Since it was first published in 2007, Small Boats has inspired numerous readers to dream of building their own small wooden boats. Here, we celebrate those readers who made that dream a reality. Be sure to check out our Reader Built Boats section for more.

MENDE LIBERTÉ

Photos by Deborah Simmons and Anne Bryant

In April 2015, Deborah Simmons of East Hartford, Connecticut, started building this 20′ Tolman skiff. Soon after she began, she received a gift of iroko wood that had been used in the construction of the topsail schooner AMISTAD, launched at Mystic Seaport in 2000. That and her work as an arts educator inspired her to adorn her skiff with images and symbols that honored Singbe Pieh (also known as Joseph Cinque) who led the revolt of 53 Mende captives who were illegally taken from Sierra Leone, Africa, as slaves aboard the Spanish ship LA AMISTAD in 1839. Eventually captured off the coast of Connecticut, the slaves were brought to trial for murder and mutiny in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which awarded the Mendes their freedom in 1841.

The hull of MENDE LIBERTÉ is built from fir marine plywood covered with fiberglass cloth set in epoxy. The iroko became her helm seat and the base for a plaque. Deborah drew an African cosmogram (ground drawing) on her sliding hatch that depicts the journey and strength of Singbe Pieh and his followers on LA AMISTAD. On the bulkhead and bow rails, she painted Mende Kente cloth patterns.

Deborah encircled the cabin with Kikakui, which was the written syllabary language of the Mende people at that time. It is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Translated it says, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” MENDE LIBERTÉ is powered by a 40-hp outboard motor. Deborah cruises on the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound along Connecticut’s coast.

PRESTO

Photos by Gavin Garbutt and Mike Mesheau (inset)

After more than four years of building, Frank Camm launched PRESTO, an 18′ × 8′ 6″ Fenwick Williams catboat designed in 1932. Frank built the boat with a Douglas-fir backbone and strip planks of western red cedar. Then he covered the hull with Xynol fabric set in epoxy. He made a few modifications, rounding the cockpit coaming and widening the keel so the centerboard trunk could be built on the center line instead of off to one side. The decks are marine plywood covered with Dynel. Nat Wilson made PRESTO’s sail.

Frank lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and sails on Passamaquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy. He is a member of the Catboat Association; at the 2016 annual meeting he received the Broad Axe Award for his work on PRESTO. Frank would love to share what he learned during this project with any interested readers; contact him at [email protected].

MY PASSION

Photos by Rob Riedel

Keith Riedel of Chippewa Lake, Ohio, has long held a passion for torpedo-backed boats. He spent the past five years building MY PASSION, which he launched in June. He started with Glen-L Marine’s 19′ Barrelback design, which he stretched to 22′ 6″, at the same time reshaping the transom to create a dramatic torpedo stern.

Her hull is cold-molded on white oak frames, with two layers of 1⁄4″ marine plywood laid diagonally and covered by one longitudinal layer of 1⁄4″ African mahogany. On the outermost layer, Keith combined horizontal strips of sapwood and heartwood to create an attractive hull.

Keith installed an Excalibur 350 engine made by Pleasurecraft Marine Engines. He and his family cruise at speeds of up to 55 mph on Chippewa Lake. They have also visited Lake Erie, Tappan Lake, and the Portage Lakes. At the Portage Lakes Antique & Classic Boat Society Show in June, they won the Home-built Contemporary Classics category.

HONEY BADGER

Photos by Brian Zabriskie (above) and Nancy Zabriskie

Brian Zabriskie of Blue Monkey Boats in Moscow, Idaho, built this 14′ Headwater driftboat for Ken Johnston, also of Moscow. The boat is a stitch-and-glue design by Tracy O’Brien built from 1⁄2″ and 3⁄8″ ACX plywood. Brian made the rails and quarter knees from ash, bow and stern seats from oak, knee braces from mahogany, and the breasthook from a piece of myrtle grown on the Oregon coast. Brian is from that area and puts a myrtle breasthook in every boat he builds.

The oarsman’s seat amidships is made from 50′ of woven rope. He made the 8′ oars following directions from Andrew Steever’s book Oars for Pleasure Rowing. They are pine covered with a layer of fiberglass cloth set in epoxy. Brian kept a blog of the construction at bzdrift.blogspot.com. Brian built the boat for Ken so they could connect with college buddies who also like to fish. They have rowed the boat on the Spokane, Snake, Clearwater, Rogue, and Grand Ronde rivers. These pictures are from the boat’s maiden voyage on the Clearwater River. They named her HONEY BADGER because she doesn’t care about rapids; she’ll go through anything.

MR. BLAKE

Photos by Patti Danison

Brothers Terry and Ted Harder have enjoyed being around wooden boats for much of their lives. When Terry’s grandson, Blake, was born eight years ago, they decided the young boy needed a boat of his own. Though Ted was an architect, neither of them had any boat design experience, so they discussed the design for quite a while. Building the boat took some more time, of course, but last summer, after more than six years of planning and building, they launched MR. BLAKE, a 9′ 3″ runabout patterned after a Gar Wood Speedster.

Nearly every part of MR. BLAKE was hand-made, from the double-planked ship-lapped mahogany hull to the 48-star American flag. Young Capt. Blake has a dashboard full of instruments including a tachometer, gas gauge, temperature gauge, ammeter, lights, and a switch for the electric bilge pump. With a leather seat, gold-leaf trim, and a 13-hp Honda inboard motor, Blake and MR. BLAKE cruise the lakes of Ohio in elegance at a top speed of 16 mph.

Five Voyager Canoes

Photos by Marge Eckert

In the summer of 2014, Mike Eckert of Perry, Michigan, brought a 13′ canoe that he designed and built—the Voyager 13HD model—to The WoodenBoat Show in Mystic, Connecticut, where she won the Concours d’Élégance in the category for owner-built manually powered boats.

Since then, Mike has designed and built four more canoes, all of western red cedar, Atlantic white cedar, and redwood. All of them are strip-built with decorative feature strips just below the sheerline. Mike recently launched all five canoes at Seven Lakes State Park in Holly, Michigan. The canoes range in length from 10′ to 14′, determined by the size requirements of his family members. Mike and his sons are quite tall, but his daughters-in-law are not.

Shown here are his daughter-in-law Christie in the Voyager 10 (upper left), niece Beth Busk in the Voyager 12 (upper right), son Michael Jr. in the Voyager 13HD (bottom left), and youngest son, 6′ 11″ Matthew, in the Voyager 14 (bottom right). The family usually paddles on local rivers such as the Shiawassee and Au Sable, and lakes in the state parks. 

Have you recently launched a boat? Please email us. We’d like to hear about it and share your story with other Small Boats readers.

Check out these other reader-built small boats…

FESTINA LENTE, a wherry to “Make Haste Slowly”

GOOD’NUFF, a customized Caledonia yawl

STILL THINKING, a Redwing 18