Ever since I first saw Lake Roosevelt, a Columbia River reservoir in northeast Washington, I’ve wanted to voyage down its 133-mile length. The place seems made for small-boat cruising. The shoreline is almost entirely undeveloped because the west side of the lake is mostly tribal lands and the east side mostly federal lands. The sandy beaches, coves, and campsites are seemingly endless. The summer of 2023, decades after my first encounter with the lake, the stars aligned, and I was able to shove aside the affairs of life on land for two weeks. While August is not the best month for a voyage on Lake Roosevelt, because of the heat and light winds on the lower lake, this was my time. I packed the boat and on August 7 my wife dropped me off at Northport, a town on the left bank of the Columbia River about 10 miles downstream from the Canadian border. Fully laden SIRIUS weighs only about 600 lbs and can be comfortably towed behind a family car.
Photographs by the author
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I took a hard look a Jim Michalak’s birdhouse designs, but then was pulled away by other more complicated designs. Your wonderful voyage will have me review them again. Any thoughts on the flat bottom Jewelbox vs Scram-pram or IMB?
IMB is my actual building project. I finished all parts about two years ago and looking forward to put her together this year. She has a very spacious cabin for her length.
“Cabin was a greenhouse” – So this was concerning, I have heard of another JM Birdhouse nicknamed “EZ Bake Oven” I believe. But the heat you describe would be disabling in any boat – sitting in the cockpit or “furnace” of the cabin. Thoughts on tinting or reflective material on windows? Insulation on the roof? Bimini or tarp above cabin slot, not sealed, so hot air can exhaust (your pool liner idea is brilliant – thanks for sharing), venting? Or was it simply the three-digits tempts?
Normally I don’t have a problem with the heat, and one reason I selected this design was for the shade the cabin offered. On this trip it was the triple-digit heat, the searing sun and calm that did me in and any other boat would have had the same problem I’m sure. My wife and I spent last winter aboard a 21′ fiberglass sloop in the Florida Keys. Once my wife had to throw me overboard and tow me along through Florida bay, bobbing in my life jacket for a few miles while I cooled off. Once or twice I did the same for her. Sometimes the heat just gets to you.
Hi John!
The only Scram Pram I’ve seen in person is heavily modified from the plans, wears a junk rig and cannot sail to windward at all. It may normally be a good boat but it seems heavy and complicated to me, and I do not care for water ballast. For the same investment I think I’d rather build something else.
I quite like the IMB, but I’ve never seen one. It seems a well thought-out boat and an economical build. I came close to choosing that design myself, but went with the Jewel Box Jr because it used a building technique I was familiar with. I don’t like the mast in the cabin, it complicates the hell out of sealing the cabin rain tight and the mast step is right where you are sleeping, and the off-set mast does make the boat heel more on one tack than the other. So I’d probably build it as a cat-yawl, as I did my Sirius.
As far as the flat bottom vs the multi-chine, I don’t see much advantage of one over the other. The Jewel Box Jr. is tender. The bottom is 4′ wide at best and heavily rockered fore and aft and there is much top-hamper. Given any weight to the wind she sails at enough of an angle that she does not pound. In light winds I often sit to leeward to make her heel some. In certain conditions all three of the above boats will pound, and I think Scram Pram would be worse of all because of her beam. The flat bottom also provides more available flat space within.
Great trip! I remember you building the boat, nice work. I’ve cruised the lower Columbia and plan to spend some time up there eventually.
Quite a trip, and an ideal antidote to modern life.
That’s a trip that been on my list since I got my boat. Envy!
I truly enjoyed this story. The cabin in our Bolger Birdwatcher can also be stifling, even on decidedly un-desert-like Lake Erie. After converting to leeboards I modified the cabin design by making the starboard amidships plexiglass panel removable. Under sail the panel is secured. The removable panel helps ventilate the cabin on the hottest days which are usually also the calmest and most likely motor-dependent. The primary motivation for my modification was increased comfort afforded by the 6′ bench seat after the centerboard trunk was removed, but the additional advantage of cabin cooling is appreciated. The cabin uses smoke-grey plexiglass, but I don’t think that helps with the greenhouse effect.
You don’t need a multimillion-dollar catamaran to have a good adventure. I may have a Michalak Picara in my future.
Great read. Good to learn of this remote lake. Love the boat. I think this is the build? (I may be the last to discover it.) The best thing I learned in this write up is that Titebond can be an alternative for epoxy when gluing. https://forum.woodenboat.com/forum/building-repair/243788-?263545-Jewelbox-Junior=&highlight=
Yep! That’s the build thread at the WoodenBoat forum. You can see I modified the boat heavily from the plans. Titebond III works great anywhere above the waterline, or anywhere at all on a simple skiff for that matter. My La Madalina reviewed in the September issue was built with Titebond II and has held up fine.
Note that I did use epoxy to laminate the double layer bottom on Sirius. I think that’s one place it’s wise to use. I had purchased three quarts of epoxy and the bottom used all that up, so I used polyester resin to fiberglass the bottom.
Interesting fact: All materials came from my local Ace Hardware and Home Depot except for some epoxy, rudder pintles, and rudder drag links which I ordered from Duckworks. I had fiberglass cloth to cover the bottom leftover from an earlier project. The sails were made by David Gray of PolySail International, who was very helpful figuring the new center of effort and proper mast placements for the yawl modification. Total cost including a new Chinese 3.5 H.P. outboard was $1,944.63.
I read this last month and promptly got on Abe Books to order The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss. What a great book, thank you for mentioning it in the article. I wish I could be on the Columbia again, but my life has taken a different turn. Keep up the great writing!
~Kees~