Gimme Shelter

Some ways to stay warm, dry or out of the sun on your small boat

Nothing compares to cruising in a small, open boat, whether rowing, paddling, sailing or motoring. When underway or at anchor you are close to, sometimes almost in the water—seeing, hearing, feeling and occasionally even tasting the universe below. You’re not riding high above the surface in a boat-shaped apartment, removed. You are in touch, maybe excited but oddly relaxed, absorbing it all.

Okay, stop right there.

While these sentimental, ooey-gooey outpourings are permissible, we deserve to be slapped now and then, until admitting that the most beautiful days can quickly turn soaking wet, freezing cold, windy or all of the above. And when that happens, there you are, huddled in the sleet wishing you’d stayed home in your cozy bed, with the thermostat nudged up and a faithful dog asleep at your feet. About this time, cold and miserable, you might wander toward the dark side, almost admiring the monstrous boat anchored next to you, with its grotesque but dry and toasty cabin. And it’s possible you’ll begin to hate the boat’s skipper, who is probably watching a great Netflix classic on his iPad, while you face certain death via hypothermia. The bastard!

If you’ve had that experience—soaked through, chilled to the marrow—do not despair. There are creative and simple ways to turn your small, open, adventure-seeking boat into a sorta-deluxe accommodation, with some kind of shelter from the elements. You know, a way to believably swear you had the time of your life when later sharing your adventure with friends, family, bus riders or anyone else who’ll listen.

Following are shelters some boating friends have come up with, in absolutely no order.

Sergei Joslin might have the most colorful small boat we’ve cruised with—shown here after he rolled his Scamp above the high-tide mark in Mystery Bay, near Port Townsend, Washington. Out on the boat’s veranda in the evening, Sergei was enjoying the boat’s generous, well-designed cover, with zippers and flaps to control air flow…and the ability to seal the cockpit’s sleeping platform from the elements. All pretty deluxe for a boat measuring 11’ 11” overall.

James McMullen emerges from a good night’s sleep aboard his Iain Oughtred-designed Sooty Tern. The boat’s nifty shelter, secured to the mainmast and mizzen, is fastened over side rails to keep water out of the boat and off of James’ sleeping bag. Nice, clean design and clearly functional.

Bob Miller’s Drascombe Longboat, shown at anchor in Montague Harbour, British Columbia during a small-craft rendezvous, boasts a shelter that has been clearly thought out and crafted: Zippers in several locations so that Bob can have full coverage, or open individual sections to improve ventilation or just seek UV protection when the weather’s nice. So while he mostly takes the cover down when underway, Bob has the option of cruising with one or two of the compartments up and ready for action.

Some folks, like this couple from Montana, keep it simple, in this case finding an off-the-shelf camping tent that’ll drape over the sides of their Michalak-designed Mikes Boat. The roomy solution has worked great during a number of camp-cruising adventures, this one being in northern Puget Sound.

Eric Tirion of British Columbia also made the most of a stock camping tent that somehow fit nicely atop his little 13’ 8” Crawford Melonseed. Eric was taking part in a three-day Palooza Crooza in South Puget Sound, setting up his tent home at Jarrells Cove State Park.

Here we have two views of Jim Tolpin’s 18-foot Poulsbo Boat—the first showing his initial experiment with a tarp stretched over battens (which could be wood or fiberglass), and the second featuring a custom dodger he had made by Best Coast Canvas in Port Townsend. (If you go with the tarp-over-boom approach, or stretch a tarp over battens, be sure you have good ventilation. Even if it doesn’t rain, dripping condensation inside the tarp might make you wish you’d slept under the stars.)

Here’s another Scamp cockpit cover, lower-slung than the one we showed in the first photo. Simeon Baldwin does fine with his custom-tailored approach, which fits the boat nicely and allows for fairly easy boarding from the side. (Side note: Simeon has been a generous and tireless Scamp proponent, answering endless questions of builders and launch-ramp passersby. And, with years of experience in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, he’s a valued buddy to cruise with.)

This camp-cruising sailboat opted for a sturdy, custom-made shelter from UltraShade, a small company that offers whatever dimensions are required for your small cruising boat. See www.crawfordboating.com for details. This boat was photographed during the first-ever 2019 Salish 100, a small-boat cruise from Olympia to Port Townsend, WA—100 nautical miles. For details on the 2023 Salish 100, email jesse@nwmaritime.org.

Bimini tops are a great way to shelter your open cockpit—often more against UV rays than rain. There are a number of different manufacturers and a huge range of sizes, height, width and length dimensions, fabric colors and other choices to be made if you like the basic idea. This Bimini fits Bob and Aleta Mueller’s AF4b outboard cruiser nicely, and they’re clearly enjoying the boat, and protection offered by the Bimini.

A lot of folks who are cruising with boats like this Redwing 18 outboard lack protection in the cockpit area, but not John Kohnen of Oregon, who has a standing-headroom hardtop and fabric side curtains he can deploy when overnighting. Pretty deluxe, turning the cockpit into a roomy space with complete privacy and weather protection.

When nothing seems to make sense for your small, open boat—or your craft is too small to sleep aboard—you can always default to the option of sleeping ashore. That’s what a lot of us do when custom fabric shelters, boom tents or other devices don’t work on our small boats. In this example, we beach camped ashore at Lake Ozette, in Olympic National Park, alongside Jo and Roger Beachy (background), who arrived aboard a not-so-roomy sailing canoe.

So, plan now for an active 2023 season, camp cruising aboard your small but weather-protected craft. After a few pandemic-affected seasons, aren’t all of us eager to get out there and explore? I sure am…with a new boom tent aboard my 14-foot camp cruiser. —Marty Loken •SCA•