Series

The AF4

A weekend cruiser from Jim Michalak

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - AF4, an outboard powered beach cruiser with 4" of draft, can boldly go where most boats can't.

The Hvalsoe 16

On its way to becoming a Northwest classic

From the Small Boats Annual 2009 - 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.

GRACE’S TENDER

Easy to love, easier to build

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - 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.

The Hird Island Skiff

Comfortable—and quiet

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - 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.

Sunshine

A much-admired yacht tender

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - With excellent load-carrying capacity and rowing characteristics, low weight, and great looks, the Sunshine makes a wonderful yacht tender.

MARCUS NOER

A Danish four-sail double-ender

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - 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…

RETRO-ROCKET

Glen-L’s Super Spartan makes a splash

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - RETRO-ROCKET was built from Glen-L Marine Design’s plans for Super Spartan, a three-point hydroplane. Constructed in marine plywood, RETRO-ROCKET weighs less than 100 lbs and darts across the water, mostly on a cushion of air.

Fenwick Williams’s 18’ Catboat

A frisky little cat

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - Fenwick Williams designed 17 catboats from 8' to 30' in length. All of them are legendary; but his first, an 18-footer created during the height of the Great Depression in 1931, stands out as a little gem.

Duckling

A sliding-seat skiff

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - When Sam Devlin of Devlin Designing Boat Builders was commissioned to build a rowing skiff to be carried aboard a 45' motoryacht, he was given two requirements: it had to be short enough to fit on the yacht’s cabintop, and it had to be equipped with a sliding-seat rowing rig.

BUFFLEHEAD

A high-end hybrid for paddle and sail

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - While you may not want to try building BUFFLEHEAD without some experience under your belt, when ready, your hard work will pay off in an eye-pleasing, seaworthy craft for daysailing or extended coastal passages.

Diablo

A fast and stable outboard-powered skiff

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - BONITO’s Diablo design is derived from the Amesbury skiff—itself a dory-derivative. The plywood hull is easily built, and easy on the eyes. A narrow bottom and wide, angled bilge panels combine to give Diablo an efficient planing surface and predictable banking in turns. She has great dynamic stability at speed.

Beetle 14

Sequel to a legend

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - The Beetle 14 (14'4") is the big sister of the 12' 4" classic. Lest you think 2' is not much of a difference, consider the designer’s observation that “You could fill two [original] Beetles with water and empty them into this boat.”

BEATRICE

A modified Saint-Pierre Dory

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - BEATRICE is a modified Saint-Pierre dory—a type once common on the waters of Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Born on the islands of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland (French possessions to this day), the Saint-Pierre dory was a local response to a French government requirement for cheap, durable, and safe fishing craft…

Beach Cruising

A primer in pictures

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - A trailerable sailboat can be so much more than a daysailer. With a sense of adventure, a little thought, and a bit of gear, the same boat can beach-cruise far and wide for days, weeks, and even months on end.

Tremolino Trimaran

What’s old is new again

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - The Dick Newick–designed Tremolino blends ancient technologies with high-tech design and construction methods. The strip-built trimaran gives even the less-experienced builder a chance to own this fast and fun-to-sail craft.

The King

A strip-planked kayak from Redfish

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - Redfish Kayak specializes in kits and plans for a range of strip-planked paddle craft. The King has plenty of volume for gear stowage, yet is fast and responsive.

The Asa Thomson Skiff

A humble gem

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - Asa Thomson was a New Bedford, Massachusetts, boatbuilder who clearly had a great deal of experience in skiffs. His design, devoid of any “wow” factor, has all the attributes of a craft born of lifelong learning.

The 16/30 Sailing Canoe

An easy-to-build racer finds its inspiration in history

From the 2009 Small Boats Annual - The 16/30 class sailing canoe is the product of a long-term project on the part of John Summers, General Manager at the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario. He designed the canoe while at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York.

The West Branch

A Y-sterned canoe

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Unlike its square-sterned cousins, the West Branch canoe can carry a small motor on its transom while retaining the good paddling qualities of a double-ended canoe.

The Ipswich Bay 18

A classically inspired one-design

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - The Ipswich Bay 18 is a decked sailing dory reminiscent of the small racing boats of the Massachusetts North Shore of the first half of the 20th century.

Lumber Yard Skiff

The Model T of boats

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Walter Baron’s Lumber Yard Skiff is so-named because its materials can be procured from local lumberyards. The boat is rugged, inexpensive, stable, and meant for a variety of purposes—from fishing to recreation.

Acorn 13

A jewel of a boat

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Designer Iain Oughtred’s Acorn 13 has evolved from a series of designs, starting with a 7' 10" dinghy. With his 11' 8" Acorn, he used a finer hull for rowing and sailing, and the 13' version of the Acorn is simply the 11' 8" version stretched by spacing the construction molds a little…

Redwing

A power skiff for simple cruising

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Karl Stambaugh’s REDWING 18 is a plywood boat based on a Howard Chapelle design of traditional construction. Stambaugh designed his version “to make her easier to build while keeping the traditional appearance of the Chapelle design.”

Shearwater

A pulling boat with auxiliary sail power

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Shearwater is a lithe, easily built adaptation of a traditional Norwegian design—the oselver, or Os estuary boat.

The Core Sound Series

Camp-cruisers with attitude

From the 2008 Small Boats Annual - Designed by Graham Byrnes, the Core Sound 17 was a development of his earlier Spindrift 10-footer and Bay River Skiff 17. The latter, inspired by the traditional working skiffs of the Hatteras area in North Carolina, was conceived in the late 1980s as a “good utility boat that could be rowed, motored, and…