WaterCraft

17/06/2026

Coming soon! Our July/August issue of WaterCraft – in the mail to subscribers from 18 June and in stores from 25 June.

• OUR CHANGING TIMES – Kathy Mansfield visits Peter Freebody & Co, the boatyard which led the renaissance of traditional Thames rivercraft and still inspires today.

• SPRITSAIL SKIPPER – While down in the estuary, the traditional Thames barges with their lofty rigs are still sailing today. Chris Martin tells how he became a master with the Thames Sailing Barge Trust (TSBT).

• ON THE ROAD – Cat Holman starts her small boat season with a micro-adventure, trailing the family’s home-built fishing lugger from Cornwall across the EU to Greece.

• BUILD YOUR OWN 30′ (9.1M) JUNK RIGGER – Paul Gartside updates the experimental minimalist voyager of his youth for today’s youthful optimists – of all ages.

• FIRST HOME BUILD – In New Zealand with skills he learned at the UK’s Boat Building Academy, Mark Dumble offers a ‘Kiwi’s Take’ on a Gartside Outboard Launch.

• BUILDING DART – Despite the isolation of Covid lockdowns, John Floutier designs and his friends all help him to build a modern canoe yawl for small boat voyaging.

• THE SHOCK OF THE OLD, PART 34 – Moray MacPhail’s long-running series on refining traditional rigs reaches the Finish Line looking forwards – to the headsails.

• PLUS…
In Grand Designs, Paul Fisher of Selway Fisher Design presents a comfortable little pocket cruiser inspired by the skipjacks of Chesapeake Bay • Naval architect Ian Nicolson recommends the safety and simplicity of the plank bowsprit • Mike Dixon, the new Small Boat Secretary at the OGA - The Association for Gaff Rig Sailing previews their summer gatherings • In Beautiful Peagreen Boats, Geoff Bowker on boats in build at the Boat Building Academy while Moray MacPhail helps the family of the late Iain Oughtred find his forgotten designs – and looks forward to the English Raid.

Our cover photograph: After overnighting
up the Percuil River, the canoe yawl DART on Falmouth Bay, Cornwall, crewed by three of her builders. Photograph: Simon Bright

17/06/2026

Join in with a traditional boatbuilding crafts day at Buckler’s Hard on Saturday 20 June:

Following this week’s traditional carpentry course, which saw 13 students successfully construct three large wooden ship capstans and a traditional sheerlegs

03/06/2026

On Saturday 13 June 2026, the Cornwall Rowing Association - Publicwill be hosting a 75th anniversary regatta which aims to bring together as many 15’ (4.6m) Cornish skiffs as possible - both afloat and ashore.

Article by John Collings:

Think fixed-seat rowing in Cornwall and the Pilot Gigs immediately spring to mind. But what is not widely appreciated is the fact that the wave of enthusiasm

29/05/2026

34 years after her launch, James Wharram Designs flagship SPIRIT OF GAIA has returned to Cornwall.

An open day will be held tomorrow, Saturday 30th May, from 3pm at Devoran Quay, where the boat was originally launched:

34 years after her launch, Wharram Designs flagship Spirit of Gaia has returned to Cornwall, arriving back in Falmouth this week after a lively

22/05/2026

Traditional boats are gathering in Scotland this weekend, for the return of Lugger Fest, following the success of the inaugural event in 2024.

Luggers will gather in Ullapool for a weekend of sailing, racing and celebration, with music, food, talks and dancing ashore.

The Cornish Maritime Trust will give a talk on Sunday 24th May at 1530 about the epic voyage their 40’ (12m) 19th century lugger BARNABAS undertook in 2024, sailing from her home port of Newlyn in Cornwall to Scotland and back, for new spars.

Cat Holman brought us the story of BARNABAS’s Celtic odyssey in W168 (Nov/Dec 2024). Back issues £8 per copy including postage to anywhere in the world: www.watercraft-magazine.com/back-issues

Photograph: BARNABAS at the first Lugger Fest in 2024. 📸 Rob McDowell

14/05/2026

On the site of a demolished apartment block in a back street of Amsterdam, this pop-up community boatyard was once the location for historic wooden shipyards more than 250 years before.

Boatbuilding teacher Bert van Baar recalls a fascinating street boatbuilding project to build an Eka, a traditional oak workboat, in just eight weeks.

Read the full story in our May/June issue of WaterCraft, out now.

For stockists and subscriptions worldwide: www.watercraft-magazine.com

Photograph: Bert van Baar

11/05/2026

Original, in more ways than one.

Delftship software developer Martijn van Engeland brings us the story of how he converted a vintage petrol outboard to match a 1954 runabout design in our May/June issue, out now.

For stockists and subscriptions worldwide: www.watercraft-magazine.com

Photograph: Martin van Engeland

07/05/2026

The Southampton Boat Show has announced it will unveil a significantly expanded Wooden Boat Stage in 2026, creating an even bigger platform to celebrate, showcase and support the future of wooden boatbuilding in the UK:

www.watercraft-magazine.com/the-wooden-boat-stage-returns-in-2026/

The Southampton International Boat Show, taking place from 18 - 27 September, has announced it will unveil a significantly expanded Wooden Boat Stage in 2026,

07/05/2026

“She is too good; somebody should save her.”

There are still affordable old boats, too good for the boatbreakers, just waiting for the right restorers.

In our May/June issue, Matt Lis of Woodbridge & Waldringfield Boatyards explains how many of the boats waiting in the yard’s ‘Tent of Dreams’ have successfully made it to relaunch.

W177 is out now. For stockists and subscriptions: www.watercraft-magazine.com

Photograph: Woodbridge and Waldringfield Boatyards

06/05/2026

The luxury of simplicity on board Andrew Wolstenholme’s Coot, afloat on Windermere at the 2024 Wooden Boat Gathering.

In our latest issue, Moray MacPhail takes us through the options for sheeting the mainsail on traditional rigs, while Ian Nicolson creates extra berths on board with his design for a humble pipe cot.

All in our May/June issue, out now.

For stockists and subscriptions worldwide: www.watercraft-magazine.com

Photograph: Kathy Mansfield