What are some of the best books for learning boat building?

[Submarine Tom]

Originally Posted by Surfszup

Unsure if you have sarcasm there.... but also keep in mind the question was about building small wooden boats and books for reference.

It doesn't have to turn into something similar to a kid choosing to play with the laundry basket or the big cardboardbox over the collection of expensive legos with instruction booklet.

Or if you want to play eclectic teacher, maybe you should lead with one of your learning points about the titanic and how it might apply to this wooden boat to be built.

I can also say an obvious learning point for the Titanic is never let your ego blind you into thinking your boat is unsinkable....even a small wooden one.

Surfszup, not really a lot of any kind of tone actually. Who am I to limit the learning potential of an event by giving my perception. Maybe I can learn something from your perception.

Generally, I find the more I talk, the less I hear, and the less I hear, the less I learn.

Enough said.

-Tom

[Surfszup]

Originally Posted by Submarine Tom

Surfszup, not really a lot of any kind of tone actually. Who am I to limit the learning potential of an event by giving my perception. Maybe I can learn something from your perception.

Generally, I find the more I talk, the less I hear, and the less I hear, the less I learn.

Enough said.

-Tom

Were not the greatest learning moments in history when there were great forums of people coming together to share ideas? Learning is only limited in a forum if nothing is shared.

Titanic is a great word, but "sure I saw the movie" also limits the learning.

Learning from others is great too, and I'm sure you're quite smart. But you could stay that smart and not say anything to the post at all.

But that doesn't help the thread creator any with the question.

And with that in mind:

Realize you might be building for longer than you expect. I saw a great quote in the forum somewhere about build to your goal of a boat not to a deadline.
I'm sure your three books will give you some good information to get started. Keep posting as your knowledge grows and you are finding which building methods suit you and your workspace.

[cookiesa]

The books mentioned will be a great start. Another useful item is a basic "how to" on epoxy. Most of the manufacturers have a free or minimal cost book which outlines the use of the epopxies and various additives along with the various terminolkgies associated with filleting etc.

Something like a 8ft pram stitch and glue is a fantastic starting point. Very simple, inexpensive and covers most of the basics. If your planning a later build out of say strip planking then if you have access to a boat building course (often run through "boatworks and yards") then there is a lot of tricks you can learn there which will save hours for a newbie on their build!

These are Australian but you can download free plans to build a stitch and glue dingy from Mike Wallers design website. It is a little more complicated than a "basic" dingy but gives you a taste for several of the issues you can face when buiilding a shape that curves in almost every direction! lol

Main thing is pick something relatively easy and low cost to start with and go for it! (If you decide building isn't for you the investment is minimal) Your also likely to finish this sort of project reasonably quickly. Having the sense of achievement under your belt helps you get motivated to go for it. If it is too complicated or drags too long your likely to be put off first time round.

POly and epoxy are great as they are strong, durable and require very little in the way of tools or skills. If you don't already have a jiogsaw etc these can be bought cheaply or even substituted for hand tools (not recommended lol)