About Us

This constantly evolving site includes our most popular “do-it-yourself” projects from the last 20 years, and we’ll add new ones as they publish. We’ll eventually include all our most popular boats, way back to the first version of our lightweight rowing dory published in Popular Science magazine in 1984.

Harley, Chief of Security and Cultural Advisor

We’ve published in most of the popular boating magazines, and we also did projects for "Family Handyman", "Workbench", and "Mechanix Illustrated". We designed and built projects for the American Plywood Association for over 10 years, and we’ve worked for Outdoor Life magazine for over 15 years doing outdoor related projects including at least one boat every year. I was also a contributing editor to the original Small Boat Journal. Over the years we’ve published well over 200 project articles, three how-to books for International Marine and Rodale Press, and in the process we’ve designed and built over 100 small boats for publication and clients.

Our building plans are very detailed and include sketches, photos, material sources, step-by-step, builders tips and discussion of many options to modify each project. All plans are written and illustrated with amateur and first-time builders in mind, and we encourage customizing each project. I’ll show you how to build the basic boat, where to buy the best materials and how to put them together, and you can choose from many options to suit your own specific needs. The Maxi-Mac boat plans for example, include over 40 pages in an easily read spiral bound shop manual format which covers each phase of construction, including pro and con experiences. Hundreds of versions of each project have been built and we use the feedback from builders to improve and upgrade project design and building plans. And plans buyers are welcome to email any time with questions and comments.

I am primarily a wood boat builder. I was fortunate to serve a traditional wood boatbuilding apprenticeship, building plank on frame workboats and yachts, from design and lofting phase right through to mast and spars and final finish, and I worked with a number of talented European shipwrights doing repair, modification, new construction and on custom projects. Along the way I served a hitch in the Marines, then a hitch in the Peace Corps establishing a vocational boatbuilding school in the Sulu region of the southern Philippines. I studied with Westlawn School of Design for a few years, spent enough time in a small boat design office to know I belonged out in the shop instead, and finagled as much time on the water rowing and sailing as I could manage between deadlines. And we have applied everything we've learned from building boats to a variety of projects including hot tubs, saunas, furniture, heirloom toys, campers, cabins and houses.

I eventually discovered the possibilities of designing and building with quality plywood and epoxy, and developing the ability to engineer structures and control the moisture content of wood to some degree. My design and building philosophy evolved with the availability of new materials and I began to realize that proper design, and combination of these materials could result in predictable and long-lasting strength and weight characteristics. Combined with some traditional design features we could build small boats and other projects that would perform better and require much reduced maintenance over the long term. We built some of the first large sailboats using cold-molded and ply/epoxy materials and techniques. The acid test was one of the first ply/epoxy white water dories built for commercial use in the Grand Canyon. We built a prototype and handed it over to the river guides, and after a season of use Grand Canyon Dories ordered six more boats for their fleet, most of which are still in service.

Like the evolution of design and building philosophy, our interests also evolve, and I find myself more fascinated with small lightweight boats and activities like small-stream exploring and river floating, camp-cruising, sailing in mini-cruisers and open water rowing. Considering all the boats we’ve built and owned, from 34 foot sailboats down to 8 foot prams, the smaller boats, the rowing dories, small sail boats and camp-cruisers have been by far the most enjoyable. They’ve also been the most fun to build, the least expensive, the most carefree and rewarding in every way.