February 2023 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

Our Boat Profiles hit the beach with the famed Hobie 16, fast sailing cat and the Fine, a sliding-seat strip-built wherry. Editor Christopher Cunningham recounts rowing the Lower Mississippi River, the second leg of his 2,400-mile winter adventure, and looks back at his unlikely path to Small Boats, which began with a bicycle accident. A DIY boat hoist with tracks and trollies works in garages with overhead sliding doors. A flexible epoxy and a pair of spruce spoon-blade oars get put to the test and a Scottish ferry worker makes a one-sheet outboard runabout for a race against his shipmates.

From The Editor

Launched

From backpack to bicycle to boat

A life devoted to boats and writing, let alone a career as an editor, wasn’t what our editor had in mind during or after his schooling, but getting hit by a car during a bicycle ride sent him flying in that direction.

Boat Profile

Hobie 16

More than fifty years old and as popular as ever

The Hobie 16, enjoyed by many as a summer recreational boat and raced in fleets all over the world, remains one of the most popular and enduring of small one-designs and is among the most successful of all racing catamaran classes.

Boat Profile

Fine

A sliding-seat pulling boat with excellent stability

The Fine from Oyster Bay Boats is an 18’ strip-built wherry that combines a sliding-seat rowing rig for speed and a hull with a 34” beam for stability.

Adventures

A Sneakbox on the Mississippi

850 miles from Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, Louisiana

After rowing his sneakbox down the Ohio River, Christopher Cunningham continues on the Lower Mississippi River, hoping to outrun the advance of winter’s cold.

Technique

A Bridge-Crane Boat Lift

Lifting a boat up and sideways for storage

There are several devices for lifting a boat straight up off a car’s roof rack, but they may not work in a garage with an overhead door. This DIY hoist can raise the boat and move it sideways.

Product Reviews

Thixo Flex

An epoxy with flexibility

Thixo Flex is a flexible thickened epoxy that can be used on oily woods, dry, damp, or wet surfaces, as well as a wide array of materials including fiberglass, metals, and plastics.

Product Reviews

Spruce Spoon Oars

Beautiful oars that inspire good rowing

Adirondack Guideboat has introduced spruce spoon oars that are pretty to the eye, light in the hand, and, unlike their traditional guideboat oars, meant to be feathered.

Reader Built Boats

SEA BESTIA

A race boat built for a holiday challenge

Seafaring friends working in the Scottish Isles occupied their time off by building small boats for a friendly race. SEA BESTIA's builder may have broken the rules, but his boat had the look of a serious contender.

February 2023