Technique

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.

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.

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…

January 2021

Megaphones

DIY projects to make yourself heard

There are times when you need to make yourself heard over the noise of wind and waves or across distance. Cupping your hands around your mouth helps, but old-school megaphones are easy to make and surprisingly effective.

December 2020

Five Practical Tips

A handful of useful projects

Five of our readers share tips they came up with for sailing without steering, rowing with better visibility, restoring rusted steel tools, making a portable vise, and making trailer launching easier.

November 2020

A Quick Tick Stick

An Evolution from the Joggle Stick

A joggle stick is a shopmade tool for creating a pattern for a complex shape, but the sawtooth design was cumbersome to use and could create a confusing jumble of tracings. There’s a better way—the quick tick stick.

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.

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.

August 2020

LED Shop Lighting

Better lighting for finer work

To do good work in the shop, you need to see what you’re doing. While fluorescent tubes have long been the standard shop lights, new LED strip lights are brighter, more economical, last longer, and don’t flicker or hum.

July 2020

High-Performance Foils

Shaping better centerboards and rudders

Sailors often look aloft to see if their sails are taking their best shape and getting the best performance from the wind. Builders of sailboats,too, should pay close attention to the shaping of a boat's rudder and daggerboard or centerboard. Alex Zimmerman explains NACA foils and the difference they can make.

July 2020

Antennas for VHF

An elevated accessory antenna can increase a handheld radio's range

Handheld VHF radios are very useful for communication from a small boat, especially in an emergency. Their height above the water determines their range and Ben Fuller covers more territory with his VHF by attaching it to an auxiliary antenna that's elevated on a pole.

June 2020

A DIY Cart

14-inch wheels for rough terrain

When Ben Fuller acquired a new ice boat, he needed a cart to get it from his car and across rough terrain to the frozen waterways he sails. The DIY cart, built with 14” wheels, works well for kayaks, canoes, and other small boats.

May 2020

Joe’s Tool Tote

A master boatbuilder's tote, stool, and step

Joe Liener was a master craftsman who did a lot of work on small boats. He had a tote that carried his tools and served as a sawhorse, seat, and step stool. It would be as hand around the house as in the boatshop. Ben Fuller shows us the replica he built from materials he had at home.

April 2020

Show Horses and Work Horses

Variations on the Krenov style

These do-it-yourself sawhorses can serve a lot of different purposes in the shop. They’re easy to build, quite solid, and you can make them to be taken apart to get them out of the way when they’re not needed.

Small Boats Annual 2021March 2020

A DIY Cagoule

Cocoon-like comfort

A full-length cagoule is a simple, inexpensive sewing project that provides a refuge from rain and cold. There’s room enough to retreat turtle-like from the hood and sleeves to enjoy the still air inside, often over 20 degrees warmer than it is outside.

February 2020

DIY Gantry Cranes

For lifting and rolling a heavy hull

When Earl Boissonou built his 18′ pocket cruiser, he had to figure out how to roll the hull over in the confines of his shop, and then lift the finished boat onto its trailer. He devised and built a pair of gantry cranes to do the work easily and safely.

January 2020

Making a Slicker Trailer

HDPE for less friction

Carpet is a common surface treatment for trailer bunks, meant to protect the boat and ease loading and unloading, but it gathers abrasive grit and creates friction. Replace it with high-density polyethylene and using the launch ramp is no longer such a drag.

December 2019

Quick Whippings

Admiralty and West Country

You don’t need a needle and sewing palm to apply secure whippings to the ends of your boat’s lines. The Admiralty whipping dresses up laid line and the West Country whipping holds braided line together.

November 2019

Long-Reach Clamps

Big jaws with bite

When you have a job to do that’s beyond the reach of the clamps you have, it’s easy enough to make longer clamps. Some scrap lumber, two bits of plywood, a bolt, and a length of cord are all you need.

October 2019

Cleating the Main

Two quick-release options

When you’re sailing solo, you’ll often have one hand on the tiller and the other on the sheet. Ben Fuller has two ways of secure the sheet if the wind is steady and moderate and both can be released quickly if a gust hits.

September 2019

Four Practical Tips

We have four new tips on tap: coiling tie-down straps, folding tarps, using IKEA wooden bed slats for a small-boat sleeping platform, and putting a portable thickness planer on wheels to handle long stock in a short shop.

August 2019

Anchors Astray

Unsticking stuck anchors

Anchors are meant to dig into the bottom and hold tight until it’s time to get under way, but they’ll occasionally hook something and won’t let go no matter how hard you pull. Fortunately, you can rig your anchor so you can get it back.

July 2019

A Cartop Water Tank

Rinsing at the ramp

When you get back to the launch ramp after an outing, a quick fresh-water rinse of your boat and trailer, and even a warm shower, are possible if you make a pressurized, plastic-pipe water tank for your vehicle’s roof rack. Leave the salt and sand at the beach.

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.

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.