June 2023 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

Galápagos Islands

Christopher Cunningham — Thu, 25 May 2023 00:43:59 +0000

Darwin set sail aboard BEAGLE from Plymouth, England, in December 1831 and arrived in the waters of the Galápagos archipelago, after a three-year, eight-and-a-half-month voyage. On September 17, 1835, the ship’s crew went ashore on Chatham Island, the easternmost of the islands, now known as Isla San Cristobal. The young Darwin was not favorably impressed.

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Tape-Backed Sandpaper

Christopher Cunningham — Sat, 20 May 2023 21:42:06 +0000

Wooden boats come with their fair share of hand-sanding, whether it’s smoothing wood surfaces or between coats of varnish or paint, so it pays to extend the useful life of sandpaper. In my experience, it’s not the abrasive particles that wear out, but the paper. Once a small tear starts on the edge, it’s likely to continue across the sheet. Unlike sandpaper, duct tape is not easily torn, and when applied to the back of a sheet of sandpaper it adds its resistance to tearing.

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Colorado River Dory

Jeff Battin — Sat, 20 May 2023 14:43:27 +0000

My son-in-law, Jess, is a professional river guide in Jackson, Wyoming. At the start of the 2019 season, one of his colleagues arrived in town with a handcrafted, double-ended, fully decked river dory he had built in the off season. Jess was smitten and asked me, an avid woodworker, if I’d like to make a boat for him. Without a thought, I said I’d build it with him, not for him, and thus began our two-plus-year journey building Fletcher’s 17′6″ wooden Colorado River Dory.

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A Peapod for a Schooner

Jenny Bennett — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:39:39 +0000

The peapod was built of locally sourced Maine wood. The museum has its own sawmill, a 1994 Wood-Mizer LT-40 bandsaw. “It’s not huge,” says Kurt, “but it’s big enough to do pretty much everything we need. We generally get donated logs from within 30 miles of Bath, which we bring back to the mill, saw into lumber, and leave to dry. We use a lot of northern white cedar, white oak, and black locust. The local arborists let us know if they have something suitable for us. We’ll drive a couple of hours to pick up the right log. If we didn’t do it, the wood would be turned into firewood.”

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Coleman’s Portable Camp Oven

Christopher Cunningham — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:38:01 +0000

I like to eat especially well when I’m cruising, and enjoy the juxtaposition of roughing it in a small boat with fine dining while at anchor. I’ve done well with frying and sautéing on camp stoves, but I’ve missed baked goods. I’ve known about Coleman’s Portable Camping Oven for decades but had never seen one in use. It was time to give it a try; I bought one.

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Malone’s MicroSport

Kent and Audrey Lewis — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:35:49 +0000

Our small-craft collection includes a punt, two kayaks, seven sailboats, and a canoe; they range in length from 8′ to 17′ and in weight from 40 lbs to 150 lbs. Rather than buying multiple trailers or committing to the cartop challenge, we found a small, multipurpose trailer with an extensive selection of racks that supports a variety of boats in our fleet: the Malone MicroSport Trailer.

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Pontchartrain and Maurepas

W. Peter Sawyer — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:30:36 +0000

Next up for the day was a 22-nautical-mile sail aboard my 23′ Norwalk Islands Sharpie (NIS 23), MYRNA C, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans to Madisonville with three friends. No clouds marred the sky. The breeze blew from the southeast at 15 to 18 knots. With a single-reefed main and a full mizzen, we sailed out of the harbor on a close reach, and then fell off to head north. A couple miles to our west, the Pontchartrain Causeway shot straight across the brackish lake until it dipped below the horizon. The lake here is 24 miles across but only 10′ to 15′ deep, a trapped shallow sea.

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Seil 18

Nigel Sharp — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:24:30 +0000

François Vivier originally designed the Seil 18 in 1988 for a group of sailors from Nantes, a region of France through which the Loire, the country’s longest river, flows on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. They wanted a boat suitable for rowing and sailing on rivers. The design was intended for glued-plywood construction. When Tasmanian Adrian Levings bought the Seil plans some years ago, they came with a full set of Mylar templates for “pretty much everything.” Today, there are many companies that produce CNC plywood kits, and Vivier can provide electronic CNC cutting files.

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