May 2024 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

To Dream, Perchance to Sleep

Christopher Cunningham — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 19:13:37 +0000

I brought the canoe into the basement and spent the winter working on it, installing floor timbers, refinishing the hull inside and out, and making a pair of floorboards. The canoe stayed in the basement while I made a cart for it and fussed with an arrangement for a canopy. During that time, I often set a camping pad in the hull, lay down on it, and pulled a sleeping bag over myself. It made a very comfortable nest, and I imagined falling asleep as a light rain fell on the vault of forest-green nylon stretched over me.

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A Faering of His Own

Craig Hohm — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 16:57:42 +0000

I intended my faering project to be as traditional in build as feasible—riveted lapstrake with minimal framing. Watching the ship-reconstruction videos on the Roskilde museum’s website, I was fascinated by the planks split radially from logs, curved frames cut from grown crooks, and the work achieved by simple tools, especially the axes.

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Zero-Flute Countersinks

Christopher Cunningham — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 16:41:24 +0000

There is one type of countersink that cuts cleanly and without chatter, by not having any flutes at all: the zero-flute countersink. It has a smooth conical tip with an upward-angled hole bored in one side. The sides of the hole meet the conical surface at an acute angle, about 45°, so it’s poised to shave rather than scrape.

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An Inflatable Fender/Roller

Christopher Cunningham — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 14:35:27 +0000

My 18′ 9″ lapstrake tandem canoe weighs about 80 lbs and has a beam of 30″. The Aeré fender works well for moving it across a beach that has bands of shingle, wet sand, and dry sand. And, of course, the Aeré fender will also serve its intended purpose admirably. With a D-ring securely attached to each end, it can be hung vertically or horizontally. Its usefulness doesn’t end there. It can serve as a buoy if one is needed, and in camp it can make a very comfortable seat.

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Building a Squirt

Jenny Bennett — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 15:55:12 +0000

For Bill Bains of Port Angeles, Washington, the Squirt brings back memories of teenage adventures. “When I was a kid in California,” he says, “a friend’s father built a small plywood motorboat, a little smaller than a Squirt. It was painted black and had a 20-hp Mercury, which we could sometimes get started. I had a 1959 Ford Ranchero and a home-built trailer with Model-T wheels. We’d take the boat out to Lake Havasu on the Colorado River and motor around just as fast as we could go

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Different Ways to Style Your Kayak

David Dawson — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 15:37:40 +0000

Most homemade kayaks are finished bright to show off the wood grain and color, but other techniques can be used to make a kayak unique and expressive. On my most recent boats I’ve built, I’ve painted the whole kayak one color, and on another I stained the wood and added touches of paint. I’ve used high-tech fabric blends for their aesthetic appeal and I’ve added colorful designs by laminating patterned fabric under fiberglass or, using specialty fiberglass that has been custom printed.

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FLOW 19

Thierry Humeau — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 15:16:11 +0000

The Flow 19 is a trailerable sport cruiser designed for performance sailing with ample storage and cabin room for comfortable cruising.The lines are pure and racy, and the first few times I showed up at a boat ramp, I quickly understood that the boat is a head-turner. With its flat bottom and fully retracted keel, the Flow 19 draws a mere 4″, which makes it particularly suited for beaching and gunkholing in shallow waters

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Stir-Ven 19

Mark Gallo — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 14:54:41 +0000

In 2019, I built a 14′ lug-rigged double-ender. It was lightweight, nimble, and smart looking, but lacked the gravitas to handle the Pacific swells and chop beyond the Santa Barbara breakwater. By 2021 I was ready for something just as beautiful but more capable, and spent a lot of time looking for a bigger trailer-sailer.

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