Welcome to the World of Traditional Small Craft
19th-century America saw the development of boats that rank as some of the most beautiful, most efficient, and most perfectly adapted boats ever conceived. Catboats, Whitehalls, wherries, peapods, dories, sharpies — the list is seemingly endless and filled with wildly different designs and uses that share one thing in common: they each represent a lon…g line of development that resulted in boats that were, and remain, virtually unsurpassable for their intended purposes.The Traditional Small Craft Association endeavors to appreciate these boats for what they are — not relics of the past or sterile objects of Museum-quality venerability, but vessels that were designed to be used profitably and with pleasure. While some of our members are professional or amateur boat builders who appreciate the materials and methods that went into the original construction of these boats, we happily embrace the use of new materials and techniques as well. What sets many of the most popular modern boats apart from the ones you will typically see at a TSCA gathering is that the modern boat is more often driven by the demands of modern marketing and the marketplace. They are often serious compromises, heavily influenced by the need to appeal to the largest number of possible users. Our boats tend to be more individualistic and more specifically suited to the actual purposes to which we put them. They also tend to be smaller! The adage that “Bigger is Better” (or in boating terms, “If it won’t sleep six it’s too small”) is a fairly modern concept.The sense of history and tradition that surrounds these boats is certainly one of the attractions. But, fundamentally, the average member of TSCA simply enjoys the thrill of “messing about” in a boat that performs superbly and without compromise, whether it’s passage-making under oars, a sedate cruise around the harbor, a romping sail back from the fishing grounds, or a quiet paddle up a tidal estuary. If this kind of boating appeals to you, we would like to invite you to contact your closest chapter of TSCA and, perhaps, find some like-minded souls and a chance to enjoy some of the finest boats ever created. — Larry Feeney
