National Small Boat Collection

‘All the fun of messing about in boats. Build it yourself from the kit. Easiest on the pocket and the easiest job you’ve ever tackled….. The Mirror is a true…

This style of boat is typical of those still being built in and around Os, a town situated in southwest Norway, near Bergen. It represents a type used in this…

Designed by Ian Proctor, Wayfarers have been built by professional boatbuilders and DIY enthusiasts in their thousands, and have proved themselves to be very stable and seaworthy boats. The class…

Small boats tend to be shaped by the lives of those who make and use them. So around the world vessels built for the same purpose differ greatly, due to…

When Ian Proctor designed the Tempest it was clear from the outset that he was aiming at a breakthrough. The initial object, along with his eleven rivals, was to win…

The origins of this image can be traced back to 1811 when the 6th Duke of Bedford commissioned the building of a fishing lodge and romantic gardens on one of…

This general purpose pram dinghy was the precursor of other DIY dinghies such as the Goblin, Cadet, and the Mirror. Conceived by designer and boat builder Percy Blandford the Gremlin…

Small dinghies became fashionable on the River Thames after the First World War. Compared to the traditional gigs and skiffs associated with Edwardian river outings, dinghies were lighter, handier, and…

Pip Emma is a small rowing dinghy built by the boat builder/designer F.C. Morgan Giles while he was on leave from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in 1916. Its…