Boatbuilding & Boating

This is a very beautiful book indeed; it was written by Peter H. Spectre, who is a world popular renowned writer with a really lifelong experience of the sea traditions and a former editor of the famous and respected Wooden Boat magazine plus the author of the 100 Boat Designs Reviewed book - these days, he is the editor of Maine Boats. One of the most important advantages of this publication is that all construction bugs have been cleared out of the boat designs  by the author.

The book includes so many construction plans and detailed drawings, diagrams and materials lists, clear photographs and useful step-by-step instructions. The book contains not only the technical information on the boats but also so many interesting ideas that will definitely be appreciated by the boatbuilding and bat design enthusiasts. It will be equally useful to the boat builder and carpenter.

Even the boat modelers will benefit from having a look in this work. It is a very nice source for beginners and we may consider this publication maybe the best one to start with. Not too much of theory and not full of complicated difficult-to-follow instructions. Quite simple and motivating. The name is pretty self-explanatory - take this book and start. You will not be disappointed with the result.

Most of us are familiar methods of troubleshooting. When something goes wrong, it becomes painfully obvious. There is a horrifying noise, a burning smell, a mysterious appearance of water in the bilge. At that moment, your primary concern is to know what happened and how to fix it; however, good troubleshooting is much more that a gut-level reactive response.

The author of the book has spent more than twenty years performing the maintenance and repair of the boat engines in Alaska. Most of his practical experience is captured in the pages of this brilliant compilation. This book has been found great by the boatbuilders and boaters worldwide due to the practically useful information contained, numerous informative drawings and illustrations - in short, they all treat this volume as a greatest resource to be referred to on a regular basis by all people engaged in boat repair and maintenance. It is an excellent collection of "fast fixes" enabling readers to repair any failed machinery piece using very basic tools and instruments.

The content has been designed bearing non-mechanics in mind and is presenting effective DIY maintenance procedures that would allow to prevent most of the commonly raising problems from occurring, and this is one of the reasons of global popularity of this volume.

In this book the author tells us the biography of a truly remarkable boat and the story of the man who built this boat. It is much more than just a tale of technology - we would rather consider this publication a profile of imagination and hubris of a legendary enterpreneur. The man to whom this book is dedicated, has a dream and that dream was not to get very rich or acquire power.

Tom Perkins was one of the creators of the world famous Silicon Valley and, obviously, already possessed all of that wealth, being a one of the most successful venture capitalists. As he hit his seventies, this man decided to build the larges, highest-tech, fastest and, by the way, riskiest sailboat ever - and called it the perfect yacht. The yacht would be as long as the soccer field, about 42 feet wide, have three masts each having a height of a twenty-storied building... The Maltese Falcon, the world's biggest privately-owned sailing ship.

This book is a really exhilarating account of how this yacht was created. It is indeed revealing and very engaging. The ones who read it will for sure do that with a great deal of interest and will not get disappointed. This eminent person and his boat have been examined in this publication with precision and insight.

This nice guidance for the boat builders with a quite self-explanatory title was compiled and released by the editors team of the world famous Popular Mechanics Magazine who have spent so much of their time and efforts trying to choose the boats to be included in those twenty-three.

The boats that can be constructed according to the plans, sketches and drawings provided in the present publication, are currently in operation in various parts of the United States. The building instructions are given in a very easily understandable way. This book will definitely suit both beginner and experienced boatbuilding enthusiasts; however, people who never dealt with the building of the boats before, would better familiarize themselves with the contents of the chapter nine called "Build Your Boat Right".

The editors of the book do believe that it will offer something to tempt all lovers of boatbuilding and boating. The readers just have to choose their favorite type - for example, sailboat, ice yacht, cabin cruiser, kayak etc. - and follow the clear, simple and perfectly illustrated instructions. Be sure that the kind of boat you would like to have is there in this book - find it and try to build - it is not that difficult.

In Herman Wouks wonderful Caribbean escape novel Don't Stop the Carnival there is a rogue character who describes himself as "just an old truth teller." I like that. It is a self-assessment worth living up to. The current truth about boating is that it gets harder to afford from year to year. In the nearly twenty years since This Old Boat was originally published, the waterways and shorelines have gotten markedly less boat friendly (unless you are lucky to own a megayacht).

Do-it-yourself boatyards continue to give way to condominium developments. Marinas have succumbed to the immediate return of converting to high-priced dockominiums. Both gasoline and diesel fuel have increased from less than SI per gallon to more than $4. The price of a new offshore 35-foot sailboat has risen from an already astonishing S100,000 plus in 1991 to an astronomical $300,000 plus today and still rising. The cost of insurance also rising. Storage costs are up. Haulout costs are up. What bought a gallon of bottom paint in the '90s buys a quart today. Hell, even the cost of this book has increased (but not so much)...

The author himself combines about thirty years of sailing experience, an excellent sense of humor and a perfect writing style to deliver reliable and simple advice to the boaters.

Here is the twenty-first century update of the world popular book written by the professional yacht designer to serve as a sort of guide to the safe and efficient offshore cruising yachts. It has been loaded with detailed technical information covering the design theory, construction and outfitting of the yachts. This book will be very useful to all people who are in the boat design and construction.

The publication has gained the popularity because of the author's approach to the important questions - he is actually looking at them at a slightly different angle, That is why the book is treated as a really great read for all boat and yacht designers and constructors. The style of writing used by the author has made this book very easy and interesting to read.

The way he explains the various design features of yachts and boats enables the readers to better understand the theoretical principles that are usually considered quite difficult. In his book, the author has covered the hull shapes, machinery, propulsion arrangements, sails, decks and actually all aspects one needs to be aware of in order to understand all design matters. Very informative and opinionated publication and a must-have for every boater due to a wealth of information provided.

This history of this book started almost a century ago. The very first release of this publication is dated about 1923. The present contemporary edition of the book continues the tradition of representing a perfect reproduction of the most important historical works while maintaining the perfect format of the original publication.

We believe that this work is culturally important in the original form and therefore did not utilize the optical character recognition technique when preparing the electronic release of the book. In our opinion, it may lead to the sub-optimal results, such as improper characters, typo errors and confusing formatting results. The authors of the original publication included numerous data diagrams and images, as well as detailed working plans and drawings of various model yachts and various small ships that would be suitable even for the amateur builders.

It does not, however, even pretend to be a specific treatise on naval architecture or yachting; it would be rather addressed to that portion of the yachting world which is interested in the small crafts and boats that can be constructed by amateurs and not professional builders. The author of the book touched the most important and interesting aspects of the design, construction and sails, with some underlying theoretical principles...  

I adore secondhand bookshops—the smell, the atmosphere, and the low prices. In my time, I've found lots of great books about building small boats on their dusty shelves. Because many aspects of boating remain the same over generations and even centuries, older books on the subject can often be as relevant today as newer editions, and there's much indeed to learn from them.

However, I have come to dislike certain types of older books, particularly the ones on boat carpentry that are more discouraging than helpful. They usually start with an anecdote about how the author tried building a boat at a young age and failed. In some versions, the author's father, in a fit of misplaced and misguided rage, destroys the original boat with an ax because it's both shameful and unsafe; in others he burns it. Usually the experience leaves the fledgling boat-builder in tears but determined to win the father's approval. Stories like this make me angry because when I see them I know it's more than likely that the author, deliberately or not, is replaying the part of the angry father and making readers feel inadequate, as if they were kids unable to build a proper small boat. In contrast, the present book is meant to make readers feel confident about building small boats. It will explain them how to make the project go smoothly and efficiently, bearing in mind that mistakes are not the end of the world.

You can correct many with the help of good old cousin Poly Urethane, Uncle Epoxy, and Auntie Filler, so there's no need to fear potential blunders along the way. Thankfully, the bad old boat-chopping and boat-burning days are long gone. The methods I'm presenting here are tried, tested, and known to work. Over the years I've noticed beginners often wonder whether alternative cheaper materials and methods might work just as well as the ones I have included in this book. The answer is some will, some won't, and some will only to a point. If you have a slightly wacky idea about building a boat from expanded foam or using water-resistant (rather than waterproof) glue, ask about it on the Internet discussion groups...