The Future of Small-Boat Production
…In Which We Build Our Own Dreamboats in Garages, Basements and Shops
One of our favorite things at Small Craft Advisor is seeing what you, our readers, are building at home in your garages, basements and shops—the small wooden boats you craft from plans, kits or the seat of your paint-stained pants.
It occurred this week that you and other boat nuts might represent the future of small-boat production around the world, since over the past four decades most companies building small fiberglass cruising boats have closed their doors…or upsized to plants knocking out only larger models. (Just one example: Ranger Fiberglass Boats, covered in a recent Shallow Draft, which following a change in ownership morphed into Ranger Tugs, leaving behind all of the company’s early small-boat models.)
Of course, countless Small Craft Advisor readers are still happily sailing vintage fiberglass boats made by now-shuttered companies—and most of those fine boats, in loving hands, will have a long shelf life.
We’re lucky to still have a number of contemporary builders of small, high-quality fiberglass boats, but we can’t imagine a lot of additional companies thinking they’ll make big bucks on small boats. So, today and into the future we’re witnessing a new kind of small-boat revival—mostly taking place in the aforementioned garages, basements and shops of folks just like you, our readers.
So, we appeal to all home-based boatbuilders to continue sending photos and details on your projects, but we also hope to spend more time personally visiting folks who are working on new small-boat builds.
That process began last Friday with an expedition to Bainbridge Island, in central Puget Sound, to admire the creative mods Jeff Patrick is making in his backyard shop, as he completes a 22’ John Atkin-designed Ninigret.
The Ninigret Day Boat That’s Becoming a Real Cruiser
The Ninigret was designed by Atkin in 61 years ago for a customer who wintered in Florida and spent summers in Rhode Island. He needed a seaworthy, attractive, easily-driven outboard boat for fishing in Florida and near-shore day trips in Rhode Island, and the Ninigret not only satisfied his needs, but went on to become one of John Atkin’s best-selling plans—a boat with generous 8’ cockpit, small, low-slung cabin with simple berths and porta-potty, and a 25-30-hp outboard in a well. The boat was happy at low trolling speeds, or running comfortably at 18 knots. Just the ticket for the original customer, and for so many of us who have drooled over Ninigret drawings for decades.
Jeff Patrick wanted a trailerable outboard camp cruiser, and like many of us he spent endless months staring at different potential models to build.
One of his first thoughts was Sam Devlin’s 24’ Surf Scoter, a timeless classic design. Jeff loved the Surf Scoter and even bought a set of plans, but he had to conclude the boat would be on the heavy side, demanding purchase of a larger outboard and stronger towing rig.
Another intriguing candidate was Doug Hylan’s 26’ 6” outboard cruiser, Bowler, a design Hylan says “descended from Harry Bryan’s inspired Handy Billy, which in turn can trace its origins back to William Hand’s vee-bottom designs from the early 20th century”…handsome, sea kindly, efficient and attractive to the home builder. But the Bowler, like Devlin’s Surf Scoter, required a bigger outboard motor than Jeff hoped for, and was also too heavy for his tow vehicle to handle. (Jeff also considered Bryan’s Handy Billy, but unlike the Surf Scoter and Bowler, it lacked the hull volume to support a comfortable cruising cabin.)
So, in the end, Jeff bought plans for the Atkin Ninigret and got to work, designing a longer, taller and slightly wider cabin than the original created by Atkin. During the process, Jeff opted for glued-lap planking instead of fasteners, and he also added a slightly raised foredeck to help with room down below—converting the Ninigret “day boat” into a comfortable small cruiser that should weigh a trailerable 2400 pounds.
(An aside: Jeff has deeply appreciated critical-eye help from his pal, Steve Borgstrom, another home boatbuilder who crafted a beautiful Oughtred-designed Eun Mara sailboat.)
Interior of Jeff’s Ninigret will include narrow bunks to port and starboard, a helm seat, small galley and space for a porta-potty. Another creative improvement: Jeff will fashion dual steering stations—one inside the cabin and a second outside an aft cabin bulkhead. The plan is to steer the 30-hp Suzuki with a continuous loop of Dyneema running through blocks and pex pipe, using side-mounted push-pull sticks rather than steering wheels. He’ll hope to manage throttle and shift the same old-school way, avoiding use of the modern factory controls.
A large hatch forward of the cabin, easily accessed, will allow Jeff to deploy and retrieve his anchor, chain and rode—stored just ahead of the hatch in a self-draining recess.
When I visited Jeff’s shop, along with Peter Marshall of Marshall’s Cove Marine Paints (Pete was delivering a paint order), we learned that Jeff is not a first-time builder of small wooden boats. As a retired designer-builder of custom furniture, Jeff had earlier done a beautiful job on a John Brooks’ Soames Sound daysailer—Brooks’ version of the classic Herreshoff and Haven 12-1/2’s. He’d also constructed a nice Hvalsoe 13’ lapstrake rowing boat, designed by Eric Hvalsoe of Seattle.
Here are a few photos of Jeff’s project, to be completed by late summer. The new Ninigret will make its debut, finished or not, at the upcoming July 26-27 Small Boat Festival, to be held at Port Ludlow Marina, south of Port Townsend, WA. For details, go to pocketyachters.com
We will also follow-up in a future Shallow Draft, showing you Jeff’s completed Ninigret, zipping around the Salish Sea and anchored in quiet backwater coves.
Please let me know in Comments below if you’d like SCA to visit more workshops and report on small boats being built therein. (We love seeing what others are doing, so we’d be happy to oblige if readers want more of this stuff.)
Thanks, as always, for reading. - Marty
Thanks to all readers who have responded positively to the idea of writing more Shallow Draft pieces about small boats being built in readers’ basements, garages and home-based shops. (I guess we’d better add ‘second bedrooms,’ too.) We’ll do that every chance we get, since we love visiting with and celebrating boatbuilders, along with the impressive, interesting craft they’re building! - Marty
This is without a doubt, the road ahead for small boats. Even remanufacturing the better examples to keep them around is a very hard stretch, even with shops like Chesapeake Light Craft offers. (Which both builders and rehab folks should check out). These small boats however are much more important to our sport than one might think and I encourage folks who want to build or have built to move ahead with their dream with only one word of caution. Just a small increase in size can end your dream with a half finished boat. Don't give up your dreams! They are important. Just be as sure you can be to assure a finished product. It will be worth it.