Category Archive

The lady Jane was originally built to race in lighting fleet 132, on Lake Washington. The boat slowly fell into neglect before ending up stored in a barn in Silverdale for 25 years. After a three year refit, she has been reconfigured and updated with a more modern downwind sail plan, a cabin, extra flotation and a robust electrical system. …

Murrelet was conceived as a downsizing project after nearly 40 years with my owner-built Lyle Hess Cutter Able. The plans were unavailable from the Nielsen estate but the lines were published in a Wooden Boat article by Maynard Bray. Originally at 18.3 feet, the lines were redrawn and stretched to 19 feet by Peter Christiansen of Shaw island. She was …

CORSAIR II “Corsair II”, custom designed by naval architect Leigh Coolidge and built in 1926 by Martinac in Tacoma for B. F. Jacobs, was a predicted log racer. Martinac Shipyard remains an active boat builder, yet built only four yachts. She appeared in Buffalo Marine Engine and Union Oil advertising, touting Jacobs’ skills winning races like the Olympia – Victoria …

Launched in 1948, Morning Star’s first owners were Walter and Katy Maertens, who were one of the six founding couples of the Seven Seas Cruising Association. They lived aboard in Glorietta Bay in San Diego for nearly 30 years. Every winter they cruised to Mexico, Central America, and the Galapagos Islands. Summers often found them cruising the Channel Islands. Of …

Puffin was built by Truscott in St. Joseph, Michigan in 1906. Starting out as a hotel “limo”, by the 1980’s she was in disrepair near Mackinac Island and was rebuilt, along with her sistership, the Antiqua. At this time Puffin was retrofitted to steam power from gas power to be more representative of her era. Puffin ended up in Seattle …

History: Maggie Jane is a Herreshoff H28 modified (29’ with added doghouse and bowsprit). She was home built and originally sailed in Lake Michigan in the late sixties. Hull construction is mahogany strip planking, edge glued and fastened. A slow, on and off, 10 year restoration was recently completed by the current owner and included reconstruction of the cabin, interior, …

Solitude III is a John C. Harris-penned “PocketShip” sailboat. Per the designer, this stitch and glue boat, “is a small cruising sailboat of refined model, meant to sail well on all points, provide dry camping accommodations for two adults, and tow behind a four-cylinder car.” This gaff-rigged sloop weighs in at about 1100lbs (with ballast) in her typical daysailing configuration. …

In the preface of William Gardens first book “Yacht Designs” there is a copy of a letter he received from a couple who were then in New Zealand. They had sailed from California to the Marquesas Islands then on through the South Pacific to Tahiti. Finally, arriving in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand they were working to replenish their …

Sam Devlin designed the Song Wren in 2011, but this first example was completed and launched in 2019. I made a few minor alterations in the design, most notably using hollow birdsmouth construction for the Sitka spruce mast and integrating the mast tabernacle into the cabin front for both strength and aesthetic reasons. The cabin interior is outfitted as nicely …

Dr. Petra has navigated the Yaquina river as well as part of the Columbia River and completed last years Salish 100 from Olympia to Port Townsend, WA. Completed in 2017, she took 2 yrs 10 months to build and is constructed of straight-grained Doug fir and Doug fir plywood. Fastenings are silicone bronze and some stainless steel. She has also …