Small Boats Annual 2011

Editors Page: One Hundred Small Boats, and Counting
“Won’t you eventually run out of boats?” We heard that question more than a few times when we launched Small Boats magazine five years ago. Back then, we had this simple goal: To deliver annually, on the pages of a magazine, a fleet of 20 or more exceptional small craft… Continued on Page 5 of PDF version.

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Deer Isle Koster Boat

A full-bodied, stable, and promising daysailer

Deer Isle Koster Boat was designed by Bruce Elfstrom to be a safe and enticing daysailer for his daughters on Deer Isle, Maine.

Boat Profile

Onset Island Skiff

Utility, affordability, good fun

Beetle Inc.’s Onset Island Skiff is a recent interpretation of an old idea: the traditional New England flat-bottomed skiff.

Reader Built Boats

BLACK GHOST

A fisherman's friend

Walter Ansel built BLACK GHOST to Weston Farmer’s Kingfisher plans. Traditional construction and a seaworthy result make her an enticing project for any experienced builder.

Boat Profile

The Matinicus Double-Ender

The real deal

Descended from a long line of workboats, these striking lapstrake double-enders are often very long-lived, partly because of the pride they instill in their owners.

Boat Profile

The Baybird Sloop

An 18’ W. Starling Burgess design for racing

Originally designed for racing in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the Baybird Sloop found a true home in the summer sailing camps on Cape Cod’s Pleasant Bay beginning in the 1920s.

Boat Profile

The Herreshoff 15s

A classic daysailer in several forms

The perfect balance of speed, responsiveness, cockpit size, seakindliness, and good looks.

Boat Profile

Marissa Runabout

A stable, efficient – and striking – powerboat

Marissa was conceived as the smallest practical center-console runabout, and she became the winner of WoodenBoat’s Design Challenge for efficient small powerboats.

Boat Profile

Martha Jane

Comfort and stability in a plywood lug yawl

Martha Jane is a big, simple, well-performing boat. She has a good seakeeping ability, and can also be poled up into shallow creeks.

Boat Profile

Lili 6.10

A balanced trekker from France

Lili 6.10 is an able boat for two to cruise in complete independence for a few days in a lifestyle as simple and inexpensive as the boat is to build and use, and she can easily be towed to the next shore for the next exploration.

Boat Profile

OTTER: Fast Outboard Launch

A fast and rugged power launch

The OTTER is a Pete Culler designed cold molded, launch outboard that was adapted and constructed by Bill Perkins. She has a "file-bottom", common in the Chesapeake, with the addition of a "Rhode Island" shelter.

Boat Profile

Glen-L Sea Knight

A 1957-vintage outboard cabin cruiser

oats are the stuff that dreams are made of—sometimes of dreams recaptured, in places unexpected. Such is the case with the Sea Knight, a graceful 17′ retro cabin cruiser, a...

Boat Profile

Ninigret

A timeless bassboat

John Atkin designed Ninigret for the pursuit of striped bass and bluefish in the choppy waters of Block Island Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. Regardless, she is well suited to a wide range of uses including family outings, picnics, weekend cruising, or any other activity that benefits from quiet, economical operation, lots of room, and a smooth ride.

Boat Profile

The Northeaster Dory

A modern traditional boat for sail and oar

The Northeaster Dory is a glued-lapstrake-plywood interpretation of the Banks dory. It is available in kit form from Annapolis, Maryland-based Chesapeake Light Craft.

Boat Profile

The International Fireball

A fast racer for today’s home boatbuilder

The International Fireball is a development class of racing sailboats that allows builders to incorporate new technology and a variety of rigging options enabling sailors to stretch the limits of their abilities.

Boat Profile

Schooner 18

An 18' camp schooner from Shell Boats

The Schooner 18 is an iconoclastic camp-cruiser from Shell Boats of St. Albans, VT. She's the largest in Fred Shell’s Swifty line and is quick to handle and accelerate, with a nice turn of speed for such a small boat.

Boat Profile

NEWT Canoe

You can paddle it in a puddle

This compact and easy-to-build canoe from designer Warren Jordan is a fine choice for a first-time builder who wants a lightweight craft for exploring shallow inlets, streams, and other calm waters.

Boat Profile

Bay Pilot 18

A garage-built pocket cruiser

The Bay Pilot 18, designed by Arch Davis, is a swift cruiser that accommodates up to four adults during day outings, or two for overnight excursions.

Boat Profile

JANE ANN

A traditional daysailer

This 18’ cat-ketch, designed by Connecticut-based naval architect Rob Pittaway for New England’s coastal waters, is equally at home on the Great Lakes or inland waters, under sail, auxiliary outboard power, or oars.

Boat Profile

Sailing Surf Dory

A great all-around performer from Lowell’s Boat Shop

A comparatively round-sided dory, the Sailing Surf Dory handles well under sail or oars. This boat is a 14-footer, and Lowell’s Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusetts, also builds 16’, 18’, and 20’ versions.

Boat Profile

Townsend Tern

A small cruiser full of ideas and innovations

For a 23’6” boat, the Townsend Tern packs in plenty of the necessities of life for a cruising couple. She is designed to be simple to sail singlehanded, with unstayed carbon-fiber masts that are hinged at the tabernacles to make them easy to lower for trailering.

Technique

Small Boat Details

A gallery of ideas to improve your small boat

Small boats provide endless opportunity for innovative thinking. We've prowled the waterfront seeking clever and aesthetically pleasing solutions to some of the common problems posed by small boats: how to rig them, how to move them, how to stow gear aboard them, how to steer them, and how to live comfortably aboard them.