's abilities as a performance daysailer have been anything but a disappointment to him. With basic accommodations and without expensive electrical or mechanical systems, she’s all about fast daysailing at minimal cost.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Annapolis Wherry

Quick to build, fast to row

Faster than a typical skiff, yet more stable than a recreational shell, the light (65 lbs) Annapolis Wherry from Chesapeake Light Craft offers healthy exercise and satisfying speed. The Wherry goes together LapStitch fashion, which produces a clean interior with few frames.

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September 2020

3’S A CROWD

A true novice’s first boat

Joe Lanni had dreamed of building a boat, but he had a few hand tools for simple projects around the house, no boatbuilding experience and only a deck for a work space. He forged ahead and in two months had a boat that he could row and sail.

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September 2020

Mudder Boots

Flexible wings for a big footprint

Some intertidal zones have deep, sticky mud that will pull your boots off if you try walking through it. Mudders, strapped to your boots, have wings that fan out to keep you from sinking and then fold back in so you can walk normally.

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September 2020

WEST Special Clear Hardener

A 105 epoxy mix for finish work

If you’ve used WEST System epoxy, you may be familiar with the slow and fast hardeners, but might not have heard of the 207 Special Clear Hardener. It doesn’t blush, has a UV inhibitor mixed in, and can make a durable bright finish.

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September 2020

Tiller Extensions

An important element of boat trim

To get the best boat trim in a small sailing skiff, you shouldn’t be planted in the stern next to the tiller. Ben Fuller offers some easily made extensions that let you get your weight forward.

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September 2020

Solace of the South Salish

A sojourn by sail and oar

Looking for a place to breathe freely in the midst of the pandemic, Bruce Bateau set sail on Washington’s narrow waterways at the southern extremity of the Salish Sea. He spent four restorative nights at anchor in coves too small and too shallow for most boats.

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September 2020

Ultra-Light Solo Packboat

A versatile Kevlar rowing boat

The 12’ Ultra-Light Solo Packboat weighs just 34 lbs, about as light as a boat designed for rowing can be. With a Kevlar composite hull and cherry trim, it is both tough and comely.

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Small Boats Annual 2021September 2020

Midget Flyer

A smart little runabout from 1938 designed by Bruce N. Crandall

The 10’ Midget Flyer made its debut in the January issue of Motor Boating in 1938 and might have quietly slipped into obscurity if not for Mark Kaufmann’s desire to have an exciting boat he could power with an antique outboard motor he had restored.

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Ben Garveys

Simple boats for work or play

Boats don’t always need to have pointy forward ends. Here we have two easily built, square-ended workhorses that will handle all sorts of waterfront chores—and look just fine while they’re about it. Designed by Maine boatbuilder Doug Hylan, the 15' 9" and 19' 0" Ben Garveys will earn their wages.

Norwalk Islands 26 - Boat from Small Boats 2007 Annual

Small Boats Annual 2007

The Norwalk Islands 26

Fast, shoal-draft, and self-righting

The sheet-plywood Norwalk Islands Sharpie can easily be built in the backyard, yet it outperforms more expensive yachts. Its simple cat-ketch rig needs no standing rigging (wire shrouds and stays that support the masts). The outboard-motor lifts into its own house when idle—no ugly mounting bracket, no hydrodynamic drag.

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August 2020

The Turners’ Canoes

A canoe for each man, woman, and child

Frank Turner built a canoe for himself as a new challenge to his woodworking skills. It turned out that he enjoyed paddling and so did his family, so he built three more canoes. One for his wife, and one for each of his two sons.

Series

Endeavour 17

The Gloucester Light Dory

The Lake Oswego Boat

Fiddlehead

Kestrel 2000

External Frames for Strip-Building

Swan’s Island

The Guider

Elfyn

Sailrite’s Ultrafeed LSZ-1

CELESTE

The Sailing Skiff 15

The Macomber 15

The WindSprite 26

The Annapolis Wherry

3’S A CROWD

Mudder Boots

WEST Special Clear Hardener

Tiller Extensions

Solace of the South Salish

Ultra-Light Solo Packboat

Midget Flyer

The Ben Garveys

The Norwalk Islands 26

The Turners’ Canoes

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