November 2020 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

In our November issue, our editor tours the magnificent clutter of tools at Jay Smith’s Aspøya Boats shop and then takes us along on his circumnavigation of Puget Sound’s Bainbridge Island. Our Boat Profiles focus on Colin Angus’s stitch-and-glue RowCruiser and Paul Gartside’s traditionally built 12’ Clinker Dinghy. The joggle-stick method of patternmaking gets an update and we take a close look at Sailrite’s hot knife and the Victory Products’ Tiller Comb Stop. Our Reader-Built Boat features the rescue of a neglected dory built to plans in Skene’s classic, Elements of Yacht Design.

From The Editor

A Magnificent Clutter

While the Friday Guild boatbuilders were busy planking a Nordfjords faering, master boatbuilder Jay Smith gave us free rein to explore his Aspøya Boats shop and boat sheds. We take a look at two boats there and the impressive array of tools and lumber that created them.

Boat Profile

RowCruiser

A solo expedition rowboat

Colin Angus drew upon his thousands of miles rowing both open ocean and coastal waters to create the fast and light RowCruiser. A sliding seat and outriggers make it powerful underway and its compact cabin provides a comfortable refuge at anchor.

Boat Profile

12′ Clinker Dinghy

Paul Gartside's Design No. 130

Paul Gartside designed his 12’ Clinker Dinghy as training exercise in traditional lapstrake construction. The performance it delivers under oars and sail— as well as its visual appeal—make it a project well worth the effort.

Caledonia Yawl

Adventures

Bainbridge Island

A Puget Sound solo circumnavigation

Although August is usually a month of doldrums on Puget Sound, our editor’s summer solo circumnavigation of Bainbridge Island offered good sailing as well as torrential rain and a sudden squall that put a capsized daysailer in need of a rescue.

Technique

A Quick Tick Stick

An Evolution from the Joggle Stick

A joggle stick is a shopmade tool for creating a pattern for a complex shape, but the sawtooth design was cumbersome to use and could create a confusing jumble of tracings. There’s a better way—the quick tick stick.

Product Reviews

Edge Hotknife

Cutting and fusing synthetics

For sewing your own sails or boating and camping gear, a hot knife is an essential tool for heat-sealing synthetic fibers to keep them from unravelling. We take a look at the Edge Hotknife from Sailrite.

Product Reviews

The Tiller Comb Stop

A hinged version from Victory

If you’re looking for a way to hold the tiller in place while you tend to other duties or just relax, the stainless-steel Tiller Comb Stop from Victory Products is an elegantly simple device that is there when you need it and instantly out of the way when you don’t.

Reader Built Boats

A Kinney Dory

From Skene's Elements of Yacht Design

Dave Reynell, who lives in a coastal town at the southern tip of Africa, rescued a plywood rowboat that was languishing in a local boatyard. He took it home, and underneath a delaminating layer of fiberglass and polyester resin, found a gem of a dory built to the drawings in Skene’s classic, Elements of Yacht Design.

Past Issues

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