Site last updated - 09/08/2022

Welcome to STANLEY SmallCraft

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Build your own dinghy or canoe for your holiday or as a spare time family activity.

Start now and working just at weekends you can be on the water in a few weeks after receiving your plans.*

It takes just a few hours work a day to complete a dinghy or canoe in 1 to 5 weeks with our DIY plans or kits.

*Depending on design and build method. 

But that's not all we do. 

Part Built boats, Complete boats, Canoe Building courses, CNC sheet cutting and Paul's Boatshed.

Peasemarsh 8 Canoe

Winchelsea 10 Dinghy

Winchelsea 2.2 Dinghy

Rother 2.5 Mini Gaffer

Rye Bay 228 Dinghy

Peasemarsh 14 Canoe

Build a boat from our DIY Plans

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Build a small boat and explore the inland waters of the UK, or anywhere.

It's not as difficult as you might think. There are no complicated joints and our boats are designed to be as easy as possible to build. Plus, we are always on hand to answer your questions if you need it.

Our Dinghy & Canoe plans come in three different types

Digital Download Plans from £10.00

Printed A3 Workshop Plans from £20.00

Full Size Patterns* with Build Plans from £30.00

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All of them come with a materials list, full step by step instructions and advice on plywood types, wood and epoxy.

We have been designing our own boats since 1990 and only sell plans for our own designs .

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*Not all designs available as full size patterns packages

Rye Bay 228

Peasemarsh 12

Winchelsea 2.2

Peasemarsh Basic  Kit - Hull Parts

Dengemarsh Canoe Kit in build

Or Build Your Boat from one of our
FULL PLYWOOD & EPOXY KITS
Or
Plywood Only kits

DIY Dinghy and Canoe Kits Kit​

Choose a design and we cut all the plywood hull parts on our CNC machine for accuracy and we only use a high quality Okoume/Gaboon registered marine plywood.

All required stitch holes etc drilled so that your kit arrives ready for assembly with the epoxy resin materials supplied. A simple but strong plank butt joint system is used to keep things easy.

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Or, back by popular demand, you can now opt for the Plywood Only pack. It is just the plywood panels CNC cut with stitch holes etc drilled if required.

(Plywood Only - all plywood parts. No wood or epoxy resin materials supplied).

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Full build instruction manuals are included.

We have developed and udated our kits over the years from the originals first produced in 1993.

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wYou can now pay for your kit in 3 interest free instalments.

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All our designs can be cut as kits.

Dengemarsh Canoe Kit finished

Rother 230 Kit - Hull parts

Rother 230 Kit in build

Rother 230 Kit finished

Part Build to Complete Boat

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We are now building our boats again.

If you want one of our small boats, it will be built strictly to order to any stage of completion for you to collect when it's ready.

We will not be building any to hold as stock.

Currently our order book is full until September 2022.

If this interests you, then please contact us discuss it and get a price.

Paul's Boatshed

In Paul's Boatshed you will find a small selection of Accessories and Chandlery but what isn't listed we can usually source for you. Also there is items made from the wood left over from our kit and build projects.

Other nautical themed projects are being planned and will be listed when they are finalised.

Already listed are our Boat shaped items

These are things like our unique shelf units in various sizes, garden/home display ornaments, boat rockers and other miscellaneous items.

Basic Shelf Unit

Dinghy Shelf Unit

Plus
in Other Items

Coming soon, there will be a range of items, some that can be personalised, from snack trays and Lazy Susans to various boxes and storage chests etc.

Boat Building Courses

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We are no longer running our own boat building courses but we are working with Birchcanoes based in Brooksby, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. They offer our designs for you to build and accomodation too at a lovely riverside location.

Click the link above for more information.

CNC Cutting Service - plus

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Plywood, MDF, Plastic, Acrylic, Aluminium*

We are now able to offer a CNC sheet cutting service.

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If you have a craft project or even your own boat design or somewhere in between, anything you have been working on and want the components cut etc. we might be able to help.

From basic sketches to CAD drawings, we could turn your ideas into reality from just £15.

More details can be found here.

We also have the use of small 3D resin and filament printers and a laser engraver. As an examle, we've made a couple of bespoke chess sets with the CNC machine cuting the boards and 3D printers making the pieces.

Contact us to discuss your project.

Rye Bay 228

Winchelsea 2.2

Peasemarsh 12 Canoe

About Us

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We've been doing what we do for over 30 years now as STANLEY SmallCraft and 40 years overall.

Whatever you are looking for, DIY canoe building plans, DIY dinghy building plans, build materials or perhaps some chandlery for your boat, we can help by either supplying it or pointing you in the right direction. 

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We can help and advise you with your own project and even cut it for you.

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A lightweight plywood dinghy or canoe makes for an easier and cheaper, boating experience.

In the 8' to 10' range of boats, fibre glass dinghies, moulded plastic canoes and inflatables are all heavy and/or cumbersome. They require trailers to move them about on land and larger powered outboard motors to move them on the water. Some canoes can be carried on a roof rack but are heavy to lift up there and carry to the water.

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Our plywood dinghies and canoes are not so heavy, sometimes half the weight. A 12' or 14' plywood canoe can be easily carried on a roof rack and can often be put up there solo as can an 8' dinghy. 10' dinghies and larger canoes will probably need two to move them about.

Being lightweight, crew distribution is important to keep the boat balanced. They only need small, lightweight outboard motors which also helps to keep costs down.

Peasemarsh 8 Canoe

A short history of STANLEY SmallCraft.

I have been around boats most of my life and started designing my own boats while still at boarding school in 1975. I soon had a small, basic portfolio of around twenty plank on frame designs based on the small boats I'd seen locally in Rye in the holidays while also helping and learning to build and repair boats. I built my first boat from an Edson I. Shock design, a simple pram dinghy and the first of my own designs came soon after, a 12' sailing dinghy, which was a great success. 

STANLEY SmallCraft was started in 1990 designing and restoring small boats. I now have a portfolio of over 240 designs and some of those became our stock designs for the plans, kits and complete boats we have on offer from this website.

We have built all of our stock boats at least twice, most of them many times but they have all been built many times by our DIY builders - except the Ryemarsh which has only been built twice by us, once on a boatbuilding course and only five have been DIY built.

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DIY Dinghy Building Plans & DIY Canoe Building Plans, DIY Plywood Dinghy & Canoe Kits.

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Build it yourself with our plans or kits.

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Note to buyers in EU countries.

Due to EU rules you will likely be liable for EU VAT and/or import tax.

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STANLEY SmallCraft

Unit A, Lammas Courtyard

Lammas Road

Corby

Northamptonshire

NN17 5EZ

England,

United Kingdom

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07910206881

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stanleysmallcraft@gmail.com

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PRIVACY NOTICE

This website does not collect or store any personal data.

If you order from us, we use a secure third party who collects the necessary order details and processes the payment.

We do not keep any order details such as name, address and email after the order is fulfilled, they are deleted.

If you contact us we will use your contact details for as long as required to answer questions etc. then delete them.

We will never keep or pass on your details to a third party unless required to do so by law and will notify you first.

 If you want us to keep your details longer than the time necessary to complete a transaction, you must request it. 

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