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Kathy Mansfield

François Vivier designed the handsome pocket cruiser Pen-Hir for his own use. He cruises the boat for up to two weeks at a time, often singlehanded, along the Brittany coast.

Pen-Hir is a very pretty little 24‘ 7“ pocket cruiser designed by naval architect Vivier Vivier. Some of my favorite moments at the big French traditional boat festivals have been watching her sail purposefully through strong tides and sometimes strong winds in the company of schooners, pilot cutters, and fishing boats. There’s always a large sail-and-oar contingent too, numbered in the hundreds, and there we are among friends, because Vivier has designed a large proportion of them, as well as quite a few of the larger boats. There are sleek double-enders, plumb bows and transoms, raid boats like his sprightly Stir Ven design, and a proliferation of rigs from gaff and lug to gunter and marconi.

Vivier spent four years considering the design for a small, fast, good-looking cabin sailboat for himself that he could cruise for two weeks in the summer along the coast of Brittany, often singlehanded or in shallow waters. He wanted to keep it simple, without the need or expense of winches and windlasses, little to go wrong. His inspirations were the small boats of Alden and Crowninshield, the purity of Herreshoff, but updated for modern use with more beam and a larger cabin. He also added to the mix the traditional look of workboats from western Brittany that were sailing at the same time in the early 20th century, with a plumb stem and short counter, but adding the lower freeboard and elegant sheer of classic yachts.

If the boat was to be trailered to different cruising areas as well as sailed locally, Vivier wanted to keep that process simple as well. A gaff rig, when peaked high enough, can point to windward like a marconi sail, but has the added advantage that the mast is in two parts so the spars can be designed the right length to fit inside the boat for trailing. The mast can also can be raised without assistance with a counterweight and tabernacle, with dedicated pole and purchase. This was his rig of choice, though he has designed a marconi option as well.

Vivier came to the project with an enormous amount of experience and a wish to try out new ideas with his own boat. A naval architect for many years designing large ships, later working as director of the French Shipbuilding Research Institute and co-founder of the French traditional boat magazine Le Chasse Marée, he has designed an impressive range of boats. He’d already designed a 27‘ 10“ (8.5m) cruising boat, the Toulinguet, and a smaller weekend centerboard cruiser, the Méaban. But with the aim of simplicity, he considered a shallow, long keel and rudder, instead of a steel centerboard and hydraulic lifting gear. Weight could then be better distributed, but would the extra wetted surface slow down the boat? Here Vivier comes into his own, for careful research and analysis that might be shared with the boatbuilding community is something that comes naturally to him. Drag calculations showed that it is the number of appendages that is the critical factor rather than the wetted surface area. A shortish classic keel and integral rudder with sufficient sail area can give better lateral resistance at slow speeds than a centerboard or fin keel plus one or two rudders.

For anchoring in shallow or drying areas, Vivier then added detachable legs that would store under the cockpit side decking, to be mounted on the hull sides to keep the boat balanced on the ground. “For my father, the length of the cockpit is now determined by the boat’s draft so the legs will fit,” his son, Nicholas, said. A 13‘ sculling oar also fits neatly, partly under the cockpit. It must be one of the pleasures of designing a boat.

Kathy Mansfield

In the interest of conservation, Vivier used birch plywood from Finland for the prototype Pen-Hir’s hull. He also conducted a longevity study on this wood and his method of using it, with promising results.

For his own boat, but not necessarily in future builds, Vivier looked at environmental considerations. Instead of using marine plywood manufactured from tropical hardwoods, he found a sustainable birch plywood made in Finland, and as a side project managed to get funding to study the durability of different types of marine plywood. Plywood samples without any protective coatings were half plunged into seawater for two years. All were damaged by the end of that time, showing that protection is essential, though mahogany survived best. The tests show too that current durability classes are not relevant to boatbuilding. Mechanical tests including density pointed to birch ply as being preferable. Despite a high density, birch was used in early airplanes. There has been no problem in the five years since the boat was built, and two others using birch plywood have been built since. Okoume ply­wood would need an increase in thickness, particularly in the keel area.

Pen-Hir, named after an attractive peninsula near Camaret in Brittany, was built by Nicolas at Icarai Boats near Cherbourg. Once the plywood pieces are computer-cut to shape, the boat can be ready for planking and much of the accommodation built within two weeks at the yard with two or three people working. The bottom planking is a single sheet of plywood and the sides are planked vertically, a method that Vivier has used extensively and thinks can be more accurate than using long horizontal planks. It also makes a strong, nicely rounded hull, avoiding the hard chines that often identify a plywood boat. The bulkheads and keel are made of strong, criss-crossed layers of birch plywood, the latter with 1,323 lbs (600 kg) of lead at the bottom. The bilge area and side planking are composed of two layers of 6mm ply, and the single bottom section is 12mm. The entire hull is epoxy-sheathed, and any exposed plywood edges are protected by a hardwood batten, epoxy glued and nailed in position. The curved coach roof top is laminated over a mold and glued to the oak sides. Sustainable woods are used throughout the boat: oak for floor timbers and coach roof coamings, northern pine for accommodation below, Douglas-fir for beam clamps and spars. The mast is hollow and mounted on deck, saving room down below. The bottom is coated with a long-term antifouling mix of copper and epoxy.

Kathy Mansfield

Pen-Hir sleeps two in a forepeak double. A curtain separates the sleeping space from the saloon and galley, which are airy and welllighted.

My first view of Pen-Hir on the water was of a classically low, light aqua hull and nicely proportioned oak–sided coach roof with white-painted decks, her sheer echoed in a solid oak rubrail. Her plumb bow under a short bowsprit is curved at the forefoot; she has a very ample cockpit with a short transom.

The boat coasted along in very little wind, her high-peaked gaff rig, almost gunter, set off by classic stitched sails and Douglas-fir spars. A short transom holds a mainsheet horse, keeping the cockpit free, and a well holds a Torqeedo electric engine, equivalent to about 6 hp, which can be tilted out of the water, giving a range of about 20 miles at 4 knots on a quiet sea. Oars plus a sculling notch at the stern gave extra options for harbor work. The tiller is convenient for the helmsman in any position and easily lifted out of the way. The side decks were clear, not a winch to be seen, with the mainsheet on a block and tackle and secured with a cam cleat. The jib, about 108 sq ft, is small enough to sheet in to cam cleats as well, as are the halyards. I liked the small anchor well and cover, everything neatly to hand, and the stainless-steel pulpit and guardrails were unobtrusive. The oak grabrails on the coach roof and the bronze cleats give a traditional touch.

The saloon feels spacious and bright with no centerboard trunk or mast to get in the way, with white bulkheads, oval portholes, and shelves above the two full-length berths, plus easily accessible and ample stowage and plenty of wood trim. There is a 60-liter water tank under the starboard berth, a small sink and galley stowage at the forward end, and a sliding chart table at the aft end near the cockpit hatch. At the forward end of the port berth there is a combined stove and heater. A table slides out from under the cockpit, and it can be positioned below or in the cockpit. A curved opening to the forepeak with a full double bed and more stowage plus batteries underneath is lightened by a hatch above. A curtain separates this area from the saloon, and a chemical toilet means no plumbing or through-hull fittings.

Kathy Mansfield

Pen-Hir has proven herself in winds over 22 knots, and she also ghosts well in light air—often passing much larger boats.

I’ve sailed now in a wide range of wind strengths in Pen-Hir, notching up a Force 6 last May in the Gulf of Morbihan when we sailed outside the protective gulf, Vivier sailing singlehanded so I could take photographs of the start of a parade of sail. The commentators later mentioned our presence there—no other light plywood craft under 30‘ were to be seen, nor much else besides traditionally built workboats. With a couple of reefs, a sense of adventure, and a fine skipper we were in good control. At the other extreme, in light winds, and in moderate winds as well for that matter, we have slipped past boats much longer than us with great ease, our keel keeping us from slipping sideways as we work upwind. She tacks firmly and easily despite the keel, and does not feel tender. We have not been in waters shallow enough to have the keel impede our progress, with the exception of one lunch spent at a slight angle while the tide came in. The hundreds of festival boats that we have encountered at times make for a short, steep chop that Pen-Hir hardly notices, and the thought of cruising away toward the nearby beaches, the islands farther away, the coastal towns, was a very enticing thought indeed. I can envisage her far from the Brittany shores, exploring Penobscot Bay in Maine, and I think Alden and Crowninshield would have nodded approvingly.

Plans for the Pen-Hir are available from François Vivier, Naval Architect.

Kathy Mansfield

In Pen-Hir, Vivier was inspired by the good sailing qualities of the knockabout sloops designed by
B.B. Crowninshield in the early 20th century, as well as by the pure simplicity of Herreshoff boats. But
he also sought a larger cabin and a wider hull than those boats carry. The plumb stem and short counter
are typical of Vivier’s home waters.

Kathy Mansfield

Pen-Hir Particulars
LOA 26′ 1″
LWL 23′ 8″
Beam 9′ 2″
Draft 3′ 10″
Sail area 364 sq ft

HERBERT KRUMM-GARTNER

To develop his trailerable daysailer, Herbert Krumm-Gartner started by carving a half model, inspired by the boatbuilding methods and design aesthetics of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff.

JADE took shape the old-fashioned way: a spokeshave and a piece of golden New Zealand kauri timber. Boat designer and builder Herbert Krumm-Gartner is German by birth and has lived in New Zealand for 26 years, but as the half model gradually emerged from the kauri, it reflected the lines of a classic American daysailer.

A year later, in September 2012, the full-sized, 23′ version was afloat—the first boat of Krumm-Gartner’s Gem-class design with a piece of New Zealand jade or greenstone, pounamu in Maori, on her tiller. Krumm-Gartner named the class Gem because his wife, Romy Gartner, has a past life as a jeweler and because, he says, all classic boats are like gems.

She sparkles with beauty from her spoon bow in a gentle sweep through her low profile to the counter stern that finishes in a gleaming mahogany transom, topped by the glossy Douglas-fir spars of her gaff rig. From the beginning, Krumm-Gartner says, “It was the aesthetics that drove the design.”

Like many before him, Krumm-Gartner is inspired by Nat Herreshoff’s designs—a connection that began in the 1980s when Krumm-Gartner was an apprentice boatbuilder in southern Germany. He was frustrated at the lack of interest in building wooden boats. For his apprenticeship project, he wanted to build a round-bilged clinker boat (also known as lapstrake), but his boss insisted he build a boat with a flat bottom. “But I had to build it his way, the right way up,” Krumm-Gartner says. “I now mostly build upside-down, but you couldn’t argue with your boss.”

He found salvation in a local bookshop, which stocked books on boatbuilding—nearly all of them in English. Today, Krumm-Gartner’s German accent has disappeared, but in the 1980s his English was schoolboy standard. He bought Building the Herreshoff Dinghy, published by Mystic Seaport, and translated key phrases into German so he could understand the building process. He still has the book, including his penciled notes in German. In the same shop he saw his first WoodenBoat magazine. “I’ve been a subscriber ever since,” he says.

The more Krumm-Gartner talked about wooden boats, the more he heard about New Zealand. He knew a tradesman in Germany who knew someone in New Zealand who knew boatbuilder John Gladden. Many international phone calls later, Krumm-Gartner moved to New Zealand with Romy to work for Gladden. “He was great,” Krumm-Gartner says. “He took a lot of time to explain something and drew diagrams of what he wanted. I did some quite complex stuff, like building a gamefish launch. It was like a second apprenticeship.”

Krumm-Gartner later set up Classic Boats Ltd. He has built new boats and has restored many classic yachts, but he held a dream to build a boat to his own design.

In 1999 he designed a Herreshoff-inspired 16-footer, but he and Romy felt it would be too small. “I didn’t want to get wet,” Romy says. Instead, they bought a small classic yacht, which they kept on a mooring, but were disappointed by her obvious need of care when they returned from a three-month trip to Germany.

“It made me realize I wanted a trailer boat at home to minimize pre-Christmas maintenance,” Krumm-Gartner says. “In the United States, daysailers are making a comeback, and they are in New Zealand too. They have lots of varnished wood, but you don’t have to be afraid of it because you can protect it at home under cover.”

“Looking for a challenge,” he revisited the 16-footer, stretched it to 23′, and added more freeboard. “I designed it the Herreshoff way,” Krumm-Gartner says. “I did a half model and shaped it until I liked what I saw.” His book about the Herreshoff dinghy was a close companion.

HERBERT KRUMM-GARTNER

Like Herreshoff yachts, JADE, the first of the Gem class boats, was built upside-down with one mold per laminated frame. For watertight integrity and structural strength, the laid deck’s sprung planks were installed over a plywood substrate.

The aesthetics brought the challenge. “It’s difficult to build a counter stern and a curved transom. It was also very difficult to plank, and I didn’t know how difficult when I designed it. The stern has a lot of tumblehome and the bow has a lot of flare, so they are very complex curves and a plank needs some convincing to take that shape.”

The construction wood was mostly kahikatea, known as New Zealand white pine, which had been salvaged from submerged logs. The key in bending the planking was to use narrow widths. “I put a straight edge on one side of the plank and then I put a fair curve into the other one, so that amidships the planks could be 70 to 90 mm [23⁄4″ to 31⁄2″] wide, tapering out to about 40 mm [about 11⁄2″] at the ends; then I stuck them in the steambox. We wrapped them around and bent them around the building mold.

“Usually when you steam planks you’re bending them one way, but we bent these around the boat and edge-set them up or down, so we had to keep them narrow. This method wastes less timber than if cutting carvel planks the conventional way from wide boards,” he says.

Krumm-Gartner’s favorite tools were planking clamps that he had first seen in WoodenBoat magazine and ordered from the United States. “They attach to the rib,” he says. “You can then wind down the plank so you get this super-tight fit. Normally you’d have to do with a normal clamp and wedges. Every rib was laminated over a frame so the building jig could be re-used, as Herreshoff used to do.”

The edge-glued planks are covered in one layer of 6-oz fiberglass cloth set in epoxy. It’s a good method for a trailering boat that will be out of the water most of the time.

Krumm-Gartner says JADE is helping to preserve traditional boatbuilding methods. “Building is the only way you can acquire a skill properly,” he says. “If you repair a boat and you replace a plank, you’re not a proficient planker. But if you build 40 planks, select the planks, steam them, you really learn the process. The first plank took me most of the day to get it on. Later, we did a pair a day.”

Krumm-Gartner and Romy built JADE together; for Romy it was an unofficial apprenticeship, albeit without plans. “Herbert would say, ‘We’re doing this.’ And I’d say, ‘Show me,’” Romy says. “It was all in his head, so I couldn’t picture it.”

“Plans can be limiting,” her husband says.

They recorded every part of the construction, from lofting through to final fittings, in a diary, including photographs, with suggestions for improvements and a record of the hours for each job.

Krumm-Gartner selected 23′ as the length so the boat would be easy to trailer, store, sail, and maintain yet still achieve a reasonable turn of speed. The cabin sleeps two comfortably and the cockpit seats four people. Facilities include a chemical toilet under the cabin sole, an icebox under the port cockpit seat, and a stove to starboard. There are watertight bulkheads in the bow and lazarette. Four sockets around the cockpit accept stanchions to support a sun tent.

When it came to motive power, Krumm-Gartner didn’t want an outboard on a bracket. “They are ugly, unwieldy to use, and ineffective in a choppy sea,” he says. But he didn’t want an inboard engine either: “It would have dominated the cockpit, cost more, and weighed more.”

After playing around with an outboard-shaped piece of plywood in the workshop, he permanently installed an 8-hp Yamaha outboard in a well in the aft cockpit. It pushes the boat at 6 knots and is angled at 12 degrees so that the propeller wash streams over the rudder. A pipe in the outboard’s idling outlet takes exhaust fumes away from the outboard well. Two fairing pieces around the outboard leg also help to keep the fumes out of the cockpit.

HERBERT KRUMM-GARTNER

JADE’s commodious cockpit, with macrocarpa coamings at a comfortable height for seating, has room for four and an outboard set in a well.

JADE may have been complicated to build, but as a baby classic she is easy to sail. One person hoists gaff mainsail by pulling simultaneously on the peak and throat halyards, which are led to the starboard side of the forward end of the cockpit. The 5-square-meter [54 sq ft] jib hoists on a halyard to port. The jib’s boom makes it self-tacking, and to save crew having to lean out into the spray to trim, the jibsheets lead inside the cockpit via bronze sheave boxes let into the macrocarpa coamings.

The mainsail hoists on mast hoops made of stainless steel sheathed in leather, and thanks to an endless mainsheet it can be trimmed from either side of the cockpit. Because the boat has no bowsprit, sail handling is easy, but with no winches for trimming or hoisting sail, the crew needs to practice belaying skills.

Her stiff manner under sail befits her gentle, classic temperament. Krumm-Gartner and Romy enjoyed many sails on JADE before finally dipping the rail under, in a wind of more than 20 knots. The 15-square-meter [161 sq ft] gaff mainsail provides most of the power, unlike a modern marconi rig, for which a large genoa is usually the driving force. When working to weather, Krumm-Gartner reefs the mainsail at 15 to 18 knots. The main and jib are made of cream-colored sailcloth as a nod to the classic sailing of yesteryear.

The helm has a feel of yesteryear too, being placid but firm. It’s easy for one person to manage the tiller and sheets. Going forward on the narrow coach roof without lifelines feels strange to sailors more used to modern designs, but there’s something wonderfully snug about the varnished cockpit surrounded in sweeping coamings. The water is just inches away, and Krumm-Gartner has certainly created the feel of old-style sailing.

HERBERT KRUMM-GARTNER

Showing her early-20thcentury American influence, the gaff-headed sloop has a self-tending jib that makes sail handling simple. Low draft enabled by her centerboard makes her readily trailerable, and with her planking sheathed in fiberglass cloth set in epoxy she can be launched dry without needing time for the planking to swell.

JADE has just under 300 kg (661 lbs) of ballast for her 1.1 tons (2,425 lbs) weight, including 135 kg (298 lbs) of lead either side of the keelson and 30 kg (66 lbs) of lead in the centerboard. The centerboard brings the draft to 5′. By use of the only winch on board, the centerboard swings up into a low-profile trunk in the cockpit for trailering or creeping into shallow water when gunkholing. The centerboard winch is bronze, as are other metal fittings on board JADE, for which Krumm-Gartner made wooden molds, accounting for shrinkage.

It takes one person 30 minutes to rig or derig JADE. The mainmast, being a gaff rig, is only 6m [about 20′] and light enough for one person to manage. To lower the mast for trailering, Krumm-Gartner releases the forestay; the mast stays in its tabernacle and the shrouds stay connected. The lowered mast rests in crutches on the deck. The 4.2m [13’9″] Douglas-fir boom, gaff, and mainsail stow in the saloon. Krumm-Gartner launches JADE using an extension bar on the trailer.

JADE already has a sistership, commissioned as an open daysailer without a cabin and resplendent in varnished mahogany topsides for which Krumm-Gartner meticulously selected every plank. He and Romy built the boat for an American superyacht on which it resides in a special cradle alongside a classic runabout—a stable-mate that Nat Herreshoff would surely appreciate.

HERBERT KRUMM-GARTNER

JADE
Particulars
LOA 23′
Beam 6′ 6″
Draft, centerboard up 2′ 2″ centerboard down 5′
Weight 2,425 lbs

John Summers

With an open-cockpit layout, relatively high boom, and lots of seating, the Mirror is ideal for taking kids out.

If you’ve spent any time at all in sailing clubs in North America or Europe, chances are you’ve seen at least a few of the many dinghies drawn by the English designer and boatbuilder Jack Holt (1912–1995), who drew more than 40 boats during his long career, including the Cadet, the GP 14, the Hornet, an International 10-Square-Meter Canoe, an International 14, and the Rocket, which later merged with another design to become the Merlin Rocket. He was noted for his early adoption of marine plywood with a particular focus on dinghies that could be home-built by amateurs. Two of his more distinctive designs are the Enterprise (1956), with its baby blue sails, and the Mirror (1962), with deep red sailcloth derived from the newspaper’s signature color. Interestingly, the Enterprise (The News Chronicle) and the Mirror (The Daily Mirror) are, along with the DN Iceboat (The Detroit News), three small craft designs sponsored by newspapers that have gone on to great success.

To create the Mirror, Holt refined and improved two prototypes created by British do-it-yourself television personality Barry Bucknell. According to the international class association, more than 70,000 of these small dinghies have been built worldwide, and the Mirror is now an international one-design class overseen by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). Mirror hull No. 1, EILEEN, was constructed in 1963 and is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, England. Originally gunter-rigged, the class now also permits a Bermudan mainsail. The Mirror was an early design to employ stitch-and-glue construction. Home-built boats still use this method, but some professionally built hulls are also available in foam-sandwich fiberglass in the United Kingdom. The first generation of spars was all wood, but masts are now commonly aluminum.

John Summers

The interior layout is simple and uncluttered. Auxiliary power can be provided by paddles or oars.

The dinghy measures 10’11” LOA × 4’7″ beam, with a board-down draft of 28″. Sail area is 49 sq ft in the main, 20 sq ft in the jib, and the spinnaker adds 47 sq ft. Complete and ready to sail, the boat weighs approximately 150 lbs, and capacity is 600 lbs. The racing crew is two, but the boat can easily accommodate three adults or an adult and several children for daysailing. Plans for this strict one-design are not commercially available, and Mirrors are sold either as complete kits, hull kits, bare hulls, or sail-away boats. The kits include everything except paint, varnish, and epoxy resin. Within the one-design specifications, the interior layouts have evolved in the years since the boat was first designed, and builders have some options in cockpit layout and the scantlings of individual components such as the yard of the sliding-gunter mainsail.

The conventional stitch-and-glue construction requires only basic hand and power tools. Work begins with clear-coating the hull panels with epoxy, especially where they will form the inside of buoyancy tanks. The builder next joins the fore-and-aft sections of the hull panels with butt straps, and then marks and drills them for wiring together. Small gluing blocks are attached to the bottom panels to aid in positioning and attaching the sides of the buoyancy tanks and the bulkheads later in the construction sequence.

John Summers

When racing, or looking for a little extra speed downwind, the Mirror can fly a spinnaker. Hull No.43756 has seen long service, so her deep red sails have faded a little.

The bottom panels are wired together first, followed by the aft transom, the bow transom, and the side panels. As always with a stitch-and-glue hull, it is crucial to align it with winding sticks and diagonal measurements before finishing the seams to ensure it is not wracked. The bulkheads and side tanks are fitted before the seams are filleted and taped, followed by the centerboard trunk and center thwart. The decks rails, and quarter and bow knees complete the basic hull. The rudder, dagger­board, and spars finish the build and are followed by hardware installation and rigging. The manufacturer of the kits suggests that boats can be constructed by builders with moderate skills and a reasonable assortment of tools in 150–200 hours. The U.K. Mirror Class Association website at www.ukmirrorsailing.com includes links to sites documenting particular Mirror constructions, and a YouTube search will quickly reveal posted videos of various build and restoration projects. The kits come with a comprehensive 50-page building manual.

The boat’s spars all fit inside the hull (at least with the gunter rig), and that, combined with a relatively light hull weight, means that Mirrors can easily be trailered or cartopped. They are readily carried or moved on a dolly for launching and retrieving from a beach or ramp. Rigging is quickly done, and boats can go from trailer to sailing in well under 30 minutes. A kick-up rudder means that it’s easy to sail off a beach.

John Summers

The Mirror is an easy boat to singlehand, and some have made long cruises. Modest sail area and plenty of buoyancy allow Mirrors to go out in winds that would keep other dinghies on shore.

On the day I met with some members of the Ontario Mirror Dinghy Association to go sailing, the winds varied from very light to moderate, with perhaps a maximum of 8–9 knots for a time. Beautiful summer weather, to be sure, but it wasn’t a day to test the seamanship of the skipper or the mettle of the boat. I was assured by some sailors of the boat’s seaworthiness, though, as they shared stories of heading out on blustery days on Lake Huron or Lake Ontario long after other small boats had retired for the day. With 69 sq ft of working canvas, the Mirror is certainly not over­powered, but there are lots of other dinghies out there if you really want to go fast.

Under sail, the helm is light and the boat is well balanced. Like many small dinghies of traditional rig, the Mirror sails best a little eased and no higher than a close reach. The hull has an easy motion, but the pram bow means that she will tend to slap into a chop. We sailed with two average-sized adults for a time, and in the light air the boat balanced best with both of us on either side of ’midships, one to windward and one to leeward. Hiking straps are fitted for heavier weather, but we didn’t need to use them that day. Nothing is too far away in a boat only 11′ long, but those who habitually sail singlehanded might want to bring the control lines back to cleats on the center thwart for easy access. Serious racers will also want to double them up so that they can be reached from either side of the boat.

Basic sail controls include main and jib sheets, vang, and mainsheet outhaul. The wire shrouds are made off to chainplates, but the forestay is secured with a lashing to a pad-eye at the bow. Class rules permit it to be adjusted underway. The built-in buoyancy tanks go up either side and across the bow, offering a choice of seating positions. The gunwales are narrow, so serious racers or those planning on hiking out a lot might want to invest in padded shorts.

John Summers

Mirrors are easily handled on beaching dollies, and can also be cartopped.

Class equipment includes both a whisker pole for booming out the jib clew downwind and a spinnaker, which is set and retrieved from a tapered mesh bag via a center retrieval line. Race upgrades include a multi-part block system for adjusting the forestay and up to an 8:1 purchase on the boom vang. As is often the case in one-design classes, racing competition can be fierce, and as one of the sailors I met when testing the boat said, “If you can make a Mirror go fast, you can make anything go fast.” Especially in the U.K., the boat has often served as a development platform for future Olympians and professional sailors.

John Summers

With its light draft and kick-up rudder, the Mirror is easily launched and retrieved in shallow water.

The Mirror Dinghy is very popular in Europe and in Canada, but not as well known in the United States. This is a pity, because it is a durable and practical boat whose small size and easy handling make it perfect for those with young children and limited storage space at home. As a trailer boat or cartopper, the Mirror can easily be brought on vacation, and can also be rowed or, with minor modifications to the transom, fitted for use with a small outboard. In the right hands, Mirrors can also be capable small boats for cruising, and they have made some long passages under sail. The fact that all this can be had in an easily assembled kit that is available for less than the price of many other less-capable production dinghies is an added bonus. The experience of building and then using a boat together is one that can stay with parents and children for a very long time indeed. The distinctive red sails of the Mirror certainly deserve to be seen more often in North American, and especially in American, waters.

Mirror Dinghy Particulars

LOA:   10′ 11″
Beam: 4′ 7″
Draft:   28″/4″
Sail area:   main and jib 69 sq.ft, spinnaker 47 sq.ft

Mirror dinghies can often be found on the used-boat market in central and eastern Canada, particularly through the website of the Ontario Mirror Dinghy Association.

Mirror dinghy kits are available in North America from Mirror Sailing Development, [email protected].

General information about the class is available from the International Mirror Class Association www.mirrorsailing.org, where you will find links to national associations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Robert W. Stephens

Doug Hylan’s Point Comfort 18 offers the seaworthiness and lineage of a Chesapeake deadrise skiff, with the light weight and ease of construction a plywood hull provides.

One of the enduring pleasures of traditional wooden boats is how each boat conveys a sense of place. Every region has its distinct type, evolved to best suit that locale’s topography, weather, water conditions, and the use to which the boat is put. Available building materials can play a large role in shaping the boat, as can the need for economy in construction and in use. The interaction of cultures often has a powerful effect, as indigenous peoples pass on their building techniques to a newly arrived group who come with their own technologies. By studying the shape and construction of a traditional boat, we can peer back through the years for a snapshot of what the world was like for those who developed the type, and by looking at the evolution of the style we can follow broader trends in society. Who knew wooden boats were a solid form of anthropology?

Doug Hylan has given us plenty to study with his Point Comfort 18. At first glance, we see a simple, basic skiff—prettier than most, but a plain open skiff, nonetheless. But as we begin to take stock, we realize she is a modern distillation of the fine qualities of a Chesapeake deadrise skiff, one of the most distinctive of traditional American workboat types. Developed to take advantage of local materials and to handle the particular challenges of the shallow waters of Chesapeake Bay, the deadrise skiff is seen in all sizes up to the sail-­powered skipjack sloops, as large as some 60′ overall and still dragging for oysters today (see WoodenBoat No. 233).

The watermen of the bay have long respected the deadrise skiff for its ability to keep them safe and comfortable on the changeable waters where they ply their trade. Located between the tropics and the north, the Middle Atlantic states are subject to fast swings in weather conditions. Thunderstorms and tornadoes can spring up with little warning, and strong northers can sweep across the bay, bringing Arctic cold and steep seas. Shallow harbors, creeks, and swamps demand boats of equally skinny draft, but the wider expanses can kick up to a short dangerous chop in no time. Simple construction has always been valued to reduce the investment of time and money in building these essential tools of the Chesapeake watermen, but seaworthiness is the first concern.

Robert W. Stephens

Hylan built ample storage into this design yet kept her interior uncluttered. The design has storage compartments in the bow, stern, and inside the ’midship thwart.

The deadrise skiff provides both seaworthiness and value. Its unique construction springs from local materials and local culture. Where a dead-flat bottom was acceptable in the oyster fleet to the north—the large and impressive sharpies of Long Island Sound—even greater economy of construction was permissible, but in the more challenging Chesapeake, a softer ride was required. The bow, instead of being flat like a cross-planked skiff or sharpie, incorporates a distinctive and effective twisting vee, the “deadrise” for which the type is named. In early boats, heavy timbers were used for keel and chine log—most likely hold-overs from the earliest types of bay working craft, dugout log canoes, made from single trees. As boats became bigger, these hulls were made from multiple logs pegged together—techniques adopted from the Native American peoples of the bay’s shores. To form the shapely bow sections, thick timbers were fitted between keel and chine and hewn to shape, as the twist was too severe to allow solid timber to be forced to conform. From amidships to stern, planks were arrayed in herringbone fashion to allow a continuously changing deadrise angle through the midsection and the run.

The great advantages of the traditional deadrise skiff and her larger cousins are seaworthiness, simplicity of construction, and economy of operation. The early boats sailed or rowed easily, and later on, powered boats showed good speed with small engines. But, for today’s recreational watermen, the boats come with some downsides, too: weight and maintenance.

Robert W. Stephens

The Point Comfort is an economical boat to operate. With a 10-hp to 25-hp outboard, she’ll do 12 to
20 knots.

With their thick, hewn bottoms and massive timbers, traditional skiffs would be a challenge to consider trailer­ing. To make things worse, they rely, like most traditionally planked boats, on staying “soaked up” to remain tight. Life on a trailer would be travail for a classic deadrise skiff, and even the smallest would be a big grunt for most family vehicles. Good news for us, though—as with many traditional craft, modern materials and clever designers have permitted us to enjoy the virtues of these remarkable boats without suffering the downsides.

Doug Hylan’s interpretation features the simple and elegant shape in a finer, lighter-weight version. One of the challenges with reinterpreting traditional designs is how to remove the displacement required by heavier construction without changing the handling characteristics of the boat. Hylan has made the whole boat a bit more svelte than might be seen tonging for oysters: with a beam of 5’5″, she’s slim, and the hull depth is less than an old working boat might have—6″ instead of, say, 10″. Total hull weight is a featherweight 350 lbs, making towing behind even a compact car a possibility. But the look and the ride is pure Chesapeake.

Robert W. Stephens

The Point Comfort’s light weight and efficient underbody make her a joy to drive. She rises to a plane smoothly without jerking.

Hylan has shifted from solid lumber to thin, stable plywood for the hull planking­—high-quality, easily attainable, and dimensionally stable on a trailer. He’s been able to employ full sheets of 1⁄2″ ply for the topsides panels and the aft half of the bottom, but in the shapely forefoot the compound curvature (twist) is too great for sheet plywood, no matter how thin. Hylan solves this problem by adopting the traditional method: he employs narrow strips of 1⁄4″ plywood, laid approximately perpendicular to the keel (as would be the solid, hewn planks), and uses two layers, with seams staggered. The “planks” can get progressively wider as you move aft and the twist reduces, until amidships the thinner skins fit to the 1⁄2″ sheet in a ship-lap rabbet. The result is authentically shapely and equally effective as the original in softening a tough chop.

With her light weight and efficient bottom shape, the Point Comfort 18 is a delight to drive. We tested Hylan’s prototype with a new 15-hp four-stroke outboard with tiller steering. Hylan pointed out the only trick about the boat: a great ride is dependent on getting her to trim just right. To reap the benefits of the fine forefoot, she wants to run with the knuckle of the stem just kissing the water. Tuning by adjusting motor tilt and perhaps positioning passengers carefully is well rewarded. Hylan had clearly done his homework: with my 15-year-old son Matthew alone in the boat, the prototype looked perfect. At idle, she slid along effortlessly, cutting cleanly through the water and leaving an invisible wake. As Matt twisted the throttle, she slid ever faster along, rising bodily but never sticking her bow up. The transition to a full plane was seamless. Hylan reports speeds of about 18 knots with this power—and I would not want to go any faster than that in a tiller-steered boat. Her long, straight keel gives her the feeling of being on rails—until you turn, when she feels like the rails continue through the turn. She inspires complete confidence.

Robert W. Stephens

The aft compartment is large enough to hold the fuel tank, a battery, and a bilge pump.

Her arrangement is simplicity itself. Our prototype featured the standard layout: a small foredeck covers a cuddy, providing spray protection and a dry place to store essentials. A platform inside the cuddy at chine level covers a flotation compartment; with additional compartments specified aft, Hylan calculates she’ll comply with USCG flotation and stability requirements. Amidships is a thwart with bulkheads creating more covered storage (a spare fuel tank and extra life jackets resided there during our test) as well as necessary structural elements. Another bulkhead forms a “mechanical area” aft, where the active fuel tank, a battery, and bilge pump were concealed in our boat. A small but ample self-bailing well around the motor adds safety and structural stiffness to the transom. The inside of the hull is smooth and uncluttered by frames or other structure. She is easy to move around aboard, and will be easy to keep clean and well maintained.

An alternative arrangement eliminates the central thwart and bulkheads, trading them for long seat boxes each side of the boat. I think I’d favor that arrangement—more options for seating and tremendous structural stiffness, if less traditional in appearance. Perhaps that’s the reason Hylan reports the thwart version is more popular by far.

Hylan also shows a center-console version that would shift the weight of the skipper out of the stern—but it’s an encumbrance in the middle of the boat, and she seems a bit too small to my mind for standing at a console.

Plans for the Point Comfort 18 are thorough and simple. Eight sheets show lines, construction plans for both versions, a construction jig setup, layouts for the topsides planks, and full-sized frame patterns. A thorough specification spells out materials and offers useful tips and hints. Hylan offers good advice couched in encouraging language. A CD includes an electronic version of the specification as well as photos of the construction and more helpful hints on scarfing and supplies.

For quick and simple building, easy trailering, a ride that’s kind to the kidneys and easy on fuel, and as a way to get your daughter out fishing or your family to that picnic spot on a distant island, it’s hard to find fault with the Point Comfort 18. And with her knockout good looks and traditional heritage, she is a true deadrise skiff for today’s water men and women.

Plans, kits, and new boats are available from Hylan & Brown Boatbuilders in Brooklin, ME. Hylan has a link on his website to many pictures of the prototype boat under construction.

D.N. Hylan and Associates

The underwater sections are nearly vertical at the stem and twist as they move aft to become nearly flat at the transom. This results in a seaworthy but shallow-draft hull that can cut through a chop without pounding.
Particulars:
LOA 18′ 3″
LWL 17′ 4″
Beam 5′ 5″
Draft 6″
Weight without motor 350 lbs
Propulsion 10-hp to 25-hp outboard
Speed 12–20 knots

Stan Grayson

The Pert Lowell Co. in Amesbury, Massachusetts, designed the Ipswich Bay Skiff for a customer who wanted a lightweight but rugged skiff that he could launch from the beach on a dolly.

Avid readers of Small Boats and WoodenBoat are accustomed to finding articles about flat-bottomed skiffs. There’s a good reason for this: While such boats are sometimes referred to as “humble,” the fact is that once they progress beyond the “flat-iron skiff” of yore—a primitive boat with a totally flat bottom lacking fore-aft upsweep, or “rocker—a skiff can become an elegant solution to all manner of waterborne needs. The more specialized those requirements become, the more the inherent adaptability of such comparatively simple boats tends to shine. The Ipswich Bay Skiff is a case in point.

“One day,” remembered Pert Lowell proprietor Ralph Johnson of how the new skiff came to be, “a customer walked in with WoodenBoat’s article about the Babson Island 14. But he didn’t want as much rocker, and he wanted more sheer [the curve described by the top of hull’s sides]. He had lots of other thoughts as well.”

The prospective buyer, who brought with him two manila folders full of ideas, had very specific criteria in mind. He planned to use a dolly to launch the boat from a sand beach bordering Ipswich Bay and then run it about a mile to his mooring in the Essex River. This meant the skiff would need to be sturdy yet reasonably light and seaworthy, and perform well under outboard power. What’s more, there was a desire for the vintage look of a straight, plumb stem and for some method of stowing a small anchor and rode that would be both neat and secure.

This is a boat that was designed initially not on paper but in three dimensions. “We set up temporary plywood molds,” said Ralph Johnson, a one-time banker who chucked that career to learn boatbuilding from his accomplished father-in-law, Pert Lowell, in Newbury, Massachusetts. “Once we had established where the stem, stern, and midpoint would be, we used a pair of flexible 18‘ battens to try out different curves. We’d nail the battens onto the molds, stand back and judge how things looked, and make adjustments.”

Stan Grayson

Solid mahogany rails and knees mask the boat’s sheetplywood construction, and several frames add stiffness to the topsides. The anchor stows neatly in the bow,
while the rode lives in a 5-gallon bucket.

Gradually, after 10 or 12 tries, the new skiff’s shape was literally nailed down. A graceful sheer was established that swept down from the bow to provide 15¾” freeboard at its lowest point, making for easy entry and egress, and back up to the 20“ high transom. “There was a lot of talk,” said Ralph, “about how high the sides should be. It’s always a balance of aesthetics and function—keeping people relatively dry, including someone seated on the bow thwart.”

Because the stem is straight and the transom is angled just 13 degrees from vertical, the boat’s waterline is almost as long as possible, contributing to overall speed and performance. The shallow arc of the transom’s top was patterned after that of the Town Class sailboat, the venerable one-design developed at Pert Lowell’s in 1932.

A batten was also used to shape the bottom’s rocker. Aft, the bottom is totally flat to best support the weight of the outboard and deliver solid performance. The hull’s forward sections, however, have significant rocker. “We started out with 5“ and lowered it to 3“, said Johnson. “That proved to be enough.” The rocker provides buoyancy as weight is added, and contributes to a dry ride. The rocker also makes it easy to run the boat onto a beach for a sojourn ashore. A 3“ oak keelson and a sturdy skeg contribute to directional stability.

Sheet plywood was selected as the primary building material because of its strength-to-weight ratio and cost-effectiveness. While opinion varies, Johnson prefers okoume to meranti and especially to today’s fir plywood, which tends to check badly. The bottom is constructed of two standard 8‘-long ½“ okoume sheets scarfed together. The hull sides are scarfed ¼“ okoume. “For structural reasons, I didn’t want all the scarfs to be in the same place,” Johnson said. “The bottom scarf is 8‘ from the stern while the hull sides are scarfed two-thirds of the way forward. It took us about two hours to scarf the panels together.” A sheathing of 10-oz fiberglass cloth set in epoxy covers the bottom and extends 2“ up the hull sides ensuring a leak-free bottom that will withstand a lot of abuse.

The boat was built upside down over the final set of molds. To minimize weight, fir was used rather than oak for frames and chines. All these solid-wood components were sealed with epoxy and received a coat of red lead on their mating surfaces. At the bow, the hull sides are glued and screwed to the tough locust stem. A decorative yet functional “false stem” made of several white oak pieces epoxied together is a visual focal point that also serves as the attachment point for the neatly spliced painter. The bow is reinforced by a precisely fitted fir breasthook. A bronze strip protects the stem against impacts.

The top portion of the stem is stained to match the Philippine mahogany gunwale and inwale, which are secured with copper rivets. “Some small boats,” said Johnson, “are built without inwales, but I don’t think those hulls are stiff enough.” Stiffness and overall strength do not appear to be matters this boat’s owner will ever need to worry about, and Johnson admits that he expects his boats to last a lifetime.

Built into the bow section is a small shelf. A Danforth anchor is stowed here, secured in place to a pair of belaying pins. The latter are among the many wooden hardware offerings—mast hoops, cleats, and so forth—that are a production staple at Pert Lowell, Inc. They’re a nice touch.

At the stern, silicon-bronze screws join the 1¼“-thick mahogany transom to nicely proportioned mahogany knees. The stern thwart, like the others, is built of pine screwed to the thwart risers. Closed-cell Styrofoam flotation is mounted beneath the thwart. The rear thwart is composed of five individual pieces, resulting in a visually interesting seat whose components can be individually removed for refinishing.

My first, and most lasting, visual impression of this boat was that it’s decidedly graceful, but it took me a few minutes to zero in on a subtle detail that helps make it so. Any boat with sheet plywood sides runs the risk of looking slab-sided, no matter how nice its proportions. The Ipswich Bay Skiff, however, has a decorative molding that runs from stem to stern. Echoing the boat’s sheerline, the molding at once contributes to an impression of flowing lines while reinforcing the 19th-century look suggested by the plumb stem.

Stan Grayson

Here, the boat is driven by a 4-hp Johnson four-stroke motor, which is 21 lbs heavier than a comparable out-of-production two-stroke model. There is a price to be paid in boat trim.

These days, anyone buying a boat intended for propulsion by a small outboard confronts the fact that new, small, two-stroke motors have been regulated out of existence. The 4-hp, four-stroke Johnson used for our photo session is quiet and clean, but at 57 lbs it’s a whopping 21 lbs heavier than one of OMC’s comparable, out-of-production, two-stroke models. Because of the negative impact on boat trim and performance, and awkward stresses on one’s wrists and back, it’s unlikely that anything heavier than the already discouraging 55–57 lbs of a new Johnson/Evinrude 4- to 5-hp motor would be acceptable. Manufacturers are making efforts to reduce the weights of their four-stroke outboards, but until the small ones become appreciably lighter, my local outboard mechanic would, I am certain, recommend scouring Craigslist and local outboard shops for a lightly used or reconditioned, long-shaft Johnson/Evinrude 5-hp two-stroke, or something similar.

With Ralph aboard, the 4-hp Johnson made reasonably easy work of tidal current in the picturesque Parker River, and the skiff coped well with a few overly large wakes that rolled beneath her and onto the sand flats and mud banks exposed by an ebbing tide. The boat seems well adapted for two adults, a child, and a dog on a day’s outing, and acceptable for three adults. It’s officially rated to carry 600 lbs, but one would need to give careful thought to packing four adults and their boat bags aboard for anything more than a short trip in protected water.

Stan Grayson

The Pert Lowell Co. developed the shape of the Ipswich Bay Skiff by first establishing the stem, stern, and ’midship dimensions. The shape was then refined on the building jig, with judgments made by eyeballing battens. The drawings shown here were developed after construction of the prototype, which has a transom inspired by the Town Class sloop (which Pert Lowell builds).

Costing around $4,200 including a careful paint job using marine enamels, this skiff is competitively priced. The Ipswich Bay Skiff is a deceptively simple boat whose several thoughtful details—the stem, the sheer molding, the anchor stowage, the graceful transom, and the multi-part stern thwart—make it an elegant little craft. It’s easily launched and retrieved from a trailer by one person, enhancing its usability—just what’s needed in a small boat. Intelligently handled and maintained, the Ipswich Bay Skiff should give a lot of pleasure.

Oddly enough, given the skiff’s absence of rocker aft, Johnson has found it to be surprisingly pleasant to row. “With one person, it really glides along,” he said. “It would be okay with two or three for shorter distances.” That said, someone looking for a pure rowing skiff would want one designed with that in mind. Altering the bottom configuration would be easy. Boatbuilder Johnson has his battens ready and waiting.

The Pert Lowell website no longer lists the Ipswich Bay Skiff as one of it regular offerings. This Boat Profile was published in Small Boats 2014 and appears here as archival material.

Stan Grayson

Particulars:
LOA 13′ 6″
LWL 13′
Beam 4′ 6″
Draft (w⁄o motor) approx 3″
Weight (approx) 160 lbs
Transom height 20″

Donnie Mullen

Abundant cargo-carrying capacity was uppermost in Francis “Mick” Fahey’s mind when he designed a wood-and-canvas freight canoe for his own use in the 1960s. The canoe’s versatility has made its successors, including this Jerry Stelmok–built Moosehead Laker named FIELD OF STREAMS, popular among camp owners and fishing guides in the Maine lakes.

Maine is big. The last time my wife and I returned from an Allagash River trip, it took us more than five hours to drive from Fort Kent to Camden. Fort Kent is within sight of New Brunswick, and Camden is about halfway up the coast. Either a northern paddle trip or the long drive home would acquaint one with two of the state’s best features: its extensive forest and its phenomenal supply of fresh water.

It’s easy to forget that 150 years ago, travel in northern Maine was chiefly accomplished by small watercraft. As a result, interior Maine has a rich history of regional small craft. Recently, we set off in search of one of these old-time boats, to the fabled Kennebago Lake region in western Maine to experience firsthand a scarcely known regional craft, and the guide who is happy to sing its praises.

Bill Stevens first visited Kennebago Lake in 1958, when he was 12, on a fly-fishing trip with his father. Watching the grace of his father’s cast made a lasting impression, and thus began a lifelong love for the Maine outdoors shared between father and son, a connection that evolved to include the co-ownership of a camp on Kennebago since 1984, where Stevens (now retired) and his wife, Jan, spend their summers.

Stevens’s boat, FIELD OF STREAMS, is a 20‘ wood-and-canvas canoe, a model called the Moosehead Laker built by the expert hands of Jerry Stelmok and designed by legendary Maine woodsman and guide Francis “Mick” Fahey. In the 1960s, Fahey designed the boat in the spirit of North Woods freight canoes as a one-off, which he called VOYAGER. Fahey first carved a half model, which he then used to produce offsets to build a construction jig.

Donnie Mullen

The 4’-wide Moosehead Laker has generous tumblehome, affording great bearing surface, especially aft where the shape supports the weight of the outboard motor. A spray rail extends almost full length .

Specifically, VOYAGER was built to haul building supplies to his retirement home at Chesuncook Village, which at the time was accessible only by crossing Chesuncook Lake’s notoriously choppy 20-mile length. VOYAGER’s hull, which has a 4‘ beam and is 20“ deep amidships, can carry 1,500 lbs of cargo and still hold a few passengers. Though VOYAGER was intended to handle a small outboard, Fahey built substantial rocker into the aft 3‘ of the keel, which left the narrow, 26” transom high enough to allow for efficient paddling and poling.

In 1982, a fire destroyed Fahey’s home along with his cherished VOYAGER. The form, however, was spared. Fahey was nearly 80 at the time and saw no reason to rebuild, so he handed his form on to a young Stelmok, his colleague Rollin Thurlow, and their nascent canoe-building business (see WB No. 67). (Although they are no longer business partners, Stelmok and Thurlow continue to share Fahey’s original form.) The young builders added stations to the inside of the form to strengthen it, increased the ribbands to assure a fair hull in repeated constructions, and installed steel bands to turn the points of clench nails.

Donnie Mullen

Fly casting is something of a “zen” experience, which can only be aided by being surrounded by the
beauty of a wood-and-canvas canoe’s interior. On the practical side, the fisherman has a stable platform
and ample working room forward.

Although the Moosehead Laker is an elegant and supremely capable freight canoe, most of the customers who came to Stelmok and Thurlow with an interest in the model—Stevens among them—were most attracted by the design’s promise for fishing or guiding, taking note of its comfort, space, and stability. Another draw for these clients was the boat’s square-sterned design, which allows the boat to carry an outboard motor. Also, its draft when empty was only about 4“, which meant that it could cover miles easily yet sneak into the shallowest of inlets. The canoe is known for its stability, and substantial tumblehome makes the hull strong. Such tumblehome, however, can allow water to sneak in at the gunwales, so Fahey placed spray rails 6“ to 8” below the sheer.

While Fahey limited his interior fitout to single seats at the stern and bow, Stelmok and Thurlow today can include an assortment of enhancements: mahogany bench seats, a deck with coamings, folding seats, a floor rack, storage drawers, and rowing stations, to name a few. When paddled, the Moose­head Laker benefits from having three or four people take to the paddles.

Fahey’s VOYAGER had significant sweep to the sheer at the bow, a purely romantic quality that helped distinguish his design from its more utilitarian brethren. Stelmok and Thurlow chose to decrease this sweep by a few inches.

Donnie Mullen

With a beam of 4’, the canoe has enough width to be rowed by two people, but it can also be paddled.

In 2010, after several years of ownership, Stevens made a rare trip outside the Kennebago watershed with FIELD OF STREAMS, launching it instead in Chesuncook Lake. With a mischievous grin, he pulled out his phone to capture an image of a sizable wave crashing over a darkly clad bow paddler. “That’s my wife,” he smirked. “She’s a good sport.” Clients have used Stelmok’s Moose­head Laker (and Thurlow’s version, called the Voyager model) in diverse waters ranging from Lake Erie to the Maine coast. Stelmok even outfitted one for sailing.

Early one August morning, while I waited at the dock below Grant’s Kennebago Camps, Stevens emerged silently from the edges of the mist-cloaked lake paddling FIELD OF STREAMS. No sooner had he welcomed me aboard than the fog swallowed us. As we bonded over a shared fondness for Stelmok’s work, I felt as though I had stepped back in time, to a simpler world of jovial guides, glistening wood canoes, and giant trout rising toward a well-placed fly.

Later, when the mist cleared, we headed toward Stevens’s beloved Upper River. The rounded, conifer-clad top of West Kennebago Mountain welcomed us to The Logan, a reedy wetland that separates the Upper Kennebago River from its lower half. Open water led to a narrow, graveled channel. I was happily overwhelmed, both by the beauty of the area and what I hoped to accomplish in the boat: paddle, row, motor, fly-fish.

In short, the Moosehead Laker is a versatile boat.

Donnie Mullen

The Moosehead Laker can take gear and passengers for extended fishing journeys, her quiet four-stroke outboard hardly breaking the tranquility of the day. The anchor forward can be set from the cockpit to hold her quietly steady while casting.

As we ascended the stream, Stevens stuck his paddle overboard to illustrate the limited depth required to float FIELD OF STREAMS, a mere half a paddle blade. I was reminded of Fahey, who once observed, “I fear the short canoe is made for an unknowing and gullible public,” after his 20-footer passed unscathed over a shallows that wreaked havoc on a fleet of 16‘ canoes.

When Stevens and I reached a high-banked pool, he turned us around and handed me the paddle. I was giddy, and a tad anxious, to take command of the girth and length of the mesmerizing hull. While I eased us downstream, Stevens stood in the bow and cast. When a family of kayakers passed us, Stevens announced, “This is a real treat. I’ve never fished from up here.”

Donnie Mullen

For Maine Guide Bill Stevens, a wood-and-canvas canoe is part of the experience of Kennebago Lake, where he first visited with family in 1958. He has summered at his camp on the lake since 1984, and he has been a registered Maine Guide since 2001.

For my part, I found the Moosehead Laker easier to singlehand than I had expected, though I did have blisters by day’s end. During a moment of drift, I exclaimed, “This is a big boat, but it still acts like a canoe.” Stevens concurred. He said that he prefers the paddle to the motor or oars. He uses the motor to cross the lake or head upstream and then pulls out the paddle for the fine maneuvering. When it comes to stability and tracking, the Moosehead Laker takes care of itself, according to Stevens. He generally doesn’t even have to counterbalance while a client fishes. As I navigated a tight bend in the river, Stevens said, “See now, it even turns on a dime.” When I swung wide and ducked under some brush, he added, “Well, maybe a quarter.” I did find the bow a bit unwieldy when a straightaway coincided with some wind. In these circumstances, Stevens doesn’t hesitate to drop the paddle and go for the motor. Easy for us paddle geeks to forget, but the Moose­head Laker is a motorboat first.

When we returned to the lake, I got a crack at the motor. Stevens uses a 5-hp outboard, favoring its lightness, although Fahey used a 7.5-hp. As we sped off, Stevens leaned back comfortably against the deck. Not surprisingly, the Moosehead Laker tracked like a bullet and carved gracefully while the interior remained dry. When we reached the middle of the lake, I cut the motor and rowed us back to shore. I found the Moosehead Laker a delight to row, though not as nimble as the local 17‘ Rangeley boat type. Before we parted, Stevens insisted I try a few casts. The hull felt so solid beneath me, I might as well have been standing on land.

Earlier in the day, as we hung below West Kennebago, surrounded by the moose-friendly Logan, I had said to Stevens, “I understand why you don’t tire of this place.” Later, it occurred to me that Stelmok had once said as much about building his boats: the process had held his interest all these years because he never tired of gazing at the interior of a freshly varnished wood-and-canvas canoe.

As I stepped back onto the dock at Grant’s, FIELD OF STREAMS’s mahogany and cedar were ablaze in the midday sun. While Stevens motored toward his century-old camp, my mind wandered back over the foggy morning, to the era when wood and canvas reigned.

Jerry Stelmok, Island Falls Canoe, www.islandfallscanoe.com.
Rollin Thurlow, Northwoods Canoe Company, www.wooden-canoes.com.
Bill Stevens, Kennebago Fly Fishing, [email protected]

Kees Prins

Shallow draft, center console, room for a family, and an electric motor make this Rescue Minor, built by students at the Great Lakes Boat Building School, an ideal boat for Michigan’s Les Cheneaux Islands.

A couple of years ago, Bill Hunt of Aspen, Colorado, was looking for a boat with a very shallow draft. Hunt is a summer resident of Michigan’s Les Cheneaux Islands, and his home waters of Lakes Huron and Michigan currently have lower water levels than normal. Due to a combination of human and environmental factors the lakes are about 2‘ below mean level. As a result, many areas in the Les Cheneaux Islands have become inaccessible or hazardous for deep-draft boats. For his purposes, Hunt settled on a modified version of Rescue Minor.

William Atkin designed the Rescue Minor in 1942 as a military launch capable of rescuing wounded soldiers and sailors at speed from very shallow waters. The Atkin website (www.atkinboatplans.com) describes the design as a “tunnel-stern V-bottom Seabright skiff.” Besides the Rescue Minor, the Atkins designed several other tunnel-hulled boats, from a 17‘ utility scow to a 50‘ houseboat.

Atkin’s Rescue Minor is 19‘6“ long and with two people aboard draws only 6“, even at top speed. How is this possible for an inboard-powered craft of this size, considering the placement of the motor, shaft angles, prop size, and so forth? The answer is found in Atkin’s incorporation of a “box keel” into the hull. This type of keel takes the form of a smaller flat-bottomed boat beneath the much bigger main hull.

At the forward sections, the hull looks like a typical double-chined powerboat. About two-thirds of the way aft, however, the hull’s transition to the box keel becomes evident. The flat bottom continues in a straight line, forming the narrower flat bottom of the box keel. The upper chine continues in a fair curve to the lower transom corners. The lower chine, however, narrows and rises aft, forming the joint at the hull’s centerline where the top of the box keel sides meet the hull bottom. The result forms a tunnel stern.

The box keel comes to point quite a bit before the transom and just in front of the propeller. The propeller extends no lower than the bottom of the box keel, so it is protected in shallow waters. When the boat is at rest the propeller is partly out of the water. As the boat starts to move through the water, the water runs past the sides of the box keel into the cavity holding the propeller. The wash of the water in these channels immerses the propeller completely, resulting in a very easy motion through the water. The Rescue Minor is a fast boat that rests upright on a beach, moves smoothly through chop, and is very fuel-efficient; some owners report figures of over 25 mpg.

Kees Prins

The Rescue Minor’s box keel directs water to the finely formed horn timber that supports the propeller.

The second-year students in the Wood/Epoxy Composite program of the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville, Michigan, took on the construction of the new boat, NEPENTHE, as their major project for the year. Kees Prins, their instructor, considered the longstanding heritage of runabout designs of the Les Cheneaux Islands and the characteristics of the waters of upper Lake Huron in his revision of the Atkin design. He kept everything below the waterline exactly as drawn, but revised the topsides lines of NEPENTHE.

Prins introduced more flare in the bow, provided a bit more sweep to the sheer, and reshaped the stern, curving the transom and adding a pleasing amount of tumblehome aft. Hunt preferred to have a center console for better balance when driving the boat solo, so Prins fitted\ seating for four adults along with storage for their gear around this centerpiece.

Beyond these structural modifications, NEPENTHE also differs in its means of propulsion, using an electric motor instead of an internal-combustion engine. The motor for NEPENTHE is a 6.5-hp, 48-volt standard brush-type, which has a range of 24 nautical miles at 6 knots or 50 nautical miles at 5 knots. Given the pristine natural beauty of the area and the proximity of the 13 major islands in the Les Cheneaux archipelago, those ranges work very well with convenient charging in several locations.

Bud McIntire

NEPENTHE’s center console hides three of her four batteries along with the charger and motor controller.

The motor requires 700 lbs of batteries, resulting in a challenge for Prins and his students to accommodate and balance them all in the hull. The four 255AH AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries each weigh 175 lbs. The builders placed one battery in the forward compartment and three under the console. The boat floats nicely on her lines, although the battery weight caused the draft to increase from the as-designed 6“ to 8“, with a total displacement of 1,800 lbs. The class estimates that the plywood-epoxy hull itself weighs about 400 lbs less than a hull built exactly as drawn by Atkin, offsetting the additional weight of the batteries somewhat.

The students began lofting the boat in early October 2012. After lofting, they built a strongback and positioned along it 3⁄4“ Douglas-fir frames 24“ on center. The 1½“-square sternpost and the floor timbers of 3⁄8” marine plywood came next, followed by the laminated, curved transom. Installing the four laminated Douglas-­fir chine logs, two at the top of the box keel and two at the chine, and the ¾“ marine-plywood bottom was a bit tricky, as the hull requires a good bit of twist in these pieces as they run from the stem to the start of the tunnel. The students determined that it could be done without breaking the plywood or having to kerf it. The tunnel’s shape at the after end of the hull required a unique horn timber, carefully crafted from sapele by one of the students to funnel the water coming past the box keel onto the blades of the protected propeller.

Next came the topsides. Instead of the ¾“ marine plywood specified on the plans, the class used glued strakes of 3⁄8“ marine plywood. After the planking was finished, the class reinforced the entire exterior with fiberglass cloth set in epoxy. Then they flipped the boat right-side up and work began on the interior. The sapele inner keel reinforces the rudderpost and propeller shaft. The students installed a stainless-steel rudder, as called for in Atkin’s original design, driven by a cable steering system.

There are watertight bulkheads forward and aft, which add strength and provide storage space and buoyancy in the boat’s ends. The flotation volume is sufficient, even considering the weight of the batteries and motor, for the boat to have positive flotation if swamped. To determine the placement of the batteries, the class considered the boat’s trim foremost, but also took into account the layout of the console and seating arrangement. They built plywood mockups of several console arrangements and conferred with the owner in deciding on the best design. Putting three of the four batteries and the motor controller and charger near the center of the boat under the tilting console resolved this key issue. Then they laid out the remaining seating around the console, making enough room for four adults to sit comfortably in the boat.

Kees Prins

Kees Prins’s modifications to the Rescue Minor included a center console, seating for four adults, electric power, and flotation compartments forward and aft.

The class launched NEPENTHE a couple of days before their June 6 graduation, so they had an opportunity to cruise the waterways and enjoy the quiet pace of the boat. Hunt and his family have been well satisfied with both the performance and the quality of the finished craft. He knew that the electric propulsion system would not get the boat anywhere close to its planing speed of 18 knots, but he preferred the quiet-running electric drive, combined with Rescue Minor’s size and shallow draft, as the best combination for him and his family. He has found that even in a 1‘ to 2‘ chop, the boat cuts through the water without pounding, tracks very well, and is relatively dry at cruising speed. Part of this stability and tracking is related to placing the heavy batteries low in the boat. Hunt has found that the partially submerged prop cavitates when reversing, and can be a challenge; however, he solves the issue by keeping weight in the stern when backing down.

In terms of improvements, Hunt has suggested that he would like to change to a more sophisticated battery system when the pricing becomes reasonable. A lighter battery, such as lithium-ion, or even a switch to an internal-combustion engine, would reduce the weight and raise the center of gravity with resulting changes in handling. It would also give the boat more range and speed. Given the space allocated for the conventional batteries, this is a change that could easily be made at a future date.

The project was a most rewarding accomplishment for the students as well as their instructor, and one that satisfied a very discerning client. And in the end, what could be better than a beautiful summer’s day gliding into shallow waters in which the family can splash and play, then silently heading for home with the lap of water on the strakes, the wind and the eagles above as the only sounds. Perhaps that’s why Hunt named the boat NEPENTHE, after an ancient Greek medicinal compound formulated to help people forget their cares and worries.

Plans no longer available from Atkin Boat Plans, plans will eventually be offered through Mystic Seaport. More information available from Great Lakes Boat Building School.

William Atkin

The sectional views below show how the underbody of William Atkin’s Rescue Minor changes drastically in shape from bow to stern. At right, the top body plan is by Kees Prins and the bottom one is by William Atkin. Prins kept the underbody exactly the same, but above the waterline he hollowed the bow sections slightly and added significant tumblehome to the stern.

William Atkin

Particulars:
LOA 19′ 6″
LWL 19′ 0″
Beam 5′ 8″
Draft 8″
Displ 1,800 lbs
Power 48-volt, 6-hp electric motor

John Summers

This 15′ cedar-strip Peterborough Nomad by Woodwind Yachts was built on a mold created from an original Nomad launched by the Peterborough Canoe Company in 1958.

As the market for recreational canoes expanded in the later years of the 19th century, two construction techniques emerged as builders responded to the challenges of manufacturing canoes on an industrial scale. The Old Town (Maine) Canoe Company and the Chestnut Canoe Company of Fredericton, New Brunswick, developed wood-and-canvas construction. In Peterborough, Ontario, and nearby towns, builders such as The Ontario Canoe Company, later to become the Peterborough Canoe Company, pioneered cedar-strip construction. This technique was based on John S. Stephenson’s 1883 patent for “Longitudinal Cedar Strip” construction (hereafter referred to simply as “cedar-strip”), which was awarded Canada Patent No. 32701 and U.S. Patent No. 292183.

Although there were many builders who employed the technique, the Peterborough Canoe Company became the best-known proponent of it, and their cedar-strip boats and canoes were sold around the world. By the mid-1950s their catalog offered cedar-strip hulls in a wide range of sizes and styles from open outboard boats to small cabin cruisers. Stephenson’s patented method, originally conceived for canoe construction, turned out to be a darned good way to build small wooden boats in general, and lots of them, too. No one will ever know exactly how many cedar-strip watercraft the Peterborough-­area companies turned out, but it is certainly in the tens of thousands. The cedar-strip outboard became the archetypal boat of cottage country in central and eastern Canada, and today many are still on the water. They are often well represented in the displays at antique and classic boat shows.

John Summers

The walk-through bridge-deck configuration is convenient for changing places under way.

Over the last 30 years, Ken Lavalette and his crew at Woodwind Yachts in Nestleton, Ontario, have restored more than 50 cedar-strip boats, many of them made by the Peterborough Canoe Company. Well loved and well used, they often come into his shop more than a little worse for wear and leave looking a whole lot better. As he worked on these boats, it occurred to Ken that often the number of hours required to restore them wasn’t far off what it would take to build one from scratch. At 15‘ LOA and 5‘ beam, the Peterborough Nomad runabout was big enough to carry a few people and their gear, but small enough to be easily trailered and stored. Was there a market for a new, traditionally built, cedar-strip runabout?

Lavalette decided to build a boat to test the market, so he measured an original 1957–58 Nomad and built the robust, nearly solid mold required for this method of construction. The Nomad was from the upper end of the Peterborough Canoe Company’s offerings, just below the Niagara model, which was advertised as “The Elite of the Fleet.” Of the Nomad and her shorter sister the Meander, the 1959 catalog said, “Where price is a consideration and an attractive craft, not quite as advanced in styling as our deluxe Sportliners, is desired, we offer our 14‘ Meander and 15‘ Nomad. Both models are proven designs and will give fast, seaworthy service.” Owners could have the boat as an open outboard or add steering, windshield, and deck hardware to turn the Nomad into the double-cockpit runabout described here. The sail-away price in 1959 was $730.

John Summers

With an all-up weight of between 400 and 500 lbs, depending on the motor, the Nomad trailers and launches easily.

Stephenson’s cedar-strip building method differs from contemporary wood-strip epoxy construction. The narrow and relatively thin planks, most often of red cedar, have ship-lapped edges and are fastened to steam-bent ribs. For each design, builders developed several plank shapes that together could be combined to cover the entire hull. This eliminated spiling each plank and meant that stock could be precut in large quantities to expedite construction. The shape of the planks, widest in the middle and tapered toward each end, meant that they could be started parallel to the keel and finish parallel to the gunwale without the need for stealers or the “football” shape commonly seen in wood-strip epoxy construction. It also avoided having the ends sweep upward and run out along the sheerline, as was sometimes done by other builders.

Despite the fact that he’d repaired many cedar-strip hulls, Lavalette had never built one from scratch, so there was some calculating to be done. The real intellectual property in cedar-strip construction lies in the mold itself and the plank patterns, so Lavalette set about lining off his mold to determine the plank shapes required. The prototype boat was built with two distinct plank shapes, but his later hulls have four or five. This more evenly divides the heavily curved area at the turn of the bilge, and avoids a somewhat unsightly downward turn of the hood ends as the planking approaches the bow. It’s the kind of detail only another boatbuilder would notice, but he wants to get it right and admits that he’s relearned on the job some of the tricks that the old factory builders figured out a long time ago.

Though he left the hull shape unchanged from the original, Lavalette slightly increased the scantlings of the stem, keel, ribs, transom, planking, and deck, based on what he had learned from his many restorations of this type. He made the stem from white oak laminated with epoxy, and the keel was solid white oak, notched for the ribs before being fastened to the mold. The half-round ribs were also oak and the transom mahogany. He steamed and bent the ribs into the notches on the keel, tucking their ends into cleats fastened to the mold at the sheerline. Before planking, he thoroughly varnished the back sides of the ribs and the end-grain of the transom.

Lavalette made the decks and planking from red cedar and the cockpit coamings from oak. The dashboard and other cockpit trim was mahogany. Building for longevity, he precoated each piece of wood with three coats of varnish prior to assembly. Later he’d give the whole hull structure another four coats before launching.

John Summers

With a rebuilt 1950s 35-hp Johnson outboard, the originally recommended power, the Nomad promises solid performance, with a top speed in the high 20s.

The Nomad built by Woodwind Yachts is simple and elegant inside, with only the bare minimum of hardware and fittings. The new hull is complemented by refurbished original 1950s running gear. Lavalette prefers to recondition period two-stroke outboards for the boats he sells, and he sticks with the original builder’s recommendation of a 35-hp motor. One customer wanted and received a four-stroke 50-hp unit, but that’s not recommended for everyone.

The boat trailers and launches easily. Underway, it can take a while to get to know the original controls, especially if you’re accustomed to a modern single-lever control and Teleflex steering. Because the Johnson shift unit has separate levers for the throttle and gear shift, and will only shift at very low rpms, you need to plan a little farther ahead when coming in to a dock. The pulley-and-cable steering also takes a bit more time to respond, but you’ll get the hang of it soon enough.

Underway, the boat feels solid and reliable. Though 25 mph is not at all fast by today’s standards, it’s a speed that will get you where you want to go and still let you have a pleasant conversation on the way. It might also save enough on gas, even with an older two-stroke, to let you pay for dinner when you get there. The Nomad turns and banks cleanly without skidding and, once the manual trim on the motor is adjusted, planes out to a nice level ride. With simple lines and an elegant all-bright finish, the boat is a head-turner both on the water and on the road. Because they were so popular, these cedar-strip boats seem to elicit fond recollections from onlookers.

As a modern classic, the Nomad combines the beauty of tradition with the durability and integrity of a brand-new boat. If you’re looking for a beautiful but also eminently practical small runabout, the Peterborough Nomad could be the boat, and Woodwind Yachts would be happy to build one for you. If you would like to do a good deed by finding an original one that is in need of a new home and a little work, that would be a good thing too. Commissioning a new one or refurbishing an old one will make the boating world a better and more attractive place.

New Peterborough Nomads built in the traditional longitudinal cedar-strip technique and equipped with rebuilt 1950s outboards are available from Woodwind Yachts. Used cedar-strip boats in a variety of sizes and configurations can often be found for sale in classified ads and at antique and classic boat shows and auctions.

Particulars:

LOA 15′ 3″
Beam 5′ 3″
Draft 6″
w/outboard 18″
Power 35-hp

ROD MELOTTE PHOTO IMAGERY

The author’s THOMMY, a 1955 Thompson Thomboy, is in original condition, with nothing anachronistic or out of place.

The term “Thompson Boat” conjures a picture of a white-painted lapstrake outboard boat with a stained and varnished mahogany deck and windshield frame. But these “iconic” Thompson watercraft were actually made for about a 15-year period in the company’s 92 years of operation, from the mid-1950s until the company dropped wooden boats from its product line in 1969. For much of the company’s history, cedar-strip hulls were the norm.

The Thomboy, one such boat, was introduced in late 1951 for the 1952 model year by Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. during the economic boom after the end of World War II. She was designed by Edward Thompson, one of six brothers who owned and operated the boat works. Thompson attended a naval architecture course as a young man and was a gifted designer.

A deluxe model at the time, the Thomboy came standard with the most factory-installed hardware and accessories the company offered. Wrap-around windshield, steering wheel and steering cables, navigation lights, bow and stern lifting rings and chocks were all standard. She was introduced that year as a 14-footer. In ’53, the company added a 16‘ version.

Thompson, with plants at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and Cortland, New York, was the world’s largest builder of outboard boats. Peter Thompson started in the boatbuilding business in 1889 with Racine Hardware Mfg. Co., maker of Racine boats, and he later worked for Christopher Columbus Smith, founder of Chris-Craft, at Algonac, Michigan, before venturing out on his own with his brother Christ in 1904.

Andreas Jordahl Rhude

Original details, like the intact Thompson logo at the center of the steering wheel, contribute to a vintage boat’s authenticity.

Strip-built hulls and carvel-planked boats were common at Thompson. Small rowboats and outboard motorboats were the focus, but Thompson also claimed in a 1944 promotional flyer that the company was the world’s largest builder of one-design sailboats. They did make sailboats for many classes, including the SeaGull, Lightning, Snipe, Olympic, Cub, Comet, and Red Head. Their claim at being the largest builder of sailboats, however, may have been nothing more than boldness and company puffery.

Thompson had 62 models in its product lineup the year the Thomboy was introduced. Around 5,000 boats were built each year at the Peshtigo boat works and 4,000 more were built in the branch factory at Cortland. At Peshtigo, the output reached the astounding figure of 8,000 boats in the factory’s peak year, or 152 boats every week, 30 boats each workday. The factory was abuzz with saws, planers, and molders, and several hundred workers were busy building fine wooden boats.

Andreas Jordahl Rhude

Like many Thompsons, the Thomboy model was stripplanked over white oak frames, using western red cedar for the bottom and Philippine mahogany for the topsides.

The double-cockpit Thomboy runabout is strip-built with western red cedar below the spray rail and Philippine mahogany above the rail. The bead-and-cove strip planks are 3⁄8“ thick and 11⁄8“ wide. The boats were painted white below the spray rail and varnished above. The spray rail itself was a Thompson invention from the 1920s. The plywood decks and solid covering boards were stained a two-tone scheme, with dark and blond mahogany. This was a common finishing style among powerboat builders in the 1950s.

The 350-lb boat has a centerline length of 13‘2“ and beam of 55“. The structural framing components such as keel, keelson, stringers, and steam-bent frames and stem are all-heartwood white oak. The strip planks are screw-fastened to the frames. Unlike some boatbuilders, Thompson did not nail the adjacent planks to each other through the width. The company was so proud of the Thomboy that she graced the cover of the 1953 brochure. Interestingly, the Thomboy was made at the Peshtigo factory only.

Andreas Jordahl Rhude

A mid-1950s boat begs for an appropriate outboard, in this case a 35-hp Johnson from 1957.

My ’55 Thomboy, called THOMMY, is in original condition, with no changes other than maintenance varnish coats added to the original varnish and paint on the bottom. She has never been restored.

The boat is pushed by a 1957 Johnson 35-hp outboard motor. The motor has a unique after-market tilt-and-lift system called a Lec-O-Lift, a hydraulic device operated by a hand pump on the dashboard. It was made by Cass Machine Screw Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The boat is very fun to drive. She is used sparingly and with great care, but by no means is she a “trailer queen.” She is easy to launch and retrieve single-handed. At 350 lbs, she is amazingly seaworthy for such a Lilliputian boat. When banking tightly on curves, your elbows nearly hit the water!

In 1955, Thompson offered, as an add-on, fiberglass sheathing of the hull bottom from spray rail to spray rail. That option, which added $42 to the price, was included on this boat at the time of manufacture.

ROD MELOTTE PHOTO IMAGERY

The 14’ Thomboy model is very small for a runabout, but its ease of handling makes her a joy to drive, and being close to the water accentuates the sense of speed.

I am the third caretaker of the boat. She was originally ordered as a gift by a mother for her son’s 16th birthday. The boat arrived at Rhinelander, Wisconsin, from the Peshtigo factory, all wrapped up and crated. She was lifted off the delivery rig and transferred to another truck and driven to the Pelican Lake Boat Shop, a dealership at nearby Pelican Lake. There, she was outfitted with a 1956 Evinrude Lark 30-hp outboard motor. She was the queen of the lake for many years. The young owner and his friends used her for pulling water-skiers and cruising. The second owner was a childhood buddy of the original owner. He was there when the boat was delivered by Thompson to Rhinelander in 1955. He obtained her in 1972. The first two owners took great care of the boat. She was wiped clean after each use and any water in the boat was carefully mopped up. Ultimately the motor was replaced with a 35-hp 1957 Johnson.

No one knows exactly how many of the speedy little runabouts were produced between 1952 and 1956, the four years the type was produced. It must have been a low number compared to other models. In 1953, the 14‘ Thomboy was priced at $725 and the 16-footer was $870, with standard accessories, not including the motor or the trailer. It was by far the most expensive model. The 15‘ Ranger canoe, the company’s lowest-priced boat, was only $168. THOMMY was ordered with the optional factory-upholstered seats, which added $125 more to the base price.

Today only 18 Thomboy boats are known to exist. There may be more hidden away, waiting to be discovered. I own two of the 18: THOMMY and another 1955 version that is in dire need of a major restoration. THOMMY the Thomboy is a multiple award-winner at several antique and classic boat shows.

The Thompson Thomboy is a fun, nimble watercraft. Her beautiful, streamlined hull handles rough water like a much bigger boat. This particular boat has brought joy to many people over the past 58 years. Cheers to another six decades of boating and enjoyment!

For information on Thompson runabouts, see www.thompsondockside.com. The author is the president of Thompson Antique & Classic Boat Rally, Inc.

Andreas Jordahl Rhude

Attentive care over the decades has kept THOMMY in pristine condition.

Anthony Shaw

For long-distance rowing trips on Finland’s many lakes, Jouko Koskinen had in mind a lightweight boat that would row very well but could also be fitted with bicycle wheels for portages and equipped for camp-cruising.

In their land of many thousand lakes, Finns and watercraft have developed hand-in-hand since the beginning of modern times. In the heart of the lake district 120 miles northeast of Helsinki is the country’s largest single collection of rock paintings from prehistory, about half of which seem to feature boats. Puuneveniste’s Sinne 610 Expedition is the latest of light multi-chined craft developed for this same rowing heartland, which also witnesses an annual gathering— the 36-mile marathon in the lakes around the town of Sulkava—in which many thousands of rowers compete in wooden boats.

Anthony Shaw

With a fitted tent and even a table in the cockpit, the boat has comforts of home.

Jouko Koskinen has lived most of his working life in Finland’s metropolitan capital, Helsinki, but he has spent time every summer back in his wife’s childhood lakeside haunts just 25 miles away from those rock paintings. Ever since he took a white-water holiday in Lapland in his teens, Koskinen had dreamed of building a craft that could combine overnight camping with his requirements for efficient travel by water under oars. A hectic professional life forced him to postpone his plans until he met an innovative wooden boat builder, Ruud Van Veelen, at the annual Helsinki Boat Show in 2011. The result of their collaboration is a lightweight dory 6 meters long [about 19‘9“] whose dimensions and fittings accommodate a standard three-arch, double-skin, two-person tent (see related article, page 10). The boat is capable of beaching fully laden with all the gear required for a lengthy expedition.

Anthony Shaw

A simple bracket matching the same fitting used for wheels turns the boat into a stable camping platform. A simple bracket matching the same fitting used for wheels turns the boat into a stable camping platform.

Anthony Shaw

Straps on the outside of the hull receive tent poles.

The experience of portaging a local logging dory on that Lapland journey prompted Koskinen to find a solution to the challenge of landing a laden craft and portaging it potentially singlehandedly around any shore with a reasonably gentle slope. The result is a design incorporating two specially sourced 36“ wheels, built onto dry bearing hubs and fitted with spring-release axles that can be attached to either side of the boat while it is still afloat. The first-generation wheels buckled under the heavy load, but he replaced them with wheels that have rims 11⁄4“ wide and support a heavy-duty tire, all procured from Unicycle in the United Kingdom. The portage solution also eliminated the frequent challenge of locating a suitable flat, rock-free surface for pitching a tent on land. The terrain in eastern Finland consists largely of granite bedrock, but with a couple of strategically located supporting blocks under the hull, the Sinne makes a level sleeping platform, and the tent can be secured by passing straps under the hull.

Anthony Shaw

The owner favors camp-cruising, but found that level ground was often hard to find. His solution was blocking, at the ends and supported by side braces, to make the boat a level sleeping platform.

From the beginning, the Sinne 610 was intended to be very different from the dedicated lightweight pulling boats that Van Veelen has been building in Sulkava for the past seven years. This model shuns his usual principles of minimal weight and maximum racing speed for the benefits favorable for a touring craft: ample storage space, flexibility in handling and usage, and adaptability to varied requirements. Van Veelen set out to fulfill the specifications of his particularly demanding customer, who had just these requirements in mind, as well as a scale model in hand. The name of the design reflects its use: the Finnish word “sinne” is difficult to translate to English, but perhaps “thither” is a good approximation.

Anthony Shaw

Designer Ruud Van Veelen, at the forward oars, has specialized in lightweight racing rowboats, but the Sinne 610 client had specific, non-racing objectives in mind. Solo rowing from the after thwart requires weight forward, typically provided by the camping outfit.

Sinne’s construction, however, is based on the same principles as Van Veelen’s other craft, using 6mm, five-ply marine okoume in plywood-epoxy construction, which eliminates any need for longitudinal stringers at the four chines. The finish consists of multiple layers of two-part varnish. The main differences between the expedition boat and the racing boats are the presence of pine framing and the reinforced decking, which the Sinne needs to offer watertight stowage and accommodate copious gear. The modest transom is also reinforced to take a small outboard, while the rest of the craft resembles quite closely above and below the water the single and double skiffs of about the same length that Van Veelen has been building for marathon rowers. (He also builds 40‘, 14-oared wooden “churchboats” along the same principles and for the same course, but that is another story.)

Anthony Shaw

Finnish rowing often has two rowers facing each other, with the forward rower pulling, the after rower
pushing.

Koskinen has used his new boat for the past two summers, traveling from his idyllic lakeside summer base. He has also transported the craft by car, initially on the roof but now on an aluminum trailer. In addition to using sturdier wheel rims, he has introduced some minor adaptations of his own. For a camper generally more accustomed to well-spread urban dining tables than billy-cans on his knees, Koskinen designed an ample dining table for two to fit between the gunwales at the aft end of the cockpit. Positioned inside the tent, the sitting area gives the crew a thoroughly protected place to enjoy the camp cuisine. The dining table stows on the central deck between the thwarts, along with the wheels and any other bulky gear. In addition to watertight compartments amidships and a small one aft, the cockpit has modest side lockers forward and aft.

Anthony Shaw

Despite its shallow draft, the boat has proven reasonably stable.

Rowing Characteristics

With such a lightweight boat, trim is highly subject to the weight distribution of the crew and the equipment. A single rower positioned at the aft thwart requires counterbalancing forward. Still, the boat is responsive and easily maneuverable under oars. Koskinen has made three lengthy journeys under both power and oars. Surprisingly, he advocates the pleasure of rowing by facing forward and pushing on the oars, not only as a variation for posture but also for the unmitigated pleasure of viewing one’s intended course. For a two-person crew, this is also an option for the aft oarsman, who can row facing forward while his counterpart at the forward thwart faces aft and pulls the oars in the usual manner. This resembles the setup used on Finland’s most traditional two-man rowboat, the “shift-rower,” in which the stern oarsman actually uses a long paddle and alternates places with the bow man at the oars at regular intervals. In the more typical, paired setup, the Sinne 610 can easily reach 4 knots [8 km per hour], making a day’s target of 50 to 60 kilometers [about 30 to 40 miles] quite achievable. The 7‘ separation between the two rowers also makes clashing blades unlikely, and two inexperienced rowers can more easily coordinate their efforts, rendering the Sinne a suitable choice for novice rowers as well.

The downside of a lightweight craft is its performance in heavy weather. The Sinne 610 is designed for inland waterways, with an amidships freeboard of only about 35cm [nearly 14“]. There is minimal sheer, making the bow rather exposed, and in the event of shipping water there is no pumping system, so a bailer needs to be part of the gear. That said, the very nature of a lightweight boat is minimal draft. Unladen but for a crew weighing a total of 160 kg [353 lbs], the boat’s draft was less than 3“, and fully laden with an additional 150 kg of gear [330 lbs], it is still well under 4“.

Anthony Shaw

Van Veelen developed unique oarlocks for Finnish racing requirements, which in the tradition of tholepins state that oarlocks must be at the gunwales and the oars cannot be feathered. For the touring boat, these oarlocks permit the rower to let go of an oar without fear of losing it overboard.

An intriguing feature of all of Van Veelen’s boats is the Sarana oarlock, which he developed to improve blade control while still maintaining the non-feathering characteristic typical of all Finnish rowing boats. Traditionally, a short steel tholepin is fixed vertically on top of the gunwale and a nylon hoop attached to the oar simply slips over the pin. Although in Van Veelen’s system the oar blade can’t rest flat on the water, the oarlock has the advantage of locking the oar in place (with a hairpin-style cotter pin), so the rower can never lose an oar overboard. On long-distance trips, the rower can relieve his tired wrists by loosening the grip on the oar on the return stroke. Van Veelen’s adaptation also makes shipping the oars easier, as well as making for a much cleaner gunwale.

Supplied with four lightweight oars, the only additional pieces of equipment required are a couple of paddles for maneuvering in close quarters. With a waterline shape reminiscent of a broad-beamed Viking cargo craft, Sinne proved surprisingly stable with two 6‘ crew standing amidships on her deck. And when they faced each other at the oars in this characteristic Finnish setup, there was no avoiding a pulling contest, which only prompted speculation of which would fail first—the slender gunwale, the folding oarlock pin, some feature of the oar, or the rowers’ backs. So far, this issue is unresolved. The variety of rowing positions (the oars have two nylon sheaths for the pins to suit the differing alternatives for the rowers) and the deft design make this more than just a fun boat to row. In fact, with the bow man rowing aback and the stern man pulling on his oars, Sinne easily achieved 8km/hr [about 5 mph] going astern. Versatility makes her an attractive alternative for a serious adventurer.

Finished boats (but not plans) are available through Ruud Van Veelen, (English version available). An authorized builder of Van Veelen boats in the United States is Walter Baron

Sinne 610 Expedition Particulars:

LOA 6.1 m (20′)
Beam 1.59 m (5′ 2″)
Depth 69 cm (2′ 3″)
Draft (equipped) 139 mm (5″)
Weight (equipped) 90 kg (198 lbs)

Schuyler Horton

The Simmons Sea Skiff was first developed as a beach-launched, oar-powered fishing boat for coastal North Carolina, and it eventually evolved into an outboard-powered range of sizes, from 18’ to 22’. The 18-footer above was built by its owner, for family fishing excursions on and near Narragansett Bay.

The Simmons Sea Skiff is the direct result of a North Carolina commercial fisherman’s need for a seaworthy skiff that would allow him to launch from the beach into the Atlantic surf, row through the waves, and fish with a seine before returning safely through the breakers. That first boat, built in 1946 by Tom Simmons, was a success, and eventually Simmons was asked to build larger, outboard-powered versions. Today, Simmons Sea Skiffs can be built in 18‘, 20‘, and 22‘ versions.

My introduction to the Simmons Sea Skiff was through a friend and neighbor, Schuyler Horton, who is fanatical about fishing. He goes everywhere with a concealed rod and tackle on the chance that a few spare minutes and a body of water come his way. Having fished every possible inch of coastline in Newport, Rhode Island, from shore, he was determined to get out on the water with his two young sons and introduce them to his passion for fishing. Without any prior boatbuilding experience, but armed with books and plans from The WoodenBoat Store, he built a Tom Hill–designed ultralight and then a Marc Pettingill Sweet Dream. Then he and his boys managed to chase down most of the bluefish that ventured into Newport Harbor. But he was still frustrated knowing that all of the fishermen in their Makos and Grady Whites fishing the rocks and reefs off Brenton Point had an advantage just beyond his reach. He needed to get out there. So he decided to build yet another, this time larger, boat.

He happened upon Ellis Rowe at the 2005 Wooden­Boat Show in Newport. Rowe was displaying a new Simmons Sea Skiff 18 he had built, and Schuyler was immediately, well, hooked. The Simmons Sea Skiff is exactly what he wanted—something that can handle the chop off Brenton Point, especially when the sou’wester pipes up in the afternoon, and can be easily trailered. When not in use, it fits in his garage, and, most important, it’s substantial and safe enough to take kids out to the reef.

Tom Simmons’s first boat was inspired in part by a New England dory that had a very high bow. The fisher­man who commissioned her also wanted a high transom to keep waves out as he surfed back onto the beach. The current plans, an excellent set drawn by the late David W. Carnell, a Cape Fear Museum volunteer who measured an original boat, retain those features. They boast jaunty and traditional lines that attract attention and flattering comments. The outboard motor is housed in a well that sits inboard, allowing the transom to remain higher than any comparably sized outboard-powered boat and serving to keep out breaking waves. A cutout in the transom allows the motor to be tilted out of the water, giving very handy access to the propeller in case a line or net becomes fouled. The bottoms all feature a slight, modified V-shape for a smoother ride.

Without an engine, the 18-footer weighs an impressively light 350 lbs. This presents a number of advantages: Fully loaded, with engine, it can be easily trailered behind most small cars; it can be beached and relaunched with confidence; and with a relatively narrow beam of about 5½‘ and draft of mere inches, it can even be rowed into tricky rock-strewn areas in pursuit of elusive fish with the engine up.

Schuyler Horton

Easy trailering and beachability, combined with reasonable seakeeping qualities, are the hallmarks of the 18’ Simmons Sea Skiff. Owners report that the boats become uncomfortable in seas over 2’, while the larger hulls can handle worse conditions.

The construction of the Simmons Sea Skiff is straightforward and manageable for an amateur with some experience. One must keep in mind, however, that a Simmons Sea Skiff is a serious commitment of materials and time; it’s a whole different level of boatbuilding from plywood prams and kayaks. Good guidance is available, though. Before his untimely death a few years ago, Ellis Rowe published a series of articles in WoodenBoat magazine Nos. 186, 187, and 188 on the construction of an 18-footer.

Originally the boats were built of juniper (Atlantic white cedar) on mahogany, but as early as the 1950s Simmons began planking them in plywood. Building them in plywood today requires first erecting a strongback on which the boat will be built, making up a backbone consisting of stem (laminated or sawn), keel, floor timbers, transom, and motor well, as well as installing chines, planking the bottom and topsides, and then fiberglassing the bottom and motorwell. The plank laps are glued together and also fastened with copper rivets. The substantial frames are sawn from solid lumber, making a very robust hull.

As with most wooden boats, the fitout and finish are up to the owner. One thing that’s important to consider before the construction is what type of engine will be used, for its dimensions will determine how big the engine well and transom cutout need to be for the power plant to turn and tilt sufficiently. The number of configurations possible for the deck and interior layout are endless, and include a decked-over bow creating a storage compartment, a casting platform forward, an open boat with thwarts, center console, side console, and tiller steering.

Schuyler Horton

Early Sea Skiffs were built of solid juniper on oak. Gluedlap plywood, as we see here, is also a good option.

Out on the water, the Simmons Sea Skiff does what she was designed to do, proudly charging into the slop upwind, fending it off downwind, delivering her crew to the fish. Because of her size, shape, and lightweight hull, she’s initially tender. Balance is always a consideration. Crew and gear weight must be distributed evenly to keep her level. It’s even possible to steer her left and right by simply moving one’s weight slightly from port to starboard. She has good capacity for gear and, as noted, the owner can decide how to best create custom storage solutions. At moderate speeds, winds, and sea states, she tracks well and handles chop from any direction. The lapstrake construction and considerable flare help to keep the spray down. When docking, launching, or hauling, her proud, high bow and relatively light weight can conspire against you and tend to get blown around—though this is more of a problem in the larger boats.

I didn’t handle Schuyler’s boat in rough conditions, but he tells me that when the seas are more than 3‘, he’s reminded quickly that he’s in a small boat. She gets wet and tossed around a bit. In conditions below that, she’s so well behaved that it’s possible to be deluded into a false sense of security. He doesn’t head outside of Narragansett Bay if it’s expected to blow more than 20—which is fine for him because there are plenty of places to fish within the bay.

Schuyler’s observations were reinforced by another friend, Mike Lavecchia, who also has an 18-footer out of York, Maine. He uses her mostly for exploring with friends and just getting out on the water, for which she’s perfect. He has taken her offshore down to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and back, and when he’s been caught out in winds over 25 knots, or seas in the 2‘–3‘ range, he too gets uncomfortable. He also reported, to little surprise, that when she’s loaded with five or six adults she struggles to plane. With 25 hp, the 18 will do about 20 knots with two people aboard. As for fuel consumption, both Schuyler and Mike described it to me in months, each saying they fill up their 3-gallon tanks once or twice a month during the boating season.

The 20- and 22-footers have better seakeeping abilities than the 18s. The labor to build the larger boats hardly differs from the smaller ones, but there is a cost difference in materials. Laying aside that cost, the trade-off comes down to this: Are you willing to sacrifice garage storage, and towing with the Subaru wagon, to be able to venture out in 4‘–6‘ seas?

The Simmons Sea Skiff is popular now, and although it is unknown how many have been built, Tom Simmons turned out an estimated 1,000 or more between 1946 and 1972. And the Cape Fear Museum reports having sold over 2,000 plans. It is safe to say there are plenty out there, and it seems an excellent choice for the home builder—for many reasons, including all of the support available from fellow builders. A few minutes on the Internet will also reveal numerous threads on the WoodenBoat Forum, as well as a website about the boats, an owners’ club, and countless photos.

When Schuyler Horton wanted to get out to the prime fishing grounds and didn’t have $40,000 to $50,000 to buy a new Grady White or Mako, he found a very economical alternative. He spent $11,000, and working mostly weekends, got out on the water 18 months later with his boys on a brand-new boat. At the time, the boys were six and nine years old. Today, they’re 12 and 15, and have been growing up learning about fishing and boat construction on a fine, sea­worthy, home-built small boat.

For information and to order plans, contact Cape Fear Museum.

Cape Fear Museum

T.N. Simmons took much inspiration from the hulk of an old beach-launched dory when he developed the lines of his eponymous Sea Skiff. The 18-footer, whose lines are shown here, measures 11″ less than its nominal length. It has an optimal horsepower range of 25–40.
The flaring sides give it a high load-carrying capacity, while the scantlings yield a relatively
lightweight hull.

Cape Fear Museum

Particulars:
LOA 17’1″
Beam 5’7″
Draft (motor up) 5″
Weight (empty) 300 lbs
Power 25-30 hp

Nick Owens

The diminutive pram, less than 9’ long, has remarkable carrying capacity. A centerline seat allows the person rowing to choose from two stations, depending on the boat’s fore-and-aft trim.

A thing is right,” Aldo Leopold writes in A Sand County Almanac, “when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” On my bookshelf, Leopold shares space with worn volumes of those other writers more familiar to the boating community, among them L. Francis Herreshoff, Pete Culler, and John Gardner. Small boats do, in fact, represent a “biotic community” of sorts, and Sam Devlin’s Lit’l Petrel design is, to use Leopold’s evaluation, “right.”

Three years ago, my son acquired a magnificent 1959 William Tripp 32‘ sloop, FREYA. Mahogany-planked over oak frames, she has beautiful lines and vast amounts of professionally maintained varnish. Promising him an appropriate tender as a “boat-warming” present, I began my search for a dinghy worthy of such a companion.

I had specific characteristics in mind: The boat had to have the capacity to carry three passengers safely through the choppy seas of the home mooring field, it had to have good manners while being towed, it had to be easy to enter and exit both on shore and alongside FREYA, it had to have a clean and easy-to-maintain interior, and it must have good performance under oars.

Tom Jackson

Vintage Wilcox-Crittenden oarlocks retract with a minimum of fumbling, keeping the horns from damaging the topsides as the dinghy comes alongside and holding the oarlock in easy reach when needed.

Because its transom bow offers the best carrying capacity for its length, a pram is a logical choice for a tender and has the further benefit of permitting “dry feet” exits over the bow. Additionally, a novel fore-and-aft rower’s seat allows for improved trim with varying loads. Sufficient beam, a deep-V cross-sectional shape, substantial rocker, and a generous skeg provide the good manners needed not only for boarding but also for being towed. The latter characteristic applies only if the pram is appropriately positioned behind the towing craft. These features also assure that a craft will row in a straight line when desired without weathercocking when the breeze is on the beam, but at the same time ample rocker will allow her to turn 360 degrees within her own length. Finally, modern construction methods assure a clean, easily maintained interior.

When I saw Sam Devlin’s Lit’l Petrel among the new designs on the Devlin Designing Boat Builders website, I thought I had found a winner. Devlin’s designs can be instantly downloaded, gratifying the impulse that most of us have to see more right away. After more thorough review, all seemed right, and the decision was final.

Living on the coast of Maine, quality boatbuilding materials are readily obtained. Before long, I had the 6mm okoume plywood scarfed and the frames and planking panels cut. The stitch-and-glue construction method proceeded quickly, and in short order the hull was shaped and the finishwork underway. Knowing the hard life an even well-cared-for dinghy has on our rocky shores and crowded dinghy floats, I added an additional 6-oz layer of fiberglass cloth to the exterior. With the addition of the gunwales, inwales, and knees, the little boat stiffened up nicely.

Tom Jackson

The oarlock sets quickly.

Flotation is provided beneath the stern seat. I installed polyester foam gunwale guards around the entire perimeter to shield her against damage from inevitable contact with docks and other dinghies and also to protect FREYA’s beautiful topsides. I also opted for the traditional towing ring, mounted on the bow transom with a substantial eye strap and supported by a robust bronze backing plate. For her two rowing positions, four old-fashioned and now hard-to-find Wilcox-Crittenden Davis-style bronze oarlocks completed the job.

Discussing a rowing boat without discussing the means of propulsion would be like describing a power­boat without ever mentioning the engine. A proper pair of oars can make all the difference. Off-the-shelf oars tend to be too heavy, poorly balanced, and too stiff, lacking any “life.” Fortunately, light and clear spruce is abundant and inexpensive in Maine. Following plans in Culler’s Boats, Oars, and Rowing, I made a nice pair of well-balanced 71⁄2‘ oars, a pleasurable and easy conclusion to the project. Leathered and well tallowed, they, too, have exceeded expectations, feathering effortlessly and easily propelling CELIA B gracefully about the anchorage, and—I can’t help but also add—in a far greater style than the proliferating inflatable abominations with aluminum oar shafts and plastic blades.

Tom Jackson

A substantial bronze ring very stoutly set low in the bow transom assures that the tender tows well and securely.

CELIA B’s sea trials began immediately after her launching in Casco Bay and a two-day trip to Rockport, Maine. She settled off the stern as we prepared to drop the mooring, and her motion astern was smooth and deliberate, lacking any of the sudden accelerations and direction changes induced by a change in the tension of the painter. Leaving Casco Bay, we encountered the predictably unpredictable seas off the mouth of the ebbing Kennebec River. Confused seas, wind and tide in conflict with one another, fog, rain, and gusts to 25 knots gave the little boat a less-than-gentle introduction to her life’s work. With her tow line lengthened to about 30‘, she rode just behind the second stern wave. There, she was as well-behaved as could be, with no sudden high-speed surfing runs or attempts to sneak her bow under FREYA’s transom.

As we entered New Harbor on the Pemaquid peninsula and picked up an unused lobsterman’s mooring, I pulled her near to bail the rainwater out. At one point I dipped my finger in the bilgewater to taste for any salt suggesting she may have taken seas aboard. Fresh as a bottle of Poland Spring! The lobstermen from whom we sought permission to use the mooring expressed his admiration, adding a final exclamation point to CELIA B’s first day at sea, for whether the compliment is given for a proud boat-handling moment or for the boat herself, when it is delivered by men who earn their livelihood aboard boats, it has a sweeter ring.

Tom Jackson

The author wanted his son’s 32’ yacht to have a complementary tender, something more distinctive than the ubiquitous inflatables. CELIA B serves the role well.

From the tightly packed dinghy docks of Northeast Harbor to the sandy South Beach of Roque Island, CELIA B transported her crew in both style and comfort. Entering a dinghy from the cockpit always presents challenges, as the boat invariably seems to want to depart for shore before the passengers are properly installed, creating much flailing about and occasional amusement for observers. However, CELIA B’s wide, deep-V bilge panels, hard chine, and ample skeg made for a remarkably stable entry, with secure footing and no premature departure. As she came ashore or alongside a dock, the dinghy’s transom bow afforded a close approach, allowing passengers to disembark over the bow with dry feet.

Among all CELIA B’s assets, her most endearing to me was her performance in rowing. I have built numerous performance fixed-seat pulling boats, including Gardner peapods, a Chamberlain gunning dory, and most recently a 17‘ double-ended Herreshoff rowing boat. However, in her own short way, the Lit’l Petrel is a delight to row. She tolerates a wide range of loading and allows the oarsman to adjust with two rowing positions. Her beam gives a tolerance to less-than-perfect positioning side to side, minimizing any list. The deep V and generous skeg allow her to track well and minimize any rounding up into the breeze. She will turn in her own length. Finally, coupled with a proper set of oars she moves along effortlessly at hull speed and far more gracefully than her inflated brethren.

If imitation is indeed the best form of flattery, then let it be known that I’m already planning a Lit’l Petrel to serve as my tender, too.

Lit’l Petrel 9 Dinghy Plans and finished boats are available from Devlin Designing Boat Builders.

Devlin Designing Boat Builders

Sam Devlin designed a simple V-bottomed pram with ample rocker to serve as a pragmatic and sensible yacht tender. The pram bow assures maximum carrying capacity and allows passengers to step ashore with dry feet.
Particulars:
LOA: 8′ 10 1/4″
Beam: 4′ 2 3/8″
Draft(cb up): 5″
Weight: 63 lbs
Load capacity: 340 lbs