Reader Built Boats Articles - Small Boats Magazine https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article-categories/reader-built-boats/ Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:06:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 Building a Goat Island Skiff https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/building-a-goat-island-skiff/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/building-a-goat-island-skiff/#comments Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:06:29 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=243700 We chose the 15′ 6″ Goat Island Skiff. It was known to be fast, big enough for four people, stable, and relatively light at about 60 or 70kg. And there’s a great community of owners around the world, led by the designer, Michael Storer.

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/building-a-goat-island-skiff/feed/ 2 Converting a Kayak for Sail https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/converting-a-kayak-for-sail/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/converting-a-kayak-for-sail/#comments Mon, 03 Feb 2025 18:55:17 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=242236 Like the solo kayak before it, the tandem was a success. But, thought Dick, what if he built a couple of outriggers and converted the kayak to sail?

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/converting-a-kayak-for-sail/feed/ 3 The Paddle Wheel Boat https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/the-paddle-wheel-boat/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/the-paddle-wheel-boat/#comments Thu, 02 Jan 2025 18:38:09 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=240696 For Davi, the paddle-wheel boat was a straightforward project. It is, essentially, a shallow rectangular box with a rockered bottom, a center longitudinal frame that adds strength and supports the crankshaft for the wheels, and two seat platforms, one at either end.

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/the-paddle-wheel-boat/feed/ 6 Building an Adirondack Guideboat https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/building-an-adirondack-guideboat/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/building-an-adirondack-guideboat/#comments Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:49:05 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=194143 Gary had no boatbuilding experience. For much of his life he’s used small rowing and paddling boats, but he’d never built one. But still he dreamed of building that guideboat, and when a friend gave him “Building an Adirondack Guideboat,” he was hooked. He’d waited long enough. “I’d been thinking about it for almost half a century,” he says. “It was time.”

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/building-an-adirondack-guideboat/feed/ 8 An Echo Bay Dory Skiff https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/an-echo-bay-dory-skiff/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/an-echo-bay-dory-skiff/#comments Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:00:24 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=192497 In 2021, when Pam was 92, she announced that she really wanted a rowboat. Rebecca and her husband, Eric, started a search for the perfect boat. They intended to buy one but couldn’t find the right thing. Then, in December of that year, while vacationing in Maine, they heard about Clint Chase and the kits he sold through Chase Small Craft in Saco. They called him up.

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/an-echo-bay-dory-skiff/feed/ 6 C.D. Mower’s Snow Bird https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/c-d-mowers-snow-bird/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/c-d-mowers-snow-bird/#comments Mon, 30 Sep 2024 20:06:29 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=190869 Geoff had built a strip-planked Wee Lassie but wanted to try his hand at traditional construction. He acquired some rudimentary plans for a 12′ Snow Bird, a 1932 Frostbite dinghy designed by C.D. Mower. They had been published in a 1933 issue of The Rudder magazine and consisted of offsets and drawings along with the advice that “Anyone who has had any experience building round-bottom clinker-built dinghies will find sufficient information on these pages to enable him to build a Snow Bird for himself.” He had no “round-bottom clinker-built” experience but decided to give it a go.

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/c-d-mowers-snow-bird/feed/ 1 Saving JANIE JANE https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/saving-janie-jane/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/saving-janie-jane/#comments Mon, 19 Aug 2024 18:54:30 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=188600 I told them I was looking for a simple design to build and sail, and they suggested a sharpie—it was fast and easy to build, and fast on the water.

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/saving-janie-jane/feed/ 3 Home-Built Elegance https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/home-built-elegance/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/home-built-elegance/#comments Sun, 28 Jul 2024 14:03:38 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=186898 He had in his possession a Vetus EP2200 electric motor, and it sparked the idea of building a customized harbor launch. He collaborated with Walt Simmons and together they altered the plans for the Duck Trap Launch to fit Oliver’s vision.

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/home-built-elegance/feed/ 4 From Sailboat to Motorboat https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/from-sailboat-to-motorboat/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/from-sailboat-to-motorboat/#comments Sat, 15 Jun 2024 15:14:43 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=184554 uentin Verhaegen lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He describes it as “a Pacific island with a microclimate,” a place that is “more than beautiful most of the time.”...

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]]> https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/from-sailboat-to-motorboat/feed/ 10 From the Dumpster to the Launching Ramp https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/from-the-dumpster-to-the-launching-ramp/ https://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/from-the-dumpster-to-the-launching-ramp/#comments Sun, 26 May 2024 01:00:32 +0000 https://smallboatsmonthly.com/?post_type=article&p=183351 When Polly came in to work one day, the boat was gone. She didn’t think much of it until a colleague told her it had been thrown out, but that he had rescued it from the dumpster. He felt sorry for it, saying it deserved better than to be simply thrown away. He thought he should ask Polly if she would be interested in finishing the boat.

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