Pedalboat Palooza!

A look at new and ancient pedal-powered watercraft

Stick with us to learn more about recent and not-so-recent pedalboaters, like this gent and his late-1800’s contraption, which looked like a way to get quite wet without going far. At least not in a hurry!

The subject of pedalboats will not die. Just when I’m done with the topic, they worm their way back to the surface, refusing to fade.

I might be an accidental carrier of the pedalboat virus…whose symptoms have been oddly pleasurable. Without intention, I’ve owned three different pedalboats over the decades, going back to the 1990’s when we were custodians of The Wooden Boat Shop retail store in Seattle.

My symptoms go farther back, to an earlier Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival when I first met the grand guru of Seattle’s pedalboat cult, the brilliant, mischievous, lovable and immensely creative Philip Thiel, a retired university professor who refused to drive automobiles and started pedaling on water with his 16’ Dorycycle—a basic Banks Dory with used bicycle pedals, hardware-store pulleys and v-belts leading to a beautiful wooden three-blade propeller.

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Phil Thiel, on foot as usual. (He shunned cars and preferred to walk or travel by city bus…except when he was on the water.)

Phil pedaling his original 16’ Dorycycle, the most comfortable pedalboat I’ve experienced with its molded-fiberglass seat and smooth, quiet operation. The Dorycycle had a bicycle crank, hardware-store pulleys, v-belts and a gorgeous homemade wooden prop—faster than it looked. I was able to buy Phil’s Dorycycle after he’d developed other smaller, lighter pedalboats, and I enjoyed its use for several years.

Lines of the Dorycycle, including a graph charting hull speed at various pedal rpms; With a deep keel, the plywood dory was stable and smooth.

Phil graduated from MIT and years later designed this propeller for his first pedalcraft, the Dorycycle. Not fully confident regarding his initial design, Phil consulted with an old friend at MIT who had become a prop-design expert. Given Phil’s specifications for boat and drive system, the friend developed a computer-designed prop that—no surprise—was nearly identical to what Phil had doodled on a pad of paper…a gorgeous wooden propeller fashioned from laminated layers of marine plywood, sanded into a smooth and efficient prop.

We were honored to work with Phil in the 1990s during our Wooden Boat Shop days, selling plans for his nifty smaller pedalboats and then helping celebrate his first larger canal-cruising craft, the adorable 18’ 6” x 6’ Escargot, which originally was intended for twin Sea-Cycle drives but was more often powered by a small kicker motor. (Phil found that Escargot could be driven to 4 knots with a 2.5 hp outboard.)

Sadly, Phil died ten years ago in Seattle, leaving behind a substantial crowd of good friends, associates and ardent admirers, myself included.

We encouraged Phil to design a lighter-weight, more easily built pedalcraft, so he came up with the Skiffcycle, a 15’ 7” x 3’ 9” hull weighing 80 lbs., not including the manufactured, removable Sea-Cycle drive unit, which featured a narrow two-blade prop. At a comfortable pedal rate of 50 rpm, an ordinary non-athlete could get to 4.5 mph and cruise all day at 3 mph. We loved the design, but few were built and it appears the Sea-Cycle drive units may no longer be made. (Do readers know anything about them?)

The Wooden Boat Shop’s Skiffcycle prototype, photographed in 1997 on Portage Bay, part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle. (Wish I still owned the boat today, along with the Sea-Cycle drive unit!) Marty Loken photo

This little 18’ 6” Escargot canal cruiser, with modest kicker motor, has been trailered all over creation by its owner-builder. Lots of fun and comfy accommodations in a small package.

After enjoying ownership of Phil’s original Dorycycle, and then later the lightweight Skiffcycle, I somehow avoided pedalboats until 2015, when adventure racer Roger Mann entered the 750-mile Race to Alaska, registering a 16’ rotomolded Hobie Adventure Island trimaran—a glorified lake toy Roger somehow pedaled and sailed to Southeast Alaska, becoming the first solo finisher of the punishing race. (Roger could have become R2AK’s first fatality after suffering nightmarish hallucinations and pitchpoling exhausted and wet onto a beach just north of Cape Caution, somehow tolerating a long, miserable night. (Roger lost some vital equipment when crashing through 20-foot rollers onto the beach, but he luckily found his Hobie seat the next morning, down the beach and half buried in sand. If he’d lost the seat, along with other critical parts of the boat, I’m not sure how he would have continued…or even survived.)

Having admired Roger before the R2AK, I was a supporter and offered to buy the oh-so-available Adventure Island after he reached Ketchikan. The boat was disassembled and carted back to Port Townsend atop an old van, and I enjoyed sailing (but mostly pedaling) the trimaran for the next few years. (It didn’t impress much as a sailboat, but when removing the akas and amas, getting down to the slender 16’ main hull, it pedaled nicely with its Hobie Mirage Drive.

So, that brings us to this Spring, when good friends decided to convert two nice rowing-boat designs into pedalboats, just to see what the fuss was about.

It all started when Jim Tolpin, woodworker, author and avid rower, bought a new Hobie Mirage Drive and hauled it over to Laughing Turtle Boatshop where he got together with his longtime buddy, Oscar Lind. In so many words, Jim said to Oscar, “Well, here’s a pedal drive. How about building a boat to go with it?” And Oscar, being Oscar, responded with something like “Well, sure, why not? Let’s get started!”

After a bit of research, Oscar selected the Growler design by Warren Jordan of Jordan Wooden Boats, a 15’ x 40” flat-bottomed skiff described as a “transom-sterned sailing canoe,” normally rowed, paddled or sailed with a modest lateen rig…but never before host to a Mirage Drive.

(If you’re interested, go to jordanwoodboats.com to see his designs, including the easily built Growler model.)

Word spread, and once he heard about the latest Jim-and-Oscar project, mutual good friend and boatshop mate Bob Miller—who can’t resist a fetching small-boat project—remembered he had a not-yet-completed 15’ x 45” Herreshoff-John Gardner pulling boat waiting for love behind his Port Townsend garage. As a bonus, the boat had a 17”-wide flat bottom, just begging to have a hole cut for the box that would house a Mirage Drive. So Bob dragged the project boat over to our shop, acquired a Mirage Drive with the optional Turbo fins (that reportedly offer 20% greater speeds), and set about transforming the pulling boat into a pedalcraft.

Both projects were finished recently, allowing us to have a little Pedalboat Palooza at the launch ramp, seeing how each design performed with different Mirage Drive models, rope-tethered rudders, comfortable seats and similar hull lengths…and yet quite different hull designs. (The Growler has a wider flat bottom, and a single plank up each side, while the John Gardner modification of an earlier 17’ Herreshoff pulling boat has a narrower section of flat bottom and an otherwise round lapstrake hull.)

Here’s a shot of both boats, side-by-side, with Jim Tolpin in Bob’s elegant double-ender.

The Oscar Lind-built 15’ x 40” Growler skiff, left, and Bob Miller’s reconfigured Herreshoff-John Gardner pulling boat, 15’ 8” x 45,” at right. For two hulls with such different designs, it was interesting how similar they were in performance with the Mirage Drives. (Marty Loken photo)

Both boats had similar camping chairs—almost the Barco Loungers of small craft—and similar drop-down rudders, skegs and boxes to house the Mirage Drives. Both reached what we’d call “all-day geezer speeds” of about 2.6 knots, or let’s say 3 or 3.5 knots for younger pedalers who are in shape and maybe doing some on-land bicycling. (I briefly got to 4.3 knots with both boats, but was ready to stroke out at the 50-yard line, preferably with a beer in hand.)

Oscar and Jim’s flat-bottomed skiff had slightly greater stability than Bob’s substantially round-bottomed hull, but both were rock solid once you were aboard and seated.

Our other shopmate, Denis Wang, tries out Jim and Oscar’s 15’ Growler skiff, gliding along almost effortlessly. Note the yoke and steering lines running forward. For this first trial, Oscar’s plexiglass kick-up rudder tended to float up a bit underway. He inserted a small disc of lead for the second run and the blade stayed in place. (Marty Loken photo)

Jim Tolpin returns to the dock after a spin aboard Bob Miller’s Herreshoff-Gardner rowing boat…gliding smoothly. Both Mirage Drives have adjustable fore-and-aft pedal positions, to accommodate short and taller boaters. (Bob Miller photo)

The Hobie Mirage Drive nests snugly inside its sturdy wooden box—this one being the container Oscar Lind built for Jim’s standard Mirage Drive. (Marty Loken photo)

Although similar, the Turbo fins on the right-hand Mirage Drive offer what Hobie says might be roughly 20% additional speed or thrust, and the blades pivot straight back against the hull if striking bottom or other objects. Both Mirage Drive fins fold up flat, to the sides of each hull, when boaters want to enter shallows or go ashore. (Marty Loken photo)

With not much to favor either of the pedalboat hulls, we took both out for a side-by-side test, pedaling each at the same rpm (not really “rpms” with the Mirage Drive—more like fore-and-aft stroke rates). Bob’s boat, with the optional Turbo blades slowly crawled ahead of Jim and Oscar’s hull, with the standard MD unit, but I suspect that if we’d switched drives from boat to boat, the Turbo would have made Jim and Oscar’s boat slightly faster.

So, we had a great time experiencing Hobie’s drives in two easily-driven wooden rowing boats, leaving some of us with an interesting question: Is it possible we might prefer facing forward, pedaling, instead of rowing our various small craft? (While pedaling seems about the same as rowing in terms of hull speed and general efficiency, I won’t soon abandon oars. Pedaling offers a nice view ahead, but to me it’s like being on an exercise bike with a good view.

Many of us have been rowing since childhood and we love how we feel connected to the watery environment with oars; how we work more areas of our aging bodies when rowing, and how rowing allows us to quickly respond to changing wind and water conditions, like waves that come out of nowhere…and how harbor seals seem drawn to the quiet rhythm of our oars, silently swimming behind our transoms to stare, dog-faced, at a boat that is slipping gracefully through their waters. Pedaling is work; rowing is fun…and, okay, some of us are old cranks who resist change.

OTHER PEDALBOATS, OLD AND BRAND NEW…

It turns out that pedal-powered craft have been around forever, and for the most part they’ve been driven by paddlewheels.

The first one we could find was a weird little skiff designed by Leonardo da Vinci. (Yes, that Leonardo. It apparently took two strong mariners pushing on the paddlewheels to get going, but it still deserves pioneer status.)

A model of Leonardo’s little lapstrake paddleboat.

There were other early inventions, some that might have been successful, before the emergence of modern-day pedalboats.

Most early pedalboats involved paddles, vs. propellers. (I get tired just thinking about racing this model across the pond.)

As if a single-seat paddleboat isn’t enough, just add a second pedaling station so you can yell at your companion when they fail to keep pace—or they can scream right back at you. It seems to me that double kayaks, tandem bikes and two-place pedalboats are a recipe for divorce, or at least a brief separation, especially if you’re trying to propel this barge around the lake.

And then there’s this gentleman, apparently ready to get his suitpants and dress shoes wet by rolling into the bay aboard his late-1800’s amphibious contraption. (Oh, how I wish we had access to photos taken after he hit the water! The waterline was presumably in the middle of the upper round-ball floats…right at crotch level. That alone might speed your pedaling…)

Unfortunately, all around the world, this is what most people picture when we say “pedalboat.” Something that’s usually for two folks cranking a hidden paddlewheel. Sigh.

Or this…

We could go on—a quick survey uncovered dozens of goofy examples—but we’ll spare you the larger collection and move on.

In more recent years, pedalboaters have started coming up with their own ways to speed across the water using larger leg muscles, like this swift entrant in the Seventy48 human-powered race from Tacoma to Port Townsend, Washington. (Marty Loken photo)

This 12’ 2” Escapade pedalboat by Nauticraft, can get to 3.5-4 mph in relative comfort, swinging a two-blade 15” propeller. The rotomolded hull has a ballasted keel for stability. This owner pedaled from Tacoma to Port Townsend in the first Seventy48 human-powered race. He met his wife, who was following the course by car, when he got to Port Ludlow Marina, the last pit stop before reaching the finish line in Port Townsend. They enjoyed a splendid dinner at the Fireside restaurant and a luxurious sleep in the hotel’s king-size bed before he cruised easily to Port Townsend the next morning. The hardships of racing! (Marty Loken photo)

The ever-inventive Harry Bryan found another way to use pedal-power, designing and building an articulated fish-tail whose wagging action propels his Thistle model along at a speed roughly comparable to rowing or paddling. Another ingenius creation from the talented designer-builder. (Off Center Harbor photo)

And finally, recognizing that electric-bike sales seem to be gradually overtaking Schwinns and ten-speeds we grew up with, here is the intriguing Manta 5 foiling electric pedalcraft from New Zealand, which gets on top of the water at 4 mph and can run continuously at up to 12 mph for 4.5 hours with a pedaling assist. Range and speed will no doubt increase in the future, along with size and carrying capacity…so this might be the future of pedal-assisted, mostly-electric small craft…flying atop the water through waves big and small, skimming on carbon-fiber wings. You can have your own Manta 5 for a paltry (ahem) $9,000.

As always, thanks for reading. - Marty