Small Boats Annual 2010

Editors Page: There But for the Grease Go I
True confession: I was once trailering a 22′ runabout on a bumpy Maine road and broke a rusty axle. The haul was a short one, and the boat had to get home that night. The event was not catastrophic, since the trailer was a dual-axle model. But, with the trailer’s balance point shifted forward to the now-single axle, the tongue weight became negative… Continued on Page 5 of PDF version.

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Boat Profile

The Haven 12 1/2 Footer

A trailerable classic

A handsome daysailer based on the Herreshoff 12 1/2, but modified for a centerboard.

Boat Profile

The Delaware Ducker

A blue-collar performance boat

The Delaware Ducker evolved as a bird-hunting boat on the tributaries of Delaware Bay. A study in simplicity and performance, it deserves close attention as a recreational boat.

Boat Profile

The Beachcomber-Alpha Dory

A classic racer from Marblehead, Massachusetts

Small-boat designer and builder Daniel Noyes launched his Beachcomber-Alpha dory—with some alterations—in 2008 as a kind of tribute to maritime historian John Gardner. John Gardner drew his lines for the Beachcomber-Alpha dory in the early 1970s.

Boat Profile

DN 60 Iceboat

A tinkerer’s dream

America’s Great Depression was in full swing in the mid-1930s when The Detroit News held a design competition for a simple, inexpensive racing iceboat that could be built in a garage or basement workshop, and be easily transported on top of a car. The result was a 12' craft that appealed to Detroiters looking for an affordable diversion from their…

Boat Profile

Drake

A faering for today’s oarsman

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - Looking for a seaworthy boat suitable for fast solo or tandem rowing in open water, Clint Chase found his inspiration, as many small-craft designers do, in the faerings of Scandinavia.

Boat Profile

Black Skimmer

A Phil Bolger sharpie

The 25'3" Black Skimmer floats in 10" of water and sails handily in not much more. She stays with, or ahead of, most stock boats of comparable size on all points (including to windward)...and nearly always outdistances cruisers of similar cost.

Boat Profile

The Penguin Class

A family-friendly racing dinghy

Designed by Philip Rhodes in 1933, the Penguin has had an enduring legacy as a racing dinghy, with more than 9,700 built. The plywood, hard-chined boats are simple to build.

Boat Profile

Kingfisher and Kookaburra

These birds can fly

Graeme King has devoted his career to designing and building wooden rowing shells. He developed the Kingfisher single for the home builder who desires a fast and elegant recreational shell.

Boat Profile

The Morris 17′ Model A

The height of romance in the wood-and-canvas canoe

After World War II, aluminum canoes chipped away at the wood-and-canvas canoe’s popularity, and by the mid-1960s fiberglass ruled the market. However, in the mid-1980s, a few impassioned builders led a wood-and-canvas revival. Among them was canoe-builder Rollin Thurlow. He chose the Morris 17' Model A as one of the designs to help lead the charge.

Boat Profile

Grey Seal

A Norse spirit in modern wood construction

Grey Seal is a comfortable pocket cruiser. Her double-ended shape, strong sheer, and lapstrake planking hearken to her Scandinavian influence. Glued lapstrake construction makes her accessible to the home builder.

Boat Profile

North Star Kayak

A modern take on an ancient design

Basing his design on the skin-on-frame baidarkas used by the Aleutian hunters, sculptor and boatbuilder Rob Macks developed the North Star kayak, a stripped version of the type.

Boat Profile

Biscayne Bay 14

Genius on a small scale

The Biscayne Bay 14, designed by N.G. Herreshoff, is a delightful, low-cost daysailer that transports easily and is a good performer. Jim Austin built his for exploring Muscongus Bay, Maine, with his wife, Darcy.

Adventures

Going Down the Road

A guide to trailer safety

A proper towing vehicle, a trailer well-matched to the boat and properly maintained, and a good grasp of procedures, are the elements of safe trailering.

Boat Profile

Zimmer Utility Launch

Sleek—and silent.

The Zimmer utility launch, designed by Great Lakes area designer Nelson Zimmer, can comfortably carry six to eight passengers. At the Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville, Michigan, instructor Pat Mahon and students built this launch over the course of a year.

Boat Profile

KATIE

Harry Bryan’s 20' cruiser

Inspired by N.G. Herreshoff’s Buzzards Bay 12 1⁄2-footer and Joel White’s Flatfish, the 20' cruiser KATIE, designed and built by Harry Bryan, cuts a handsome profile underway.

Boat Profile

The Chebacco Boats

A trio of options

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - There were three original Chebacco boats, all designed by Phil Bolger for Brad Story. Story was a friend of Bolger’s and a boatbuilder, now retired, of considerable talent in Essex, Massachusetts. All three boats feel very much alike on the water.

Boat Profile

The Ladybug Pram

It’s a wheelbarrow, and it’s a boat

The Ladybug pram, a small dinghy with a wheel permanently fixed in a case in its bow, allows for a nearly seamless transition from the water to a beach, all the while keeping its passengers’ shoes dry. The boat can be built in either a 6' or a 7' model.

Boat Profile

Swallow Boats SeaRaider

A purpose-designed Raid boat

The SeaRaider, a design from the UK-based kit boat manufacturer Swallowboats, was purpose designed for point-to-point small-boat racing events called Raids.

Boat Profile

The Kingfisher Power Dory

A self-bailing power dory

From the 2010 Small Boats Annual - Kingfisher is an outboard-powered skiff whose lineage can be traced back to New England dories. Her topsides are planked in lapstrake plywood, and she has a double bottom that provides both flotation and self-bailing capability.