August 2017

Drawn to the Islands

A voyage among the Southern Gulf Islands

Bruce Bateau, one of our regular contributors, usually cruises in the company of other small boats, but British Columbia’s Southern Gulf Islands inspired him to sail solo. “My travel would be limited only by the tides and winds and my goal was to shake myself free of electronic leashes, bolt from thoughts that tie my brain in knots, and find my freedom in the present moment.”

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Small Boats Annual 2018August 2017

Tango 13

A twin-tailed transom

The Tango Skiff has interesting hull extensions that create an attention-grabbing geometry aft of the transom. The additional running surface and buoyancy of the extensions appealed because of previous experience in small outboard-powered boats. When operated solo, many of them with a conventional transom will squat under the weight of the motor and the skipper and set the bow pointing skyward.

Small Boats Annual 2019August 2017

Tenderly Dinghy

An able boat to row, tow, motor, and sail

When John Harris of Chesapeake Light Craft came to WoodenBoat School here in Brooklin to lead a six-day class in building his newly designed Tenderly Dinghy and brought two finished boats with him, there was an opportunity to see the progress on the student-built boats, and to take the finished ones for a spin in Great Cove.

July 2017

IRONBLOOD

Transforming the Traditional

After moving ashore from living aboard a schooner, and acquiring a wife and a small son, Michael Colfer of Bellingham, Washington, needed a smaller boat. He built a Nutshell pram and a Good Little Skiff, but then wanted a boat capable of taking on some more challenging weather in the more exposed areas around the San Juan Islands.

July 2017

Water-based Wood Dye

Rich Color to Dye For

The outboard runabout, WORK OF ART, often stops people in their tracks when they see the deck with its beautiful, natural-looking wood color with sparkling grain highlights. No one has guessed that the wood under the varnish has been dyed.

July 2017

Veritas Cabinet Scraper

Update to a classic

Woodworking raises a lot of dust. I have a collection system hooked up to the machines that create the most dust, but many times I can avoid creating so much dust in the first place by using a scraper instead of sandpaper. If the scraper blade is sharp and burnished to a curl, it will create crepe-like shavings and very little dust.

July 2017

Stay Afloat Leak Plug and Sealant

Quick cure for small leaks

Stay Afloat is soft, sticky wax-like material meant to fix small leaks of the sort I get with my older lapstrake boats. None of my boats has suffered enough damage to let water aboard, but that’s a possibility worth preparing for. To test the effectiveness of Stay Afloat I wasn’t about to poke holes in any of my boats, so I made a gizmo that could simulate leaks.

July 2017

Rowing the North Sea

Norway to Shetland by Faering

In the autumn of 2011 Erik Schouw-Hansen and I were discussing our next adventure. In 2010 we had sailed together to the Shetlands—Erik crewed aboard my 31′ sloop on the first leg of a voyage from Norway to the Caribbean and back. We were both born and raised on the west coast of Norway, so for our next trip it was natural to look westward across the North Sea to the Shetland Islands. We wanted to try something new and settled upon rowing a small, open boat across the North Sea the following summer. We set mid-June as our deadline to be ready for departure, and from that point we would wait for favorable weather conditions.

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Small Boats Annual 2018July 2017

Peeler Skiff

A lightweight fishing and utility skiff

The requirements were simple. The boat had to be light enough to tow behind a four-cylinder SUV, small enough to fit in a garage, and capable of getting two and gear the 50 miles from the south end of Lake Chelan to the north end and back again in the afternoon when the lake gets rough. Although there are many affordable aluminum and fiberglass boats that would serve the purpose, the boat had to be something distinctive.

July 2017

RoG

Microcruiser and Adventure Racer

RoG was designed, in some part, for the 300-mile Everglades Challenge, a Florida thin-water endurance voyage, but for less grueling adventures the RoG is a charming miniature cruiser. It is just 15′ 3-1/2″overall, yet it has a deep, comfortable, private cabin with built-in bookshelves forward, obviously designed for a contemplative sailor. The cabin has sitting headroom and offers a chart-sized nav/dining table that drops down to seat level to form two full-sized berths.

June 2017

Log-Milling Sled

Making a bandsaw a mini-sawmill

Windfalls and driftwood are often a source of woods better than any you can buy. A shop-built sled holds the irregular shapes of found wood securely on the bandsaw so you can more easily put it to good use.

June 2017

Newport Coastal Jacket and Pants

Rainwear from Helly Hansen

Good foul-weather gear can make the difference between cursing the weather and laughing at it. We take a look at a jacket-and-pants offering from Helly Hansen that works well for wet-weather rowing and sailing

Small Boats Annual 2018June 2017

Penobscot 17

An Arch Davis cruiser for sail and oar

Arch Davis drew the Penobscot 17 with three rigs—gunter sloop, ketch, schooner—and we take a look at his sloop-rigged version. The plywood lapstrake cruiser sails and rows well and is well suited for meandering among small islands and along convoluted coasts.

Small Boats Annual 2018June 2017

Four Oars and a Sail

A 2,000-mile river voyage through the American Heartland

A young couple with an abiding thirst for adventure built a cedar-strip version of a faering and traveled 2,000 miles under sail and oars from Wisconsin to the Gulf of Mexico. Their boat took a bit of a beating along the way and almost sank on the Mississippi River, but the partnership stayed afloat and the bonds between the two only grew stronger.

June 2017

A Bit of Venice on the Thames

An Englishman’s S’ciopon

Richard Nissen lives in a houseboat on the Thames and has gathered a collection of small boats. After he visited Venice and learned how to row in the Venetian style, he decided he needed one more, and built a s’ciopon, a small traditional workboat that he could row standing up.

Small Boats Annual 2018June 2017

Pelicano 20

A trig outboard cruiser

The owner of the first Devlin-designed Pelicano 20 had high praise for the boat: “A real jewel. We were impressed when we first took the boat out for sea trials. Even with that big 115-HP outboard hanging on the stern, it floated perfectly on her lines, and its performance turned out to be nothing short of breathtaking.”

Small Boats Annual 2018May 2017

The Coot Dinghy

A proper little boat

Andrew Wolstenholme’s Coot is a proper little boat. With respect on your part it will look after you, take you on mini adventures on rivers, lakes, and estuaries, and be greatly admired wherever it goes.

Small Boats Annual 2018May 2017

All-Rounder

Pygmy's SUP board

The All-Rounder SUP is Pygmy Boats’ newest kit. The 11’ stand-up paddleboard has plenty of stability for beginners and volume enough to take a youngster along for a ride.

Small Boats Annual 2018May 2017

Lake Tanganyika

Rowing Africa's Great Lake in a leaky boat

An adventurer in Africa traded his bicycle for a sad-looking wooden boat and set out to explore Lake Tanganyika. With gaps between planks big enough to slip a pencil through, a map bereft of detail, and a remote and unforgiving coast ahead of him, what could possibly go wrong?

May 2017

Trim and Ballast

Movable weight for easier rowing and sailing

Dory stones were once common fixtures in working boats; a bag of buckshot or a soft-sided water container serves as well without doing any damage. Ben Fuller walks us through the benefits of movable ballast aboard small rowing and sailing boats.

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May 2017

Waterproof Duffels

Storage for cruising and camping gear

Large waterproof duffel bags can provide a neat way of stowing cruising gear where the weight won’t make a boat sluggish in a seaway and speed setting up camp. Tom Pamperin puts five duffels to the test.

May 2017

Topside Marine Paint

George Kirby Jr. Paint Company

For more than 170 years, the George Kirby Jr. Paint Company has been making marine paints with noteworthy quality and colors.

May 2017

A Tenacious Tween

Building a Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff

A girl who had her heart set on having her own outboard skiff had enough determination to see a three-year project of building a Jericho Bay skiff through to the end. In our Reader Built Boat feature you’ll meet Hannah Dumser, a remarkable youngster who was thrilled to get epoxy for her birthday.

Small Boats Annual 2018April 2017

Woods Hole Spritsail Boat

From workboat to daysailer

The Woods Hole spritsail boats are similar to the iconic Cape Cod catboats, with a few distinct differences. They are sprit rigged, not gaff rigged, to make it easier to unstep the mast to pass underneath a stone bridge at the entrance their traditional harbor, narrower to allow them to be rowed by a lone fisherman, and have more freeboard for the notoriously rough waters of Vineyard Sound.

April 2017

A Faering on the Inside Passage, Part 2

Alaska

The second half of Editor Chris Cunningham’s story about rowing his replica of the Gokstad faering up the Inside Passage takes us into Alaskan waters for mud, icebergs, bears, and a railway portage.