Boatbuilding & Boating

An excellent publication prepared a well-recognized nautical journalist, the author of the popular “The RIB Manual” title with more than twenty years of experience in surveying marine facilities including all types of ships. The content of the volume will help all boat builders and boat owners in performing surveys of the boats on their own. It will definitely serve as a perfect tool for both owners and buyers of the boats and small crafts.

Normally, the boats are quite complicated and expensive, and that is why it is very important that you are able to perform all required detailed checks of the boat, properly identify all problems and deal with them before they become serious, perform the assessment of the boat for any signs of problems without having to hire a professional for the expensive and lengthy report. The text part of the book is richly illustrated and full of useful and practical advice.

The sections of the book cover such important aspects of boat surveying as hull checks, boat engine and hull systems, electrical systems, tools of the trade, mast and rigging, steering, and so many others. This is an absolutely recommended publication for anyone owning a bot ort planning to purchase one, noting the amount of information it provides to the reader.

This world famous publication is deservedly considered a classic and must-have one for anyone involved in boat building as well as the boat owners. The RIB, standing for the Rigid Inflatable Boat, was first introduced nearly sixty years ago. Its appearance did revolutionize the marine market of that time.

The RIB Manual was released in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first rigid inflatable boat and will serve as an excellent reference tool covering literally all important aspects of RIB design, their handling and routine maintenance. The author has arranged the material emphasizing the practical part.

The book starts with some historical overview including development of the RIBs design. Note that the book covers both leisure and commercial boats. The second part of the publication is devoted to the boat handling including impact of boat hull design, cruising and driving techniques, launching and transportation of these boats, and of course safety and survival issues.

The third part is dealing with the boat maintenance and will be equally important to everyone regardless of the boat type. In short, this is one of the best reference books on boat handling and maintenance available today.

This second edition of the world popular publication on marine composite materials has been significantly revised and updated in order to reflect the very latest technological advances. The recent evolution of the various composite materials used for construction of the boat hulls has eventually resulted in the demand for evaluating the fundamental design instruments used for creating the marine structures.

With the improvement in materials and boatbuilding practices, it would not be unreasonable to consider the composite materials suitable for building the hulls of the vessels less than hundred meters in length. The publication is exploring the technologies that are required for the engineering of the advance composites for the larger marine constructions.

The author has also addressed the applications of the materials together with the design performance and important fabrication aspects. A glossary of terminology is also included for ready reference. A whole range of applications has been covered from the recreational marine industry to commercial and fishing industry. A very interesting reading for the ship- and boat-builders who want to be updated with the recent technological developments in the field.

A truly great bestselling guidebook to DIY interior boatbuilding. The volume has already been very well met by the boat owners who were not fully happy with the arrangement and layout of their boats and/or wanted to fit out completely renovated hull. The author has clearly explained every single detail and illustrated the content with numerous step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow even for the beginner.

All of the procedures and techniques addressed in the pages of this publication would normally be applicable to all types and sizes of boats. The huge practical experience of the author allowed him to produce one of the best guides on boat interiors. The volume includes more than four hundred color images. The boaters from different parts of the world have all found this book perfectly researched and remarkably informative owing to the nice illustrations supplementing excellent explanations.

One will definitely find so many ideas that will not be technically complicated and may be used by any boat owner. The book will be particularly appreciated by the owners willing to refit their boats from the complete scratch. What they shall do is just to read carefully and follow all instructions provided by the author.

This handbook was prepared by Nigel Calder together with some co-authors (Richard Clinchy from USCG, Bill Gladstone from North Sails, Peter Nielsen from The Sails Magazine, and others) who are all leading experts, with the intention to provide all readers with comprehensive info related to the handling of boats, navigation and seamanship. Each of pages in this book has been designed for the max efficiency and easiest use.

The readers will get to know how to handle the boat under power, how to use nautical charts, global positioning systems, VHF and SSB radios, what is sail trim and rig turning, how to make knots and splices, how to care and repair diesel engines, learn the basics of anchoring and heavy weather sailing etc. Particular attention has been given by the authors to the emergency and first aid on board. One of the main advantages of this book is that it can provide readers with all necessary answers to any questions that may arise, very easy and fast. In fact, almost every chapter of this publication (except the third one addressing the nautical charts) may be used as a stand-alone Guide.

We are pretty sure that this interesting and useful handbook will make the boater's time on the water safer, more rewarding and enjoyable.

Well, the title of this book John Finch is quite self-explanatory, The publication was prepared by him with the sole intention to provide the boat modelers with the necessary theoretical information as well as all what is required from practical point of view. As a rule, the racing strategies are usually set forth from design point, and are based on the idea that the boat models, first of all, must be easy to control.

This book starts with the easiest type of boat hulls, the tunnel-like, which is exactly the one for the beginner to start with. Every boat builder must have this book in his collection. You will not only know how to build a good boat but will also learn how to make it fast. In particular, we would appreciate the excellent info on how to properly set-up each type of the hull, for instance catamarans, outriggers, vee-hulls. The essential advantage of this publication is that people can easily build a model boat without struggling too hard with the handling problems.

It is also a very good source of information for those who wish to modify or optimize their "ready-to-run" models of powerboats to make them faster. In any case, this is a must-have source for every boater and modeler.

The content of the present handbook is mainly based on the experience gained by the authors during their in total four-year voyages. The authors express their hope that the information included in the volume will be useful to the people interested in cruising. The book starts with the introductory part providing the general information about the basics of seamanship.

Then, the second chapter named "Starting-off", provides readers with necessary tips on buying a boat and also contains an article covering the cruising life in general. This one is followed by a "How to's" chapter giving the idea of anchoring activities, boat notes, book of lists, deck log and defect book, departure checklist and other relevant paperwork, nautical chart management, equipment instructions, maintenance schedule etc.

Remaining chapters of this interesting and fascinating book shed the light on various possible situations that the seamen may face at sea, including emergency situations, getting aground, fire on board, leaking hull, heavy weather conditions, rigging failures, crew overboard, steering failure etc. The book addresses the marine radio communications, navigation techniques and equipment used, fog and sound signals, medical emergencies, using radar and so many other important and useful topics that would definitely help any cruiser.

This book by Peter Spectre contains the most popular boat designs. It will definitely be very useful and practical for people who intent to construct their own boat and are now searching for some suitable design; it will be also very interesting to those trying to improve the existing boat designs or even trying to create the unique ones. Some of the presented designs come from the past; however, some of them are even designs of the future.

We all know how important the drawings are in the boat- and shipbuilding - in fact, good drawings shall be treated as the essence of any boat review. The publication contains so many excellent and well-detailed design reviews, accompanied by class technical drawings. Most of the designs presented in this book are conventional while some of them are definitely not - the latter ones are very interesting for the boatbuilding enthusiasts.

The idea of the author to supplement the design descriptions with the experts' opinions was brilliant - the reading is now much more interesting and entertaining because of their enlightening commentary. We would say that this book will be very useful for the wooden boat owners; however, some ideas will be of interest and use for all boat owners and builders.