Product Reviews
A full-sized boat hook for small boats
...can’t be done with a snap like that, but you can curl the end and then push it into some corner and have it spin while you push the shaft into the roll. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOFtAOLUoQ The foam grip gives the Revolve the buoyancy it needs to float, and like a proper boathook, it floats vertically. Only a couple of inches rise...
Boat Profile
Born by a beautiful bay
...in size from 12′ to 22′, and there are enough models that one might think every potential customer’s needs would be met. But that assumption would be incorrect. “The couple who commissioned the Caracal’s design,” Davis said, “wanted a boat suitable for themselves and a crowd of kids. But they found nothing available that combined the really big cockpit necessary...
Adventures
At home away from home
...and the hatch and step outside to cool off. Eagle Harbor was so still that I could get a good look at Jupiter through my binoculars and make out two of its moons. When the cabin was comfortably warm I was in no rush to crawl into bed and sat on the comforter with my pillow at my back, stared...
Boat Profile
A boat that almost builds itself
...come precut in sections, ready for assembly into full-length strakes. The jigsaw-puzzle joints that join the sections together, commonly left exposed in kit boats, is invisible, cut only in the middle laminates of the plywood and overlapped by the outer laminates. With this stair-stepped approach the resulting seams visible on the inside and outside faces of the planks are gently...
Boat Profile
Quiet power, stately pace
...recorded a top speed of 4.5 knots (5.2 mph). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmjb-9_KRa0 A power cord is connected to a charger secured under the aft deck. Having the cord with the boat is a good idea; it’s safer to carry the cord from the boat to the power source than to carry an electrified cord from the power source across the water to...
Reader Built Boats
A Newfoundlander goes back to his roots
...a broad reach. She points high and has good stability on all points of sail but, he says, even after almost 20 years he’s still learning how to sail her and “on each outing I discover more of her characteristics and gain confidence in her ability to handle varying weather conditions.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1O0DF8eFGY Today, CLEAR SKIES lives on a trailer in...
Adventures
An unconventional Alaskan camp-cruiser
...sleeping bags from their pillows while I hitched our anchor light from the mizzen boom, knowing no one would see it. Cradled and rocked within MUSTELID, lulled by the croon of surf, Anke and I drifted off to sleep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95vcfkLA3Es&t=3s Dave and Anke have produced a series of fascinating videos about their experiences with MUSTELID. Join them as they...
Boat Profile
Fit to row the Grand Canyon
...If the load is the least bit off-center, it becomes difficult to maintain a straight course; the boat tends to spin to the weighted side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmwkJohrIJo Jess and I built our dory in about 75 days, working on and off over two years. It was a wonderfully rewarding experience. A decked river dory like the Colorado River Dory is a...
Product Reviews
An epoxy with flexibility
...hours. Inside the static mixing tip, a series of baffles fold the white and brown components back on themselves until they emerge tan and fully blended. Thixo Flex’s resin and hardener are contained in a single cartridge and dispensed simultaneously with a high-thrust caulk gun. The components are blended as they flow through a mixing tip, so there is no...
Product Reviews
Myerchin's rigger's knife with pliers
...our small armada and how handy this multipurpose knife is. Audrey—aka Skipper—and Kent Lewis are motoring, paddling, rowing, and sailing the Tidewater Region of Virginia in their menagerie of small boats, ranging from an 8′ punt up to Skipper’s 19′ gaff-rigged yawl. Their adventures are logged at www.smallboatrestoration.blogspot.com. The P300 Sailor’s Tool is available in silver, red, or blue from...
Product Reviews
Precut panels and patches for a strong and efficient DIY sail
...the shape will provide good performance for the small pram. Audrey and Kent Lewis mess about in the Tidewater Region of Virginia, and look forward to the launch of their mighty pram, EXCUSE ME. Their adventures are logged at www.smallboatrestoration.blogspot.com. The Nutshell sail kit in white Dacron costs $169.90. It is also available in cream ($289.20) and tanbark ($295.20). Sailrite...
Boat Profile
A plywood deep-V sportfisher
...ample range for southern California fishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txv3gYn8pyk Our 24′ La Paz sits on a trailer we had custom-made. It weighs roughly 4,000 lbs fully loaded and trailers like a dream. At the launch ramp it can be handled by one person, but usually needs to be walked off and on with the trailer close to the dock. Two pairs of...
Boat Profile
A shallow-draft outboard
...trailered home for fitting out and finishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdP_GVBUVPk Building a Port A Skiff at Farley Boat Works has many advantages. For the cost of materials and about $100 a month, a boatbuilder gets ample space inside the shop for the project and access to the shop’s tools and, if desired, the guidance and assistance of the experienced volunteer staff. And...
Technique
An epoxy cure for weathered plywood
...primer. For small cracks and larger voids—bits of veneer that have come loose—we have used TotalBoat’s THIXO (epoxy thickened with silica) to fill the voids and provide a smooth surface for fairing compound, primer, and paint. The THIXO can be applied over sanded, clean surfaces, so it was not necessary for us to remove well-adhered paint to get to bare...
Boat Profile
Joel White’s classic
...to our sail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pciEcRvGhvE There are a few other tweaks to the rig that make things a little easier. For singlehanded sailing the halyard can be led through a small hole in the forward thwart to a small block or fairlead mounted on a frame and then aft to cleat. This allows one to set or douse the sail without...
Boat Profile
Everything from gunkholing to open-water sailing
...off the sail and into the boat. We made it back to the ramp in about an hour, glad that the maiden voyage and sea trial was over. The conditions for our first outing were quite challenging, but the Marsh Cat came through with flying colors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1zJ96fHrBg It has now been six years since that initial launching, I have sailed...
Boat Profile
A smart little runabout from 1938 designed by Bruce N. Crandall
...Midget is not believed to have been commercially produced. Kaufman obtained plans for the Midget Flyer from D.N. Goodchild, whose company sells reprints of the original 1938 plans. Kaufman, who has taught high-school students how to build boats for more than 20 years and for a decade also was an instructor at WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine, wanted to build...
Boat Profile
A plywood speedster from Bateau.com
...Jacques Mertens-Goossens of Bateau.com is one such craft. Jacques has been building and designing boats for most of his life. Schooled in Belgium in yacht design, he has created a considerable stable of boat designs. He was an early adopter of CAD, and Bateau.com quickly made the transition to CNC-cut kits so Jacques could spend more time designing boats while...
Adventures
Paddling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail
...raw quality, but I was hoping to do without the common Voyageur maladies of compacted spines and hernias. At 28, I was still living with my mother when I wasn’t working for Outward Bound. My friends found this odd, but my Italian grandfather assured me that when he was a boy the practice of living with a parent at my...
From The Editor
Following a 19th-century adventurer
...boats being made of paper by Waters & Sons, the only company making paper boats, as well as observatory domes and racing shells. The company was in Troy, so he ordered a paper canoe. This letter, dated October 12, 1874, seems to be an announcement of the completion of the canoe. Nine days later, having christened the 58-lb canoe MARIA...
Boat Profile
A snug outboard from Bateau.com
SADIE is a Classic 17 that was built by Steve Hewins and his fellow students at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis, U.K. Jacques Mertens designed the Classic 19, around 1990, for an amateur boatbuilder in Florida, and the 17 and 21 followed soon afterward. His company Bateau.com has now supplied a couple of hundred sets of Classic 17...
Boat Profile
An eye-catching blend of old and new technology.
...is tricky to tack in the light airs, but she will respond to, on occasion, a momentary backing of the mainsail. Tony demonstrates the boat’s stability by standing at the helm and shifting his weight as if on a surfboard; I settle comfortably on the center thwart. Kmehlsphotography.com Ben Fuller, whose vision gave rise to the Harrier design, sculls the...
...and how to send it. You’re also welcome to email us your suggestions for articles; we’ll try to find a writer who can cover the topics you’re interested in. E-mail Jenny Bennett, Editor, at jenny@woodenboat.com. Q. May I post comments and images on this site? A. Yes, you are welcome to post comments on articles, and our Classifieds section allows...
Boat Profile
A beach-launched outboard fishing skiff
...craft with a large load capacity, its flat bottom and reserve buoyancy make it a capable shallow-water vessel. Sandy Weedman (pcphotolady.webs.com) With its broad flat bottom, the Hunky Dory can slide over thin water—even as the outboard is kicking up—before coming to a stop on the sand. Note how well the spray rail turns the water away. In 2019, I...
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