Category: Small boats

Chappelle crabbing skiff

Crabbing skiff Crabbing skiff Crabbing skiff

Crabbing skiff Cinnamon Girl

Speaking of Chappelle as I was yesterday, I was very interested to see a post at Duckworksmagazine about a crabbing skiff described in his little book Crabbing Skiffs, and built from his drawings.

The book Crabbing Skiffs can still be obtained from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and anyone interested in these elegant but simple boats might also like to read Reuel Parker’s The Sharpie Book, which is now pretty well established as the standard introductory work on the topic of American sharpie-style boats, and includes enough information to build a range of boats ranging from small river boats to pocket cruisers based on traditional types.

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Ashcroft and Chappelle – are their dinghies related?

Tom Dunderdale’s Iota

Tom Dunderdale’s Iota

I have been intrigued by Tom Dunderdale’s commentary relating to his Iota dinghy design for some weeks (see it here), not least because I am in the happy position of being able to test Tom’s suggestion that the 10ft dinghy design Howard Chappelle gives in his classic work Boatbuilding may have been inspired by an earlier design by Herbert J Ashcroft.

Being a book nut, I happen to own the Chappelle book, and another first published by Ashcroft in 1927. Ashcroft, I should explain, spent much of his life developing a Continue reading “Ashcroft and Chappelle – are their dinghies related?”

Boat building and cruising inspiration from New Zealand

John Welsford’s cruising dinghies

John Welsford’s cruising dinghies John Welsford’s cruising dinghies John Welsford’s cruising dinghies

John Welsford’s cruising dinghies John Welsford’s cruising dinghies

Navigator Jaunty and Pathfinder Varuna photographed by David Perillo

Take a look at these photos – I can’t imagine how anyone could look at them without feeling inspired. The scenery is the coast of New Zealand, and the boats are a Navigator and a Pathfinder, both large cruising dinghies designed by John Welsford.

Just as we slide gloriously into summer here in the UK, it seems odd to think of John and his countrymen and women slipping towards their winter. But we shouldn’t feel too sorry for them yet, judging by Continue reading “Boat building and cruising inspiration from New Zealand”