February 2023 Archives - Small Boats Magazine

Spruce Spoon Oars

Christopher Cunningham — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 04:25:52 +0000

The blades, with their slender profile, slipped neatly into the water at the catch and came free at the finish just as effortlessly. A hard pull during the drive didn’t make the blades flutter; they stayed where I planted them. The looms had enough flex to soften a strong, quick catch and kept a slight bend through the drive, as they should, and then released that stored energy at the finish. I never felt that I was applying more power than the oars could manage.

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Launched

Jenny Bennett — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:30:18 +0000

When I got back home, my parents showed me a copy of Nor’westing, a local boating magazine, which had been published while I was away. In it, presented as the first article of a series, was a letter that I’d written to friends of my parents who had been eager to hear about my trip. They were also the owners of the magazine. I was shocked that my casually written letter had made its way into print and, worse yet, that a few thousand readers were expecting the rest of the story from me. To spare myself further embarrassment, I had to become a writer.

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Hobie 16

Zoe Knowles — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:20:27 +0000

The Hobie 16 is built for two people and is equipped with a second sail and dual trapezes so both crew members can hang their weight well outboard. It is easy to rig, launch, and sail. With its 148.2-sq-ft main and 55.1-sq-ft jib (both fully battened), and its lightweight construction coming in at 320 lbs, the Hobie 16 can reach speeds approaching 24 knots in ideal conditions. Cutting neatly through waves upwind and surfing them downwind, it thrives in breezy and wavy conditions.

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A Sneakbox on the Mississippi

Christopher Cunningham — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:19:09 +0000

Fourteen years earlier, I had done my first solo backpacking trip at the age of 18. Since then, I had increased the challenges of my wilderness adventures, hiking farther, staying out longer, and graduating from summer to winter travel. I was driven to see not only what I was capable of but also if I enjoyed my own company. I continued on that same path with boating, and my cruise with LUNA was the culmination of 14 years of making my way under my own steam. None of the challenges I’d faced on the Ohio and the Lower Mississippi had ever made me wish I were anywhere else. On the bad days I had persevered, on the good days I sang.

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Fine

Christopher Cunningham — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:17:49 +0000

As I stepped aboard the Fine, afloat in the shallow water, it had more than enough stability to support me and stay upright as I brought my weight over the gunwale. Once I was seated, the initial stability was very good and didn’t require the help of the oars to put me at ease. I leaned on the gunwale and the secondary stiffened up reassuringly, even as the sheerline dipped within 1″ of the water.

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A Bridge-Crane Boat Lift

Paul West — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:13:24 +0000

My new one-and-a-half-car garage posed some storage limitations. The overhead door would prevent me from hanging a boat directly above the car. There is floor space off to the side of the parking area, but my family needs that for bicycles and storage. I began to scheme about a way to lift the boat off the car and slide it sideways to hang over the storage area. There are several boat lifts designed for garage storage, but nothing that could move a boat both up and over. I considered barn-door hardware and stumbled across similar rolling hardware made by Unistrut for its slotted-steel channels, which are commonly used in construction projects for structural supports. The company offers ball-bearing trollies that run inside the strut.

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Thixo Flex

Audrey and Kent Lewis — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 22:12:04 +0000

We have used Thixo Flex with excellent results on almost all elements of boat construction and repair, from trunk bedding mahogany to oak, attaching teak knees to sapele plywood, fir frames to mahogany plywood, and fastening solid mahogany rubrails to sapele plywood. It can also be used to make fillets and to wet-out epoxy-compatible fiberglass cloth or woven roving, and can be successfully applied to a wide array of diverse materials.

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SEA BESTIA

Jenny Bennett — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 17:55:07 +0000

In the fall of 2022, one of the three friends mentioned building a boat and holding a Christmas-Day regatta. Discussions moved on and centered around keeping costs down. Ultimately, the rules of the 2022 Christmas Challenge stipulated “one sheet of plywood, no more than £50 for an engine, and whatever else you could beg, steal, or borrow. The rules were never set in concrete, and it led to heated and entertaining debate: basically, it was me seeing how far I could push the boundaries, and the other two altering the rules to stop me.“

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