This 8' long Mouse Boat was built by MCS staff during a City/Farm Staff Workshop Day and painted and finished by MCS seventh and eighth graders during their spring 2017 Farm trip

The Mouse Boat is an incredibly versatile little boat:

• It can be paddled like a kayak, or used as a stand-up paddleboard.


• It is light enough for a person to carry with ease.


• It is large enough for two kids, or for an adult and a child.


• It is 36” wide, which allows enough stability for the paddler to stand up (carefully).


• It can be used as a fly-fishing platform or for pure paddling joy on lakes, rivers, or calm ocean waters.


• It is small enough that it could conceivably be stored in a New York City apartment.

Mouseboats were originally conceived by the innovative designer Gavin Atkin as an exercise to see what is the most boat that can be gotten from a single 4x8 sheet of plywood. This particular boat is an Atkin’s Fisherman’s Mouse (or Fishermouse) variant. It is wider and deeper than the original, and uses slightly more than one sheet of plywood. The hull has been coated with epoxy and fiberglass to strengthen it and increase its durability and longevity. The decks are mahogany plywood coated in clear epoxy. There are storage compartments both fore and aft—ideal for a picnic lunch, a spare rainjacket, or fishing tackle—which double as flotation chambers -- in case the boat capsizes it will still float high and can be reboarded.