Small Boats Annual 2022

Editor’s Page: With Love and Time
“For the person who loves boats, and who has time on his hands, what better way to spend some of it than to build himself a boat that will please him every time he looks at it or uses it.”
John Gardner, Building Classic Small Craft … Continued on Page 4 of PDF version.

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Boat Profile

The Rhodes 19

An uncommonly enduring one-design

The Rhodes 19 didn’t catch on when the design was introduced as a wooden boat in the late ‘40s, but when it was reproduced in fiberglass in the ‘50s by George O’Day, the daysailer gave rise to a popular and enduring one-design class.

Boat Profile

Ellen 12

Pretty in plywood

This 12’ glued-lapstrake skiff, designed by John Brooks for oar, sail and outboard, is a complex boat, but detailed plans and a comprehensive 281-page book devoted to it pave the way for a first-time builder.

Boat Profile

Bobcat

Bolger's adaptation of the Beetle Cat for tack-and-tape construction

Phil Boger designed the Bobcat as an adaptation of the legendary Beetle Cat for tack-and-tape construction to put a small, stable catboat within the reach of amateur boatbuilders.

Boat Profile

Sponge Docks Skiff 13

An easily built outboard garvey

J.F. Bedard’s Sponge Docks Skiff is a 13′ outboard-powered garvey designed for first-time boatbuilders. It will accommodate a crew of three, take a motor up to 29 hp, and, with a 15-hp motor, zip along at about 20 mph.

Boat Profile

Penny Fee

A glued-lap plywood dinghy for oar and sail

The largest of Iain Oughtred’s half-dozen dinghies, Penny Fee was designed for efficient rowing and sailing with one of four rigs ranging from a simple lug rig to a gaff yawl.

Boat Profile

Morbic 12

A versatile lapstrake dinghy

Inspired by the workboats of France’s Atlantic Coast, François Vivier designed the Morbic 12 to have the look of a classic, use contemporary plywood construction, and be powered by oars, sail, and outboard.

Boat Profile

Expedition Rowboat from Angus

A sliding-seat cruiser from Angus Rowboats

The Expedition Rowboat from Angus Rowboats was designed by Julie and Colin Angus for their 2,600-mile journey from Scotland to Syria. The stitch-and-glue cruiser has the speed and seaworthiness to take on less ambitious adventures with ease.

Boat Profile

Oz Goose

A box that takes flight

The Oz Goose from Australian designer Michael Storer may look a bit like a sandbox but it is a high-performance sailer that can get up on plane and fly at speeds around 12 knots. Easy and inexpensive to build, it has achieved remarkable popularity as a racer, cruiser, trainer, and day boat.

Boat Profile

Jiffy V-22

An outboard cruiser with a lobsterboat look

The Jiffy V-22, designed by Arch Davis, is an outboard-powered V-bottom cabin cruiser with comfortable accommodations for two and a cockpit roomy enough for several guests.

Boat Profile

Sandpiper

An easily built skiff for sail and oar

Conrad Natzio’s Sandpiper is a 14’ skiff for oar and sail that’s designed for quick construction by amateur builders. Its removable leeboard keeps the cockpit clear to make more room for the crew.

Technique

Boat Trailering Tips

Safe towing to the ramp and back

If spring is your time to hit the road with your boat in tow, Kent and Audrey Lewis will guide you through taking a look at your trailer to make sure it will get you and your boat to the launch site safely.

Reader Built Boats

AVANTI

On plane with a single sheet of plywood

Riley Hall, a shipwright leading the restoration of a 96-year-old purse seiner, spent his free time recently designing and building an outboard skiff that required only one sheet of plywood to build and could get on plane with a 2.5-hp outboard.

Boat Profile

Surf Crabskiff

A Bolger Instant Boat

Dynamite Payson, champion of Instant Boats, wrote that Bolger’s Surf “is my favorite and it seems to me about as perfect a blend of overall proportions I could ever expect to see in so simple a shape.”

Boat Profile

Marissa 18

An economical center console outboard from B&B Yacht Designs

Marissa, an 18’ center-console plywood skiff from B&B Yacht Designs, was the winner of a WoodenBoat design contest titled The Pursuit of Pleasure at Two Gallons per Hour.

Boat Profile

Down East Workboat

Blending seakeeping ability with speed

John Gardner’s Down East Workboat is an 18’ version of a type that has proved useful on the Maine coast for vessels in many sizes up to 30’. With a 25-hp outboard at one-third throttle, it planes easily at 12 knots.

Boat Profile

The Crawford Melonseed Skiff

From a 19th-century gunning skiff to a classic sailer in fiberglass

Roger Crawford was once asked to repair an aging wooden sailing skiff and was so impressed by its sailing abilities when he had it afloat again that he used it as a mold to produce the boat in fiberglass. Decades later, his Melonseed Skiff is a classic.

Boat Profile

Savo 650D

Fast rowing, Finnish style

Finland has so many lakes that it was inevitable that people living on their shores built fast rowing boats to make a living and get from one place to another. The contemporary Savo 650D is a speedy double with deep roots in the country and the culture.

Boat Profile

The Wittholz Catboat

A classic adapted for plywood

In the 1960s, Naval architect Charles W. Wittholz drew several catboats including a 17-footer with a classic catboat profile, a beamy single-chine plywood hull, and the option of a marconi or gaff rig.

Adventures

Don’t Tell Me I Can’t

Isabelle Heker's Greenland kayak

When Isabelle Heker decided to build a Greenland-style kayak, her friends and family doubted she was up to the task. In spite of her lack of woodworking experience, tools, and a place to work, she forged ahead and proved something to everyone, including herself.

Boat Profile

Elfyn

Iain Oughtred's other faering

Iain Oughtred’s Elfyn is his adaptation of a traditional Norse hull for glued-lapstrake plywood construction with the same three wide strakes and all of the beauty of its precursors.

Boat Profile

The Guider

A capable and comfortable camp-cruiser

John Guider cruised more than 6,000 miles in Chesapeake Light Craft’s Skerry Raid. But when he entered the Race to Alaska, he asked CLC to design a new bigger boat, The Guider, which would be better able to take on whatever the Inside Passage might dish out.

Reader Built Boats

CELESTE

Inlays out of this world

Dan Newland made his career working on boats and rockets, so when he designed and built his cedar-strip kayak, CELESTE, it was only natural that he would adorn the deck with inlays of celestial objects: planets, moons, and a comet.

Reader Built Boats

Built by the Book

David Parker's Paper Canoe

New Zealander David Parker was in the midst of strip-building a canoe when he decided to use its hull, still upside down on the strongback, as a mold for a canoe made of laminated paper. Paper boats were once hi-tech marvels, but that was in the last third of the 19th century.

Reader Built Boats

A Kid-Built Curragh

Working with withies

Grade-school students in a Portland, Oregon, school are doing projects in woodworking class that are much more interesting than building birdhouses. Their teacher brought boatbuilding into the curriculum several years ago and the latest vessels launched are a coracle and a curragh, both built with locally harvested hazel-tree branches.

Past Issues

From The Archives

Small Boats Annual 2018

Small Boats Annual 2020

June 2024

November 2020

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