W.P. Stephens canoe yawl SNICKERSNEE

[TonyH]

I was looking through some archives in a maritime museum a few days ago and came across a couple of bound volumes of Yachting Monthly - years 1911 and 1912 in fact. This is a great magazine, every bit as good as it's transatlantic counterpart The Rudder. These two volumes were full of all sorts of treasures, but one in particular caught my eye. It was an article by a chap named Ernest Hicks Oliver about a visit by him to New York in which he called upon W.P stephens and had a look at his little canoe yawl, the famous SNICKERSNEE.

Now I've read bits and pieces about this boat before, by Phil Bolger and William Atkin as well as by Stephens himself, and I've always wanted to see the boat. Fortunately, Mr Oliver included a delightful pencil sketch of the boat - see below - which shows what looks like a lovely little boat. Stephens designed and built it himself, and was very pleased with the name, which apparently is a slang term (American?) for a sailors knife.

So, the question now is, does anyone know where her plans are? There is a collection of Stephens papers at Mystic but they don't mention any plans in the cataolgue.

<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/233/514452760_3041e4ab13_m.jpg">

Thanks

Tony

[TonyH]

Hmmm - the picture isn't showing - I'm obviously doing it wrong somehow?

[Rick Starr]

Here ya go...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/233/514452760_3041e4ab13_m.jpg

[Dan Miller]

The lines for Snickersnee are published in Stephens' "Traditions and Memories of American Yachting".

The W.P. Stephens collection at Mystic has over 200 sheets for over 1000 designs by Stephens and others. That would be the place to start the search for the drawings.

Cheers,
Dan

[TonyH]

Thanks Rick (how did you do that, and what did I do wrong?); and thanks Dan, I'll have to see if I can pick up a copy.

[Rick Starr]

Thanks Rick (how did you do that, and what did I do wrong?)

Hi Tony, don't use html tags, use bb code tags, or to get them automatically, just hit the http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/images/editor/insertimage.gif button in the reply-to-thread window and paste the url into the resulting dialogue box.

Yes the button looks like a postcard (which makes you think of email instead of image posting) but it is the post image button.

[Nicholas Carey]

I was down in Portland (Oregon) last weekend and stopped in at Powell's Books (http://www.powells.com/)' Technical Store.

They are stocking a new (Dover) reprint of WP Stevens' Canoe and Boat Building: A Complete Manual for Amateurs (http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780486447742-0) (1898). I don't know if it's got Snickersnee in it but it has a bunch of different boats.

Here's Dover Publications' page on it: http://store.doverpublications.com/048644774x.html

[TonyH]

Hi Nicholas

Yes, I saw the same volume in Boatbooks here in Sydney. I don't think it has Snickersnee in it. I must say it seems a fairly brave reprint really, seeing you can download the book for free at http://dragonflycanoe.com/stephens/ !

I haven't seen a copy of Stephens "Traditions and Memories.." here in Oz. I wonder if anyone has a copy who would mind scanning the relevant page and emailing it to me?

Cheers

Tony