Category Archive

The Cocktail Class Wooden Race Boat or Skua first appeared in Rudder Magazine in 1939. Charles McGregor designed this small racing skiff to take advantage of a new building material — plywood. The fun of this boat is both building it from the Chesapeake Light Craft, stitching and gluing the complete kit, then racing it. J.W. Widmayer built my boat …

Gary Mull was commissioned by Sparkman & Stephens to design an ocean racer to compete with the Cal 40. The result was the Spirit 33 strip planked sloop. Six were built and raced in major ocean races around the world with great success. Orpheus is the only Spirit with a trunk cabin for cruising. She was featured in the September …

I first saw this vessel at Wooden Boat Fest 2012, having been a boater for many years already, I was drawn to what I perceived as a “doable” boat to be able to handle. I became the “next and current steward” of St. Brendan in February of 2013. The St. Brendan Voyage is a fascinating book, recounting the tale of …

This is a traditionally built cedar lapstrake hull on oak frames, footed lug sail, and no engine. After sailing and owning fiberglass boats for many years, I grew to want a pure sailing, wood boat that would be like riding in wind-powered fine furniture, open hull, just a simple sailboat that sails and rows easily. For years I planned on …

Karen and Randy are the fourth owners of Whistler. She was returned to the Devlin shop for a refresh and upgrade in 2013 by her third owner. When we purchased her in 2020 she was brought home and was again being restored when she suffered a major cabin fire. She was able to again brought back to like-new condition and …

ERN is built of mahogany planks on white oak frames by John Barkhouse in Chester, Nova Scotia, in 1957. She is well known on the B.C. coast, from the pilot books “Charlie’s Charts”, written by her previous owners, Charlie and Margo Wood. ERN is a custom-built, cutter-rigged sailboat of wood construction throughout, having a raked stern, round bilges to a …

This sit-on-top kayak, designed by Bedard Yacht Design of Tarpon Springs, FL, is a unique, stitch and glue kayak constructed with marine-grade plywood, fiberglass cloth and epoxy. Built in 2020, the kayak is much more stable than traditional kayak designs, making it perfect for fishing, photography, or paddling with your favorite pet.

Tsunami, the 8’ Tiny Titan, Classic 3 point hydroplane race boat is a design by the famous designer Glen L. Witt ( whose company is now based in Port Townsend, WA, headed by Josh who was head at Duckworks ). This 80-pound plywood hydroplane boat of mahogany veneer plywood was raced in competition races in Washington by its 12-year-old co-builder. …

It is 22’ x 8’, which I designed and built from a half-model I carved, for use as a salmon set-net skiff. Planking is Sitka spruce, 11 strakes per side, copper riveted. The transom is planked with fir and framed in oak, and the outboard motor notch is offset to starboard to allow a net to be run out over …

This boat was designed and built by renowned boatwright, William H. Grunwald of Aeolus Yachts (who is listed and exhibited in the San Francisco National Maritime Historical Park and Museum). Keno was built in the late 1980s, The design is based on an early 20th Century “Fantail Skipjack”, which was used extensively in the fishing industry of the New Foundland/Labrador/Nova …