Packrafting & NanoCruising: Small Boats, Big Wilderness
NanoCruising : the small boat cruising podcast (dinghy cruising & trailer sailing)Show Notes
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with Luc Mehl, author of The Packraft Handbook, to explore a small craft many sailors may not know much about: the packraft. At first glance, it’s a lightweight inflatable boat that fits into a backpack. But beneath that simplicity lies something very familiar — self-reliance, route planning, weather awareness, risk management, and the quiet satisfaction of reaching places under your own power. We talk about: What packrafting actually isThe kinds o...
More from NanoCruising : the small boat cruising podcast (dinghy cruising & trailer sailing)
Send us Fan Mail Apparently, one extraordinary voyage in a Mirror dinghy wasn’t quite enough for Sandy Mackinnon! Sandy is back on NanoCruising for Part 2 of our conversation, and this time we’re diving into his new book, Realms of Gold (UK) or The Remarkable Return of Jack de Crow (US). We talk about what drew him back to adventure, the stories behind the book, and what happens when a small boat, a curious mind, and Sandy’s particular talent for finding the unexpected come together. Expect p...
Send us Fan Mail What happens when you take a little Mirror dinghy and decide to sail it from the UK all the way to the Black Sea? Well… you get one heck of an adventure. In this episode of the NanoCruising Podcast, I talk with Sandy (A.J.) Mackinnon, author of The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow—the wonderfully entertaining story of his remarkable journey in a tiny Mirror dinghy. Sandy takes us back to the beginning: how he got into sailing, where the idea for the voyage came from, why he ch...
Send us Fan Mail What if the best sailing event is one where nobody is trying to win? In this episode of the NanoCruising Podcast, we head to the Lake Pepin Small Boat Messabout, one of the Midwest's best-known gatherings for small boat sailors. I'm joined by longtime Lae Pepin Messabout participants Tim Ingersoll and Bill Paxton to talk about what makes this event so special. The Lake Pepin Messabout isn't about racing, competition, or proving who's got the fastest boat. It's about showing u...
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the NanoCruising Podcast, I sit down with André-François Boudreau—sailor, adventurer, survival expert, and designer of the unique Gorfnik NanoCruiser. Although we planned to cover a range of topics, the conversation naturally wandered—as good conversations often do. We spent a lot of time exploring the thinking behind Gorfnik, why André-François believes small boats are remarkably capable, and what it means to design a boat around simplicity, self-sufficien...
Send us Fan Mail Boat designer and builder Sam Devlin has spent decades creating some of the most recognizable small cruising boats around. But behind the hundreds of designs is a remarkably simple philosophy: he just likes boats. In this episode, Sam shares how he got his start, what drew him into designing and building boats, and the principles that have guided his work throughout his career. We discuss how the boating market has evolved over the years, what makes a good boat, and why ...