Small boats – Page 363 – intheboatshed.net

Would you like to see your project here?

Forest & Stream skiff

Just about everyone who comes to these pages is some kind of boat nut, and I’m a boat nut too. I’d like to make this weblog as interesting and useful to us all as possible, and I want to fill it with news and photographs about:

•Projects about old boats, historic boats, traditionally-built boats, and traditionally-derived boats.

•Boating history and traditions.

•The skills involved, the craftsmen and the available training.

So, whether you own these kinds of boats, work on them, sell them, build them, paint or photograph them, write about their history, design them, run a club or organise events, or collect old songs and stories connected with them – if you would like to bring your projects to the attention of a wider public, email me now at gmatkin@gmail.com!

Adding a small sail rig to an open canoe

We’ve had a lot of sailing cruisers lately, so I thought it would be good to draw some attention to the opposite – the sometimes nerve-wracking madness that is sailing canoes.

Leeboard support thwart

If you happen to have an open canoe and would like to be able to sail it, here’s a link to help you on your way:
http://www.enter.net/~skimmer/building/building.html

You might also want to consider this essay from Moray McPhail of Classic Marine discussing small boat bouyancy – I know I would!
http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/Articles/Reference%20buoyancy.htm

For these and many other essential articles on the techniques of getting your boat ready for the sprint, see the Techniques page at http://intheboatshed.net/?page_id=100

Temptations part V: a dinghy so small, your family will hardly notice…

Chuck Merrell’s Apple Pie dinghy is so small and simple, she’s a real kitchen-table boat – that is, she’s small enough to be built on a kitchen table, and simple enough that you may well be able to finish her before anyone complains that they can’t do anything useful in the kitchen because there’s a boat in the way.

Seriously, it should be possible to build her in a very short space of time, and with very little in the way of materials. She’s also a clever and useful design and would make a great first boatbuilding project. Here’s the link for Chuck’s FREE BOAT PLANS:

http://www.boatdesign.com/applepie/

If you do build one of these boats, we’d love to hear about it! Email me at gmatkin@gmail.com.

Dale Austin built one and has kindly allowed me to post a photo of the finished boat (below). Click on the picture for an enlargement.

He has also put up a photo log complete with instructions on his own site:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrwizard/sail/dinghy/dinghy.html