Boat Profile
These birds can fly
...Kingfisher with the intermediate-level home builder in mind. Boat design is a study in compromise. It is in choosing well during the initial stages of the design process and then balancing those decisions with well-thought-out compromises that sets a great designer apart from an average one. Here, King’s gifted eye and long experience with rowing shells come into play. He...
Boat Profile
A family-friendly racing dinghy
...for a frostbiter. They built 12 boats together in their basements and raced on winter weekends. “Yachting magazine sent a reporter to cover one of the regattas in 1939,” says Charles Krafft, whose father completed hull No. 6 in that original fleet. “The magazine was in competition with The Rudder, which had just published the plans for the Snipe. So...
Mackinaw Boat, Aboard Small Boats,
Aboard Small Boats - A Video Series
Designer Nelson Zimmer based this double-ended shoal-draft ketch design on the highly regarded Mackinaw boats that worked Lake Michigan and Lake Superior during the late 1800s. The plank-on-frame construction features Northern White Cedar planking and White Oak for the keel, frames, and centerboard trunk. Her powerful gaff ketch rig carries plenty of canvas and is well spread along the length...
Fitting Out Guide
Careful preparation and no masking tape yield a timeless finish
...with white hardener (not the blue hardener that comes with the can, as this would require additional undercoating to match the finish color) to avoid having to apply two coats of undercoat before painting. Evercoat is a super-smooth, non-shrinking, and easy-to-sand glazing compound that yields a very fine surface. Resist the urge to use Bondo here: it is hygroscopic, meaning...
Boat Profile
A classic racer from Marblehead, Massachusetts
...the foot to substantially increase the area. He wanted the boat to move well in the comparatively light airs of his home waters around Newbury. Some of his decisions would have probably tickled John Gardner, not to mention the old Marbleheaders. For his clench nails, for example, he used commonly available aluminum siding nails instead of harder-to-find and more expensive...
Boat Profile
Seakindly and fuel-efficient
...mid-speed ranges, and you’d give up some comfort. The Port Townsend Skiff is one comfortable boat in a chop. “The skinny hull is a pain getting in and out of,” says Brown, “but drive over a lumpy sea, and it really pays off.” Brown and his wife, Ashlyn, trucked the prototype PT Skiff across country last summer to display it...
Boat Profile
An updated legend
...didn’t prime the faying surfaces.” His boats were dry-strip-planked, which means that the planks were mechanically fastened without any compound or adhesive between them. “The only compound he used in the boat was where the keel met the stem—some black goo,” said Lazarus. His own 16-footer lacked floor timbers and had a shallow keel, and thus had a fairly limber...
Aboard Small Boats
Aboard Small Boats - A Video Series
Designed by Joel White, the Haven 12 ½ is a handsome daysailer based on the Herreshoff 12 ½ but modified for a centerboard. The Haven 12 ½ is big enough to sail with four people, but is easily single-handed. Thanks to the genius of N.G. Herreshoff and Joel White, the Haven 12 ½ has gained a reputation for being...
Whitehall Tender, Aboard Small Boats,
Aboard Small Boats - A Video Series
AMERICAN BEAUTY is a Whitehall Tender that was built by students at the WoodenBoat School and designed by the Rice Brothers from East Boothbay, Maine. Back in the 1800s, Whitehalls were used as a commercial craft, ferrying materials and crew to shore from large schooners and square-rigged ships. Eventually, the Whitehall entered the recreational world and remains a favorite of...
Aboard Small Boats
Aboard Small Boats - A Video Series
Paul Gartside’s 14′ daysailer is a classic example of a “big” little boat. SKYLARK was built at WoodenBoat School by students in the Fundamentals of Boatbuilding program. This handsome dinghy is an ideal family daysailer and can comfortably carry up to 4 people. Skylark has great stability under both sail and oar. Skylark is very fast, sails...
Aboard Small Boats, Shellback Dinghy,
Aboard Small Boats - A Video Series
According to WoodenBoat’s founder, Jon Wilson, “The Shellback provides an education in the fine points of sailing, rowing, and sculling for sailors of all ages, her standing lug rig easily dropped altogether if the winds come on too strong. She is not easily adaptable to outboard power, primarily because the weight of the motor throws her fine hull out of...
Fitting Out Guide
Well-intentioned practices that do more harm than good
In my years of teaching boatbuilding and repairing wooden boats, I’ve noticed many mistakes owners make in the upkeep of their boats—common practices, done with good intent, that can often do more harm than good. I’ve distilled these into a list of the ten most common ones I’ve observed. Being aware of these things should help to eliminate some frustration...
Fitting Out Guide
A general outline of the process for a basic annual-maintenance varnish job
...labeling Tack rags and rags (and scissors to cut them) Rubber gloves, eye protection, dust masks, respirator, ear protection, knee pads, and protective tape for fingers Cone paint filters and a filter “donut” (a plywood or cardboard cutout with a 4” [102mm] hole to hold the filter over a bucket) Stir sticks Brush spinner and combs Two plastic buckets with...
Adventures
A great all-around performer from Lowell’s Boat Shop
...word “sail” in its vocabulary. All boats are compromises, and the only question is whether the compromise works well or works poorly for its intended function in the hands of its owner. Lowell’s Boat Shop made thousands of dories in the schooner-fishing era and has a tradition dating back to 1793 in Amesbury. The combined boatshop and museum, now a...
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Boat Profile
The Model T of boats
Walter Baron, of Old Wharf Dory Co., designed the Lumber Yard Skiff (LYS) with commercial watermen in mind. It had to be simple, easy, and quick to build, and rugged enough to live at least 10 years in constant hard employ. He would build it of readily available materials—underlayment plywood for the topsides and bottom, clear spruce 44s for the...
Fitting Out Guide
Preparation for painting success
Preparation is the key to any good paint or varnish job. Many boats come to my refinishing shop with a good-quality finish but with ragged edges that indicate a poor masking job. Some other boats I have seen still have leftover residue from masking tape. This makes the paint job look much worse than it really is. Here are some...
Fitting Out Guide
A Guide to the Instructions on the Can
...a consistent commitment of time and skill each year to maintain it. And achieving a good bright (aka varnished) finish in the first place requires careful surface preparation and application. There are myriad pitfalls that can compromise the job along the way, and a lack of maintenance during the season can ruin a fine job. Paint, frankly, is a better...
Boat Profile
A traditional daysailer
...her forebear, each of the fetching JANE ANN’s lines is placed with purpose. Her full midsection and moderate deadrise indicate a comfortable and accommodating boat. This Boat Profile was published in Small Boats 2011 and appears here as archival material. If you have more information about this boat, plan, or design – please let us know in the comment section....
Boat Profile
A humble gem
The Asa Thomson skiff holds quiet appeal. Appreciation for this little skiff comes on slowly but deeply, like true and enduring love. She’s a culmination of a number of elegant and subtle factors that, while not strikingly obvious, come together in a compact craft that is well balanced in look and in feel. Asa Thomson was a New Bedford, Massachusetts,...
Boat Profile
A forgiving outboard-powered boat
...would preclude. The helm also looks striking, drawing more comments from passing boaters than the skiff’s more conventionally pretty shape and glossy finish combined. I use PINK SLIP as an island tender. While she’s small for that task, in the three years I’ve had her I’ve carried loads of groceries, shingles, books, tools, and people in a range of conditions....
Boat Profile
PT 11, a fine balance of form and function
...Tom Jackson The 11’ hull divides to form a bundle only 5’10” long, 4′ 2″ wide, and a maximum of 1′ 8″ high, and the flat bottom makes nesting them easy. The forward of the two sections is completely decked over at thwart height, which provides necessary hull stiffness and also sees to it that any water coming aboard is...
Boat Profile
An easy-to-build, multichined hull for performance daysailing
...chine is the angle where the bottom planking and the side planking come together. Typically a chine log, a kind of longitudinal stringer, supports the joint and receives the plank fastenings. Because plywood can’t bend to the same complex curves that traditional construction can accept, a design using more than one chine—“multichine”—allows plywood to emulate the lapstrake planking of a...
Boat Profile
A striking outboard cruiser
...styling gimmicks, BLACKBIRD combines the purposeful look of a workboat with the grace of a gentleman’s launch. Although a cynic could argue that the complex shapes, especially in the trunk cabin, are hard to build and unnecessary to the boat’s function, she’d lose a lot of her emotional appeal if those shapes were eliminated—at least the love-at-first-sight part. The smitten...
Boat Profile
A fanciful cruiser with workboat roots
...While it is one of the boat’s more expensive components, it is worth it for the added comfort it provides. The Goliath featured here, ANDIAMO, is powered by a 27-hp Yanmar diesel, cleverly hidden in a box that doubles as a seat. The arrangement plan shows a berth in the forward cabin, but Tom chose to leave this space bare...