In This Issue

2 Commentary
3 From the Journals of Constant Waterman
4 You write to us about…
5 A Wooden Boat Festival in Philadelphia
6 Starvation 2008 9 A Lifetime on the Water:
   Part 5: A Brief Passage on the Solent
12 Vacation Cruise
13 Cape Cod Harbors: The Cruise to
   Plymouth Harbor
14 Water Wandering in the Caribbean
17 Waterlogged: Part 2
20 Chief Factor James Anderson’s Back River
    Journal of 1855: Part 5
22 Learning by Experience
24 Beyond the Horizon
26 Boats Really Don’t Make Sense: No Such
     Thing as an Ideal Boat
27 Honeymoon Exits; Reality Begins
28 25 Years Ago in MAIB: Spray…
    Perseverance Prevailed
29 Our Dark Harbor Project
32 Trojan Inboard to Outboard Conversion
35 Dreamcatcher is Finally Finished!!!
36 Alone…A Skiff for Camping and Cruising
38 Alone…A Model
40 The Seagoing Dinghy, Part 2
42 Back to the Windjammer (Via the Dink)
44 Pop-I the Sailer
48 Scow Sailors Love a Challenge
50 Bolger on Design: Update on Double Eagle
56 From the Lee Rail
57 Trade Directory
64 Classified Marketplace
67 Shiver Me Timbers

On The Cover
Turner Matthews’ photo of two classic small sailboats at anchor awaiting their next outings exemplifies the anticipation that drives small boaters in their infatuation with their dreams, the promise of what might await when next they get out on the water.

Thank you for your interest in our little magazine devoted to the pleasures of messing about in boats. After 25 years and just over 600 issues (we published 24 times a year 1983-2007, now 12 times yearly) we have yet to run out of fascinating and informative articles (mostly submitted by our readers) extolling the pleasures to be had messing about in affordable small boats unspoiled by today’s overwhelming technology.

Our Home Page is from the cover of the October, 2008 issue, and the table of contents on this page from that issue illustrates a typical range of topics covered in each 60-page issue. Looking down the list you will find a broad range of reports on events and gatherings, reader adventures afloat, historical stories from simpler times, readers’ tales of designing, building and restoring the boats of their dreams, as well as regular columns by contributing readers on a variety of small boat related topics. Designer Phil Bolger has been with us since 1986 discussing designs from amongst the 600 plus he has made in his career, most of them aimed at the home builder.

Included on this website is a selection of Recent Feature Articles to better give you a look at what sort of reading you might expect to enjoy. If these stimulate further interest we suggest that you request the Free Sample Copy we offer. Should this then suggest you’d like to see more but still are wary of committing $32 for a full year subscription, we offer a three month Trial Subscription for $8. All these options can be found on the Subscription Order Form page.

Another service we provide to any interested persons (subscribers or not) are photocopies of bygone articles found in the Index of Articles 1983-2000. Photocopies from amongst the thousands of articles we published during those years can be ordered from the Index, the details are located on the Index introductory page. The Index stops in 2000 as that is as far as a volunteer reader undertook to inventory our archives at that time. We have had no time to pursue indexing the years 2001 to the present, we’re too busy turning out the monthly 60 pagers we now offer.

I launched this magazine in the spring of 1983 as I found the available consumer oriented magazines were not speaking to my interests and the various small club newsletters came out too infrequently and were too small to cover the multitude of topics I felt were out there of interest to myself and others interested in do-it-yourself small boating. The original 16 page issues grew to 40 pages, published twice a month, 24 times a year. In 2008 we had to cut back to a monthly schedule as the postage rates skyrocketed 40%, more than we could afford without a major increase in the subscription price. To compensate for this cutback in frequency we increased the size to 60 pages. Our readers have found this acceptable as we carry on in our 26th year.