Category Archive

Ripple is a locally-built cutter with 3 trips to Alaska under her keel. She was built by the Northwest School for Wooden Boat Building, the first of 3 Atkins Gary Thomas designs built by the school. Ripple is cedar-planked on oak frames, Re-powered by the owner with a two-cylinder Beta 14. in 2018, she has 3 trips to Alaska and …

Holiday has been family-owned since launched in July 1946. My Grandfather Rex Bartlett commissioned Ed Monk Sr. to design her and she was built on Seattle’s Lake Union by the Edison Technical School. Jim Chambers, who ran the school along with Earl Wakefield and Vic Franck, also worked on building her. I grew up on the boat and later helped …

Vito Dumas started her life as “Irupe” in the Rio de la Plata area of Argentina. She made her way to San Diego in 1975 after a voyage up to the Caribbean and Panama Canal by Pepe and Julio Ozan. I purchased then named Vito Dumas in early 1976 with a partner. We spent a winter in San Diego doing …

Jean Alden uses the traditional catboat configuration to achieve the objectives of a weatherly pocket cruiser that maximize my available shop space while still fitting on a trailer. Mostly I built “by eye” with little attempt to follow a plan other than to steal some hull sections from Phil Bolger’s twelve foot Bobcat. My shop is large enough for a …

The design is Rascal by Ken Bassett. She was built by the owner and completed in 2014. Cold molded, batten seam construction, planked in mahogany and maple. The bottom incorporates a 12″ wide speed pad allowing for tremendous acceleration and top speed with moderate power. The vintage Mercury outboard powering her uses a 1980 140HP powerhead with a short shaft …

Built on Bainbridge Island in the 1980’s, TUMBLEHOME has a sheathed epoxy-cedar strip planked hull. A curvaceous teak wheelhouse allows inside or outside steering. The hull form fairs to a canoe stern, with long overhangs, and a notably round tumblehome mid-section. The interior is Alaskan yellow cedar and Honduras mahogany. A lead fin keel balances the sloop rig with a …

Sofia, a William Garden-designed North Sea Trawler, was built by Gordy Hall and another shipwright over the course of 14 months and launched as GAY NINETIES in Sechelt, BC, in 1968. Before launching her, Gordy took the original plans to Mr. William Garden and asked him to change the stern from the original Canoe style to a modified Fantail. He …

Stella is a 17′ Whitehall rowing skiff handcrafted from western red cedar and Sitka spruce using Gougeon clear finish, composite technology by Joe Titlow in 2015. More details can be found at SmallBoatsMonthly.com/article/Whitehall-17/

Trine is one of the few remaining 40kvm2 Spissgatter racer-cruisers built between 1938–47 in Sarpborg, Norway. These were not “one-designs” but built to a “restriction measurement rule”. This meant designers could vary their plans so long as the lines remained within the maximum and minimum measurements. Each carried the “W” registration number. Einar Iverson, a wealthy paper magnate, commissioned a …

Nymph was built by McGruer & Co. in Scotland in 1963. She spent her first 15 years sailing in Scotland, then sailed to BC via the Atlantic, the Canal, and Hawaii. A recent book provides details about her construction, McGruer & Co. and her 4 sisterships. She was build #606 at the McGruer family boatyard. McGruer & Co. used full-length …