VOLTAIRE
Photos by Lisa Fell
With a bit of woodworking to his credit—tables, desks, and picture frames—Brady Fell of San Francisco, California, decided to build a tender for the sailboat he kept in a marina south of the city. It had to be small, just big enough for him to row ashore with his chocolate Labrador retriever when they were at anchor, so he bought plans for Iain Oughtred’s diminutive Auklet, a 7′2″ glued-lapstrake plywood dinghy. He started work in fall 2024 and finished the boat and a pair of oars by summer 2025. All along, his wife and daughters had been asking how he would get it to the water, because the family didn’t have a vehicle capable of transporting it. He didn’t have an answer until April 2026, when he rented a truck to get VOLTAIRE afloat. He now keeps her aboard his sailboat.
WHISTLE PUNK
Photo by Rob Holiday
While touring the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in September 2023, Rob Holiday of Tulalip, Washington, was intrigued by the Godzilla 25 displayed there. It had the looks of a workboat and the comforts of an outboard-powered cruiser, but it was more boat than he needed. Fortunately, Sam Devlin had also designed a smaller version, the Godzilli 16. That November, Rob bought plans and $2,500 worth of marine plywood. He began cutting bulkheads, with the goal of motoring the mini tug to the 2024 festival, but the project stretched out through a year and a half. He launched the boat at Bellingham, Washington, in June 2025 and christened her WHISTLE PUNK, after the young lumberjacks who worked the steam whistles that sent signals to early 1900s logging crews in the Pacific Northwest. Immediately after launching, Bob headed out for a three-day cruise in the San Juan Islands.