Jim Michalak

I tried drawing a folding canoe a few years ago but thought twice about it, thinking little canoes are easy to stow even when they don't fold. But I mentioned it to Dave Carnell who has been boating for many years and never throws away a boating magazine...

Rhett Davis brought this prototype Piragua18 (see photo above) to our Midwest Messabout, hauling it strapped to the roof of his compact pickup while towing his AF4. This is the basic 14' Piragua stretched another 4' to gain a good amount of extra...

This long narrow boat was designed a long time ago for Mark Bustemonte who thought it might be possible to have a boat for fast sliding seat rowing, for slower fixed seat rowing with a passenger, and maybe for use as a canoe by kids.I agreed with the...

Sandra had been boating in a Toto double paddle canoe and in the larger Imresboat kayak. Both of those were designed for lake work but Sandra was making a lot of river trips and some of the rivers were not that lazy. What she had found was that the...

Harmonica is a tiny shanty boat that sleeps two in its cabin. There is a porch up front suitable for lounging and a small room in the stern for the kitchen and the water closet. I think it is arranged so that two people could wait out an all day soaker...

This is Jewelbox Junior, a 15' version of the original 19' Jewelbox built a while back by Karl James in Texas. That Jewelbox went all over the US and parts of Canada and I understand was sold a few years ago to someone in Florida and replaced by a larger...

Roar2 is a modification of the original Roar which had a plumb stem. After I had designed, built, and paddled Toto with its V entry bow I went back and cut the lower plumb bow off my Roar and converted it to a Toto-like bow. So Roar2 has a deep V entry...

I've tried several different ways to shape a hull to handle rough water. Rough water is a problem around here where the manmade lakes are flat and wide and shallow. We get whitecaps when the wind blows about 12 mph. I think the situation is about...

Do you have a swamp in your back yard? Turn that into a positive thing with a tradional punt that you push through the shallow water with a pole. I think this sort of boat has a long history and the similar shape in Chapelle's great book AMERICAN SMALL...

Mixer is a stab at mixing some features of my prams with the features of the original Roar rowboat. The prototype Mixer was built to perfection by David Boston of Factoryville, Pa. That's him sailing on vacation in Maine.Mixer's beam is half way between...

Oracle might have been called Roar3. It is a bit longer and lower than Roar2 so it looks sleeker. It is actually closer in shape to my Toto canoe. I'm pretty sure it is a visual improvement over Roar2. Hard to say if it is a practical improvement. Being...

Go ahead and laugh. Sleeps two. 5 hp max. Very protected water only. Nail and glue construction from two sheets of 1/4" plywood and four sheets of 3/8" plywood. Plans include two pages of drawings and a page of written details. These plans do require a...