July 2023 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

The CLC Tool Box Kit

Jenny Bennett — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:44:03 +0000

After the shellac dried, all that was left to do was load up some tools. In each end, a shelf with holes can hold five screwdrivers and the two layers assure that the tools remain upright, handle at the ready. The wider ovals are useful for pliers, files and rasps, slender-handled paintbrushes and scrapers, and spokeshaves. In the main body of the box the partitions create spaces for palm planes, glue bottles, and tool rolls. Dividers can be removed for wider bays as needed.

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Magnet Retrieval

Christopher Cunningham — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:41:21 +0000

I was intrigued, for a while, by magnet fishing, but after seeing a lot of YouTube videos about it and watching a few magnet anglers at launch sites, I decided that there wasn’t anything made of steel or iron that had been sitting on the bottom for who knows how long that I needed, even if I got lucky enough to drag a magnet across it. But acquiring a Klein screwdriver that someone had dropped overboard right where we could see it, or better still, recovering one of my own tools that I had dropped overboard? That interested me.

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MUSTELID

Dave Zeiger — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 12:29:02 +0000

We had designed and built MUSTELID as a more easily driven adjunct to our larger, engineless liveaboard sailboat. As we have aged, sailing it has become more strenuous and we hope that MUSTELID will serve as voyager and forager, allowing us to continue spending our time on the water. In outfitting the boat we were guided by the Agile Approach of software development as adapted for boatbuilding by Jeremy Ulstad, a software developer and boatbuilder: Make it cheap. Make it fast. Make it work. Make it right.

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Memorable

Christopher Cunningham — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 11:47:43 +0000

This past Father’s Day, my son Nate suggested we sail across Puget Sound to the village of Indianola for our annual outing. We had sailed there on a summer day 19 years ago when he was 14, and apparently he remembered that outing as fondly as I did. His sister Alison, then 11, was also with us, along with her friend Sarah. The two of them spent much of the time lying bellies down on the foredeck singing Girl Scout camp songs. There was a reaching breeze out of the north, enough to move my Caledonia yawl ALISON at a good clip while only rippling the Puget Sound waters.

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Seavolt LED Tail Lights

Audrey and Kent Lewis — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 23:13:04 +0000

We searched for trailer guidepost light kits and found an economical option, the SEAVOLT LED Trailer Guide-On kit. The kit consists of two LED light assemblies made from thick-walled PVC that mount to the top of standard 2″ PVC guideposts. The LEDs are red, covered by a clear acrylic lens.

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Sharing a Sense of Freedom

Jenny Bennett — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:39:44 +0000

John built his first boat, Percy Blandford’s PBK 26, a skin-on-frame kayak, when he was 16. He built two more for friends. Much later, in 1999, on leaving a career in construction, he retrained as a teacher and began working in an alternative high school for students with severe learning disabilities. He brought his love of canoes and boatbuilding into the classroom where, along with an English teacher, John taught a year-long course in which students alternated between maritime literature and project-based learning.

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Cygnet 20

Jan Stephen Kent — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 17:30:59 +0000

The design was inspired by England’s small traditional gaff-rigged working boats. It evokes the past with its plumb stem and only slightly raked transom, fixed bowsprit, samson post, transom-hung rudder on bronze pintles and gudgeons, classic portholes, and of course, tanbark sails and high-peaked gaff. In just a few years, the Cygnet 20 has become a highly sought-after inland-waterways cruiser across Australia, suitable for both river raids and competition racing; one was even recently delivered to Lake George in upstate New York.

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Petrel Play SG

Sebastian Schröder — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 14:37:26 +0000

I grew up as a whitewater paddler, and some years ago paddled a whitewater kayak to a little island in the Baltic Sea. The boat was quite capable in rough water with high waves, but far from ideal for paddling long distances while carrying a load of camp-cruising supplies. After that trip I knew I needed a different kayak for cruising. I decided to build a pair of kayaks for my wife and myself.

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