Fishing rowboat Micro Petrel 8

plywood

The Micro Petrel is a great 8′ yacht tender. As the name implies, it is the little sister to the Lit’l Petrel. She is the design response to the need for a small, rugged, lightweight yacht tender, but she can be used in any situation that needs a small boat with the ability to carry a variety of loads while maintaining its balance and performance. She is another Devlin easy-to-build option, in terms of both space and cost. Her size makes her easy to handle, store, and transport. She makes a great cartopper. Here is a simple little Pram-style dinghy that can be built from a few sheets of ¼” marine plywood using the Stitch and Glue method of construction and weighs not much more than a feather. She will fit into the back of a small pickup or could be car-topped if you prefer to drive something that isn’t of the easy carrying mode. If you would indulge me with a read of the description of her larger sister, the Lit’l Petrel design, you could follow the concept of how a small boat like this can respond to real life needs of carrying a wide variety of weight and keep herself still in a stable and well performing mode. But what follows is the real story of why we took the time and energy to do another design and why that exercise was necessary. I have a very good customer who I am quite fond of named Cyndie and she owns one of our larger Devlin’s that we designed and built for her several years ago. Cyndie loves her Devlin and uses it often either by herself or with a phalange of friends and our story follows one of these Saturday outings on Puget Sound.