February 2024 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

David Wyman’s design for a flat-bottomed 12’ skiff, and Oyster Bay Boats’ sliding-seat rower for coastal cruising, are our Boat Profiles this month. A monocular with an exceptional focal range and a rugged home-assembled frame-and-fabric shed are reviewed in our Product pages, and a simple method for cleaning shop-vacuum filters is described in our Technique piece. Two cousins have friends leave them stranded on an island in Maine to build a boat with scavenged materials and make the passage home. A native Newfoundlander returns to his boatbuilding roots, takes to the water with his father, and learns to sail. Rowing on an overcast January afternoon, our editor found the dim and fading light illuminating.

From The Editor

Rowing into Gray

The radiance of a dreary day

An overcast January afternoon might have looked uninviting, but rowing in the dim and fading light turned out to be illuminating.

Boat Profile

Wyman 12

A traditional working skiff

David Wyman’s flat-bottom skiff is a contemporary version of a workhorse from the late 19th century, simplified for today’s DIY boatbuilders.

Boat Profile

Salish Coastal Cruiser

A coastal rower from Oyster Bay Boats

The latest sliding-seat design from Oyster Bay Boats provides stability and speed in a coastal rower that can’t be swamped.

Adventures

Backcountry Boatbuilding

Marooned on a Maine island, two cousins build an escape vessel and sail home

Tyler Sauter and Ross Beane wanted to see if they could use minimal tools and supplies to build a boat seaworthy enough to carry them both safely home if they were stranded on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine.

Technique

Shop-Vacuum Filter Care

Making filters more effective and longer lasting

Cleaning shop-vacuum filters is never a pleasant job, but with a few shop leftovers, a bucket, and a power drill, it can be quick, effective, and tidy.

Product Reviews

The ShelterTube Garage

ShelterLogic's cost-effective option for small-boat storage

Strong, stable, and spacious, the ShelterTube Garage is an excellent shelter solution when you have more boats than covered space to store them.

Product Reviews

A 10×42 Waterproof Monocular

A lightweight optical device from Orion for viewing objects near and far

The Orion 10 x 42 monocular is a handy and compact optical device capable of focusing objects as distant as the moon and as close as an arm’s length away.