December 2023 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

Orphaned

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 22:30:57 +0000

John, as Iâ€™ll call him here, built the canoe from scratch. The Piccolo was designed by Bob Baker for traditional construction: 1â„4â€³ cedar planks on steam-bent frames with breasthooks cut from grown crooks. John went the glued-lap-plywood route and may have been guided, as I was when I built my 18â€² lapstrake canoe in the late â€™80s, by Tom Hillâ€™s Ultralight Boatbuilding. He would have lofted the boat from Bakerâ€™s offsets and, after he set the molds up, lined off the seven strakes with battens. Itâ€™s not an easy task getting the plank widths right and the curve of the laps fair. When I did it for my canoe, I had to use large mirrors hung on the basement walls to get a line of sight along the battens to adjust them. At first glance the Piccoloâ€™s planking looked fine, but on both ends the third broadstrake flares a bit and pinches the fourth. Itâ€™s a minor complaint, and if the Piccolo was Johnâ€™s first boat, he did well.

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A Canvas Lounger

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 16:58:31 +0000

Almost anywhere land meets water thereâ€™s a view to be taken in and the best way to do that is to sit down, get your feet up, and lean back on something comfortable. A portable homemade beach lounger makes that possible wherever you come ashore. All you need is a piece of canvas, a bit of wood, a machine screw with a wingnut, and an hour or two to devote to sewing.

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Nor’wester

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 21:32:14 +0000

From an early age souâ€™westers have been the only kind of wet-weather hats Iâ€™ve worn while boating. For the past few decades, Iâ€™ve worn a Black Diamond Souâ€™wester. Itâ€™s made of canvas and painted with a black rubbery coating. Mine was showing signs of ageâ€”the rubber coating was beginning to peel. The Black Diamond isnâ€™t manufactured any more so I had to go looking for something else to replace it. In my search I saw that Best Coast Canvas (BCC) had recently added to its lineup the Norâ€™wester, a version of a souâ€™wester named for BCCâ€™s home in the Pacific Northwest.

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The Heart of a Cruiser

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 19:51:01 +0000

Several years before that cruise, I had experienced some intermittent heart-rhythm fluctuations that came and went. As an otherwise fit amateur athlete who had never smoked, never been overweight, had low cholesterol and normal blood pressure, I didnâ€™t think much about it. I put the episodes down to too much caffeine and cut back somewhat. I woke up one night at home, however, with another of these episodes, and by the following afternoon it hadnâ€™t gone away. I finally had to admit this was not normal.

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AdvancedFrame Sport Kayak

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:47:37 +0000

I kept coming back to the sweetly designed 10â€² 6â€³ AdvancedFrame Sport Special Edition from Advanced Elements. With its semi-enclosed cockpit, moderate 32â€³ beam, and enthusiastic reviews, it seemed a kayak Iâ€™d feel comfortable and safe in. The reviews promised a paddling experience more like a hard-shell kayak than other inflatables, with better tracking and handling in waves due to the internal aluminum ribs and deck inserts that sharpen and define the bow and stern.

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Lawton Tender by Newfound Woodworks

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 21:34:21 +0000

Lawton built his tenders with carvel planking over delicate bent-oak frames. Newfound Woodworks worked from Gardnerâ€™s offsets, lines, and descriptions of Lawtonâ€™s building techniques to produce plans for a Lawton Tender built with cedar strips and covered with fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. There is a sense in which these modern materials respect the original aesthetics of Lawton Tenders.

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An RSS Lugsail

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 19:54:26 +0000

I turned to Michael Storer, a well-known small-boat designer with expertise in balance lug rigs, for advice. As luck would have it, he had recently opened a sail loft called Really Simple Sails, which specializes in sails for small boats, especially lugsails. I had some specific requirements for my sail. Given the high winds that are routine on the Texas coast, I wanted sailcloth that was heavier than normal for a sail of this size and I required/requested three reefs, with the third reef essentially making the sail a lateen.

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The Tuesday Group Builds a Boat

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 15:28:08 +0000

The Colorado building team began work in 2017. By early 2019 the boat was finished. All it needed now was the engine to be installed. Around the time the project was winding up, Jeff was busy relocating to North Carolina and, he says, â€œin a spirit of generosity one doesnâ€™t expect from a brother-in-law,â€ Mike drove up to Denver and trailered the boat back to Lake Havasu City. It was time for the mechanical phase of the project to begin.

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