Small Boats Annual 2017

Editor’s Page: The View From a Small Boat
The exuberant man on the cover of this issue of Small Boats is Donnie Mullen. The image was taken in Fort Kent, Maine, in 2000, after a 55-day canoe trip — much of it solo — that took him along the Northern Forest Canoe Trail from Old Forge, NY, to northern Maine … Continued on Page 4 of PDF version.

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Boat Profile

Compass Skiff

A lightweight, nimble, outboard skiff

The Compass outboard skiff, designed by Clint Chase to build during a weekend festival, is a good boat for a family to build together and for introducing children to the pleasures and responsibilities of boating.

Boat Profile

Guillemot

An Iain Oughtred sail-and-oar skiff

Iain Oughtred is best known for his modern glued-lapstrake adaptations of traditional hull forms, but his Guillemot skiff looks especially handsome when done with larch planking riveted to bent chestnut frames.

Rollin has a long history of sharing his designs and hires young builders so he can pass along his knowledge. He has licensed his Atkinson Traveler design to a handful of other builders, among them Jeanne Bourquin in Ely, Minnesota. She has been building the Atkinson Traveler since the 1990s and believes the Traveler is “as close to perfect as possible.”

Boat Profile

Atkinson Traveler

The pinnacle of wilderness canoes

The Atkinson Traveler is Rollin Thurlow’s favorite canoe, and that’s saying something because Rollin has been building canoes in Maine for 38 years. We’ll take a look at what makes this wood-and-canvas canoe stand out among all the others he has built.

Boat Profile

Hvalsoe 18

A new design for solo cruising

Seattle boatbuilder Eric Hvasloe was asked to draw up a boat for cruising the Inside Passage under sail and oars. We put his latest design, the Hvalsoe 18, through its paces.

Boat Profile

Squirt

A Glen-L runabout

The 11’ Squirt runabout was the biggest boat Art Atkinson could build in his basement, but it didn’t come up short on the performance it delivered. He gives us a good look at this offering from Glen-L.

Boat Profile

Chaisson Dory

More than a tender

The Chaisson dory was designed a century ago as a tender, but it still has a lot to offer even if you don’t have a yacht to attach to the other end of its painter.

Boat Profile

Arctic Tern

A modern yoal

Iain Oughtred’s Arctic Tern is in the middle of the range of his popular double-ended beach cruisers that were inspired by the workboats of the Shetland Islands.

Adventures

The Isles of Finland

Solo cruising in a Herreshoff Coquina

The Finnish coast is speckled with small forested islands rimmed with glacier-worn granite. A modified Herreshoff Coquina is quite at home here, an ocean away from its native waters.

Boat Profile

Abaco Dinghies

Built like little ships

Nobody knows for sure when the first Abaco dinghy was built, or who built it, but the type has been around as a small fishing boat since the late 1800s. During the middle decades of the 20th century Abaco boatbuilders on Man-O-War Cay and at Hope Town launched hundreds of dinghies for fishing, daysailing, and racing.

The long waterline, full-length keel strip, and skeg give the Duckling strong tracking; little effort is required to maintain course.

Boat Profile

Duckling 17

Fast solo rowing

Although Sam Devlin envisioned the Duckling 17 as a performance rowing craft, not as a load-carrying boat, with a designed working displacement of 350 lbs, it has the capacity to carry gear for fast and light weekend touring.

The Cat's shallow draft and twin hulls open up options for anchoring in shallow coves. If the bottom is even and not too rocky, grounding out during a midnight low tide isn't a problem.

Boat Profile

Eco 5 Power Cat

A catamaran for cozy cruising

While it’s sometimes said that the moment you’ve stepped aboard boat you’ve arrived, there are times when you’d like to go somewhere. The Eco 5 Power Cat can take you places quickly, quietly, and economically.

Boat Profile

Passagemaker Dinghy

A rich man's tender, a poor man's yacht?

What started out as a design for a motor-yacht tender finished up as a versatile pram that is as well suited for motoring, sailing, and rowing as it for gracing a pair of davits.

Boat Profile

Storm 23

A stylish and distinctive double-ender

Tacking off the timeless, craggy coast of Devon, the Storm 23 looked decidedly unconventional, even kooky, and yet there was something about her that inspired confidence: a purposeful air, a look of intent, almost of defiance.

Raquette River, Adirondacks. Lining, like portaging and upstream hauling, became comfort measures. When paddling simply wasn’t working, I fell back on what would. Progress was slow, but anything that kept me moving was enough to boost my spirits.

Adventures

Crossing the Northeast by Canoe

Paddling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail

The Northern Forest Canoe Trail stitches together 740 miles of lakes, streams, rivers, and portages that lie along the boreal fringes of New York and New England. Donnie Mullen was the first to paddle the full length of the trail he and his wood-and-canvas canoe survived the trip, both a bit worse for the wear.

Boat Profile

The Cackler

A 14' hunting skiff

The Cackler from Devlin Designing Boat Builders is a contemporary outboard hunting skiff that can carry a heavy load, manage rough water and get hunters, dogs, and decoys out and back at a good clip. Its uncluttered cockpit make it a versatile utility skiff.

Guideboat builder Justin Martin takes Erin, his bride to be, out or summer row. She has her backrest up for comfort; Justin has his down for rowing.

Boat Profile

The Adirondack Guideboat

Strip-built in cedar, spruce, and pine

The original Adirondack guideboats were designed in the middle of the 19th century to take paying customers hunting and fishing the interconnected lakes, ponds, and streams of Upstate New York. The elegant strip-built version of this swift rowing boat makes rowing for its own sake a profitable venture.

Boat Profile

Calendar Islands Yawl

A boat that almost builds itself

Clint Chase’s new 15’ 6” daysailer, sized to get planks from pairs of scarfed-together sheets of plywood, is designed to make the most of its sailing capability without compromising the pleasure of rowing.

Boat Profile

Penguin

The comforts of home in a 21' trailer yacht

John Welsford designed this trailer-yacht to be a roomy and comfortable cruiser with aesthetic appeal and excellent seakeeping ability. The gaff rig elicits images from a bygone era, but there is nothing old-fashioned about the Penguin.

Boat Profile

Southwester Dory

A dory for sail, oars, and outboard

It’s unfortunate that “Jack of all trades” is so often followed by “master of none.” It is possible to do a number of things quite well, and versatility is often of more value than virtuosity. The new Southwester Dory from Chesapeake Light Craft was designed to serve not only as a sailboat and a rowboat, but also as a motor launch, and it does well in all three capacities.

Boat Profile

Inlet Runner

A versatile fisherman-friendly outboard

Kevin Agee wanted an easy-to-build outboard skiff he could use for catching baitfish in narrow inlet and shallow coves, so Dudley Dix came up with 16’ garvey that Kevin, a first-time boatbuilder, could build in his spare time over the winter and have ready to launch when summer rolled around.

With the sleeping bag in place, the bunk is ready for the night.

Technique

A Canvas Bunk

Simple comfort built around a camping pad

WoodenBoat’s senior editor Tom Jackson tells of a miserable night at anchor aboard his No Mans Land boat and the canvas bunk he made soon afterward, inspired by Lord Nelson’s lavishly embroidered bed aboard HMS VICTORY.

Past Issues

From The Archives

Small Boats Annual 2013

October 2015

June 2023

March 2022

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