BOAT PROFILE

Midget Flyer
A smart little runabout from
1938 designed by Bruce N.
Crandall 

Written by  DONNIE MULLEN

From Issue  SEPTEMBER 2020

M ark Kaufman—a high-school woodworking

teacher and collector of vintage runabouts—
spent years looking for a classic runabout design to
build that would complement his antique two-
cylinder Mercury outboards. He had in mind
something small enough to hum along with a 10- to
20-hp outboard and with a roadster-style cockpit to
accommodate two. Kaufman knew that runabouts
with hard chines could get tripped up during tight
maneuvering and throw their pilots, so he wanted a
boat with beveled—or “anti-trip”—chines. He found
such a design while perusing a 1938 issue of Motor
Boating magazine, which featured plans and building
instruction for a boat designed by Bruce N. Crandall.
The article, “Flyer—A Midget Runabout,” written by
Crandall’s brother, Willard, stressed the 10′ Midget’s
ease of construction, overall lightness, low cost, and
ability to plane when powered by a 5- to 10-hp
outboard.

Some 82 years later, these same attributes appealed to

Kaufman, who opted to power his Midget with a 1950
Mercury KG7 Super 10 Hurricane—“the hotrod of the
day,” he noted. “It’s a ball of fire.” In practice, the KG7
performs more like a 16- to 18-hp, which bumps up
against Crandall’s maximum power recommendation
of a 16 hp.

Donnie Mullen

The outboard is equipped with a yoke for steering. The

arrangement of the steering cable and pulleys adds to the
wheel’s mechanical advantage for a light touch with firm
control. The plans called for spartan accommodations in
the cockpit: just a plywood backrest and the floorboards
for a seat. The cushions are a wise addition.

Crandall (1904–82), a naval architect, designed single-

step hydroplanes, runabouts, utility boats, and
sailboats. Many of his designs were published in Motor
Boating, Sports A5eld, Popular Science, and other
magazines. During the late 1920s and early ’30s, he
also co-owned—along with Willard and their father,
Bruce V. Crandall—the Crandall Boat Co., where they
designed and manufactured watercraft and sold plans
for the do-it-yourself market. He continued designing
boats until his death at age 77.

The Midget was a recreational version of Crandall’s 13′

Flyer—a class C racing runabout that also had beveled
chines, as did many of Crandall’s designs even though
they were uncommon at the time. The Midget is not
believed to have been commercially produced.
Kaufman obtained plans for the Midget Flyer from
D.N. Goodchild, whose company sells reprints of the
original 1938 plans.

K aufman, who has taught high-school students

how to build boats for more than 20 years and
for a decade also was an instructor at WoodenBoat
School in Brooklin, Maine, wanted to build his Midget
Flyer using traditional lightweight batten-seam
construction without any plywood, fiberglass, or epoxy.
Solid wood planking would be screw-fastened to
battens, which, in turn, would be fastened to internal
frames.

Donnie Mullen

The boat’s controls are simple: a 14″ custom-built wheel, a

deadman’s throttle, a tachometer, and a kill switch. The
white fire extinguisher is close at hand just forward of the
throttle.

Crandall specified mahogany, cedar, cypress, spruce,

and white oak for planking, frames, transom, and
battens. Kaufman opted for local hardwoods—
sassafras, white oak, and paulownia—and held the cost
of his wood down to $650 while keeping his Midget
light in weight without sacrificing strength, durability,
or decay resistance. He built the Midget in the
woodshop where he teaches; the project took 18
months of his spare time.

Construction begins upside-down on a strongback

with sawn ring frames constructed of lapped pieces
for the bottom, sides, and deckbeams. The plans
specified frames made from 5/8”-thick spruce or
mahogany or 1/2″-thick white oak, but Kaufman went
with sassafras, making the frames 9/16″ thick and the
transom 5/8″ thick. Crandall had specified a transom
rake of 12 degrees, but Kaufman, after determining
that 15 degrees would provide a better angle for the
outboard, added a motor block beveled to 3 degrees.

The keel is 3/4″ x 1-1/4″ white oak. The plans also call for
3/4″ x 1″ white oak for the full-length chines and 3/4″ x
1-1/4″ spruce or mahogany for the inner chines, which
are faired with the chines just forward of station 2 and
together create the angled anti-trip facet; he used 3/4″
x 1 1/4″ white oak for both. Kaufman originally used
sassafras for the 1/2″ x 1-3/4″ battens, but it didn’t yield a
smooth fair curve when steamed. He then tried
paulownia, an exceedingly light Southeast Asian
hardwood that now grows in Pennsylvania, which
worked beautifully, and weighed less than half as
much as white oak.

Donnie Mullen

“Auxiliary power” is provided by a paddle, used mostly for

maneuvering around a launch ramp or a dock. The
diminutive Midget Flyer offers good stability even while
standing in the cockpit.

Kaufman also used paulownia for hull planks, taking

advantage of the wood’s lightness to make them 7/16″
thick instead of the specified 5/16″ mahogany, cedar,
cypress, or spruce. In a rare departure from traditional
materials, he used 3M 5200 bedding compound to
seal the plank seams. (The plans specify that seams
below the waterline be filled with strips of cotton
“flannelette” saturated in marine glue.)

Once the hull is right-side up, the cockpit coaming

and transom knee are installed before the final two
upper side planks are beveled and attached. The
afterdeck is composed of six wide planks and a pair of
narrow outer planks that run from the transom to
station 3. Crandall called for the foredeck to be covered
in light cotton cloth or balloon silk, tightened and
sealed with airplane dope. Following the interior and
exterior finish work, Kaufman used 2.7-oz aircraft
Dacron, which he heat-treated and sealed with
Randolph non-tautening nitrite clear dope.

Crandall’s article doesn’t mention the steering wheel,

so Kaufman made a beautiful 14″-diameter one of
brass and sassafras. He chose to mount the wheel
amidships to maintain an even keel when driving solo.

Donnie Mullen

Here, builder Mark Kaufman sits amidships as he takes the

helm solo. He’ll slide to port to bring a passenger along.
The plans called for the wheel to be set to port, which
works fine for boating with two, but awkward and
unbalanced for going alone.

Kaufman used leftover planking stock for the

floorboards and backrest, and he used the same wood
for a seat, although no seat was mentioned or drawn
by Crandall. The plans specify 1/4″ plywood for the
backrest. For his backrest and seat, Kaufman fastened
paulownia planks on sassafras cleats.

Crandall suggested installing 1/2″ aluminum half-

round gunwales; Kaufman went with white oak 3/4″-
thick tapered spray rails and 1/2″ x 7/8″ rubrails. The
original plans also called for an aluminum fin for
boaters wishing to travel over 20 mph, but for ease of
trailering and to permit the Midget to be hauled
ashore, Kaufman opted for a 3/4″ x 1 1/8″ white oak
shoe keel that ends 18″ shy of the transom.

To get deck fittings with the classic look he desired,

Kaufman fabricated his own. Instructions on how he
made them are featured in his article, “Fillet Brazing
for Custom Boat Hardware.”

K aufman’s Midget Flyer weighs 130 lbs, just over

Crandall’s estimate of 125 lbs. Kaufman chose a
trailer with a center roller forward to support the
forefoot of the keel. The Midget trailers, launches, and
recovers “effortlessly,” according to Kaufman, who
usually does this job by himself.

388D0220

Alison Langley

A solo skipper can hit a top speed of 34 mph, a good clip

made all the more exciting by the proximity to the water
and rush of air over the bow.

When I piloted the Midget, I found that at low speed

its trim is close to level; the bow rides up slightly, but
not in an unsightly manner. With a touch of the
throttle, it leapt to life and snapped on plane without
delay. I thoroughly enjoyed the proximity to the water
while piloting the Midget, an intimacy that reminded
me of paddling. Kaufman said that his GPS clocked
the Midget’s top speed at 34 mph with a solo driver. I
piloted the boat in a few inches of chop and was at a
speed of about 25–30 mph when I became aware of a
transition from light chatter to pure glide; the hull felt
as though it was floating, and the ride turned
surprisingly smooth. “The best performance is in 3″ of
chop,” Kaufman says, “you’re getting air under the
boat.”

Several years back, I piloted a three-point hydroplane

and never got comfortable with its airplane-like speed.
In contrast, the Midget Flyer offers comfort and speed
that do not disappoint but remain closer to the
recreational side of the performance scale. You won’t
lose your shirt, though your hat might blow off. The
Midget doesn’t have a windshield, so be prepared to
feel the wind.

“You’d kill the experience if you put on a windshield,”

Kaufman told me (though he adds the caveat that the
curvature of the deck pushes a fair bit of the airflow
overhead). The wind and the proximity to the water
combine to enliven the Midget’s ride, yet I felt at ease
behind the wheel after a few preliminary runs.

The beveled chines and keel shoe stabilize turns and

engender a sense of confidence—the Midget carves
gracefully. The experienced driver will find that the
Midget can remain on plane through playful banking
maneuvers, though even Kaufman backs off the
throttle for sharper turns, and high-speed turning
requires a larger radius. In waves of 1′ or more or when
crossing larger wakes, the Midget may porpoise as its
shallow-V hull skims across the waves more than it
cuts through them, but backing down the throttle will
quickly return the pilot to comfort.

Alison Langley

The Flyer maintains level trim at almost any speed. The

bow rises slightly as the boat jumps up on plane, but
comes back down quickly. The deck is an unusual
combination of planks aft and fabric forward.

Under rough conditions, Kaufman has also found that

turning slightly and planting more of the hull’s
forward V as well as one of the chines into the water
can help stabilize the hull. Even in turbulent waters,
the Midget offers a dry ride. Kaufman has only been
doused once, when he was out on Long Lake, near
Naples, Maine, in 2′ waves and even then, it was just
the spray blowing off the crests. He also once went
from full speed to a dead stop—he ran out of gas—and
no water sloshed over the transom. For general use, he
keeps trim ballast in the form of a gallon jug of water
lodged under the foredeck centered near the bow,
which helps to minimize porpoising. For high speeds,
the bow ballast comes out and the cavitation plate on
the outboard is placed parallel to the boat’s bottom.
For routine use, the engine is tucked in about 2
degrees toward the transom.

The plans don’t call for any flotation, though Kaufman

often carries a few boat cushions beneath the
foredeck. Knowing that he would regularly fish from
his Midget, he added a pair of vertical braces under
the afterdeck to support its use as a seat.

While the cockpit was designed to accommodate two

adults, the quarters are a bit tight when riding with a
partner, and the driver will have to handle the
centered wheel while sitting to the side. Getting on
plane can require both to lean forward. Even so, the
thrill of the ride sweeps away any inconveniences.
With two aboard, the Midget’s top speed is 29 mph.

Donnie Mullen

An outboard rated around 16 hp is all that’s needed to get

the the Midget Flyer moving at an exhilarating speed.

For Kaufman, the Midget “is as fun as it gets. I’ve got

three powerboats, but with the Midget the fun factor
is high and the hassle factor low.”

Donnie Mullen is a writer and photographer who lives in

Camden, Maine, with his wife Erin and their three children.

He wrote about paddling the entire length of the Northern

Forest Canoe Trail in our February 2016 issue. His

article “Investing in Memories: Canoe Camping in

Northern Maine,” appeared in our September 2015 issue

and he reviewed the Original Bug Shirt in our August 2015

issue.

Mark Kaufman wrote detailed instructions for

building the Midget Flyer in WoodenBoat magazine,
Nos. 275, 276, and 277.

Midget Flyer Particulars

Length 10′

Beam 45.5″

Beam of planing surface 38″

Maximum power 16 hp

Weight 125 lbs

Capacity 2 persons

Plans for the Midget Flyer are available from D.N.

Goodchild, who reprinted the article that originally
appeared in the January 1938 edition of Motor
Boating. Goodchild identi5es the article as publication
No. 5381, “A 10-ft. Midget Runabout”; see
www.dngoodchild.com or phone 610–937–169.

Update
Update: 8/13/21  D. N. Goodchild has had trouble with
his website and is currently working to get it up and
running.

Is there a boat you’d like to know more about? Have

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Magazine readers would enjoy? Please email us!

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Comments (16)
phil Boyer September 1, 2020 at 8:43 pm

Very nice build. If a 5-hp Torqeedo electric motor were

used, any guess on what speed it would get to?

Reply

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