August 2016 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

From The Editor

A Little Big Horn

As I was working on our review of sound signaling devices in our August 2016 issue, I took a look on the web for homemade foghorns. I found quite a number of websites and videos that showed how to make foghorns and train horns out of common plastic pipe and fittings.

Devlin writes that “duckboats are overloaded most of their lives, are used in inclement weather most of the time, are run in waters too shallow most of the time, and encounter sea conditions that would turn a normal boats hair white. They also have to maneuver well in tight conditions and have passengers constantly boarding and exiting the boat with lots of weight and gear.”

Boat Profile

Honker

Eminently adaptable

Sam Devlin’s Honker can be pressed into service as an open boat for fishing, a floating blind for waterfowling, or a cold-weather coastal cruiser with a removable pilothouse and cabin.

The plans call for a motor mount on the boomkin, at nearly right angles to the normal orientation. Most builders use a conventional bracket fastened to the transom.

Boat Profile

Navigator

A beach-cruising centerboard yawl

The Navigator started out as a sailing club’s racing trainer, but it became John Welsford's most popular design after he turned it into a long-range cruising dinghy.

After steam bending and scarf-jointing a full length chine log, Andy and I finished the precise compound angle end-cuts to fit it tightly into the hull.

Adventures

Dories Down Under

From the Grand Canyon to the Whanganui River

When a New Zealand guide wanted to offer his clients better boats for rowing the revered Whanganui River, he had two American boatbuilders set up shop in a sheep shed and build a pair of Grand Canyon dories.

Dyneema rope, with spliced in stainless-steel thimbles and simple lashings, makes strong, do-it-yourself standing rigging.

Technique

Synthetic Fiber Rigging

Stronger than steel

If your boat has standing rigging, stainless-steel wire and the special tools it requires aren’t your only option. John Marples introduces us to high-strength Dyneema rope. It’s every bit as strong as steel and you can install all the fittings by yourself.

The Small Hatchet is small enough to be tucked into a pants pocket.

Product Reviews

Gränsfors Hatchets

Hand-forged Swedish steel

Hand-made Gränsfors Bruk hatchets are a pleasure to use and uncommonly beautiful.

Product Reviews

Sounding Off

Signal horns for small boats

We take a look at five horns that you can use to make yourself heard.

Dave made paddles for the canoe and decorated them with the same insignia he put on the canoe. He and his friend Andy Look won the wooden canoe division of the 13.5-mile Abe's RIver Race on the Sangamon River in Illinois

Reader Built Boats

Hope and Memories

A canoe to live for

An Illinois man given a second chance at life decided to recreate some of the best times of his youth by building a canoe. Working side-by-side with his 82-year-old father, he created a vessel for the future he almost lost.

Past Issues

From The Archives

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