August 12, 2025
By Marty Loken, Associate Editor at Small Craft Advisor Magazine
For those like me who can’t resist small boats, there are many to savor at this year’s Wooden Boat Festival.
Here are five must-see candidates, plus a bonus, to get you started:
CORA
Jay Haavil, following years as a woodcarver in Norway, started work on this handsome, traditional lapstrake pram at age 81. Although he’d worked on some Viking Ship projects, he’d never built a boat, but the traditional Warren Jordan-designed 10’ lapstrake pram appealed, so he began work in June 2024 and launched this May. Loving the process, he’s currently planning his next small-boat build—to perhaps be unveiled at next year’s Wooden Boat Festival.
GRASSHOPPER
While this eccentric outboard catamaran has appeared before, it’s always a big hit. Designed and built by Port Townsend’s Russell Brown, the boat is currently owned by R2AK veteran Nate Rooks, who uses GRASSHOPPER as a commuter, cruiser and platform to shoot videos for Off Center Harbor. The boat was built atop two Tornado sailing-cat hulls, and includes a lot of parts recycled from other projects.
YOLINDA
Joseph Castaldi of Hood River, Oregon, took four years to carefully build this 16’ 2” melonseed sailing skiff, designed by Marc Barto and inspired by Barnegat Bay, NJ duck-hunting boats of the late 1800’s. Melonseeds are among the most beautiful small boats, and this lapstrake beauty is no exception.
SERENITY
With construction of SERENITY, Anthony Knapp fulfilled his late father’s dream to one day build a boat similar to the Coble fishing craft he’d grown up with on the NE coast of Great Britain. The 22’ open lapstrake hull is outboard powered and used as a salmon set-net skiff, and all-around workboat. Take a close look at the varnished Sitka Spruce planks, fastened with copper rivets.
BURNS COVE
We’ve always loved the early-series Surf Scoters designed by Sam Devlin, and this is a fine example of the 22’ outboard cabin cruisers, refinished by Sam’s son, MacKenzie, following acquisition by the current owner, Stet Palmer. With a 60hp outboard, Stet hopes to cruise the Inside Passage to Ketchikan, figuring it’ll take 100 operating hours and only two refuelings. (Not the sort of economy one finds with new manufactured cruisers in this size range.)
BONUS “MUST-SEE”
We’ve mentioned the Recycled Skateboard Canoe before, but folks really need to take a close look at this creative work of art…made by Grayson Certain of Colorado from slices of recycled maple skateboards, formed into strips of full-length planking by a noted recycling enthusiast. (Don’t miss the thwarts—there’s a lot more to this 15’ canoe than just its strip planks.)
