Boatbuilding: A Complete Handbook of Wooden Boat Construction | 
 enlarge | Author: Howard Irving Chapelle
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $24.28
You Save: $15.67 (39%)
New (19) from $24.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 142677
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0393035549
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.8207
EAN: 9780393035544
ASIN: 0393035549
Publication Date: April 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
Boatbuilding is a practical handbook and boatshop assistant, designed and written to meet the needs of the builder, covering the complete process of wooden boat construction. The text covers all types of craft from flat-bottom rowboats to ocean cruisers and commercial vessels, and aids the builder in overcoming difficulties and discouraging delays resulting from the lack of easily available information on the practical side of boatbuilding. Boatbuilding gives detailed instructions, with many illustrations, on all phases of boatbuilding written out of actual boatbuilding practice and aids the builder in planning each job in its proper sequence in relation to those that follow. After a chapter discussing the choice of plans suitable for amateur work there are chapters on lofting, the backbone and setting up, flat-bottom hull construction, V-bottom hull construction, round-bottom hull construction, deck framing and building, special construction (plywood, strip planking, lap-strake, diagonal, ribband carvel, canvas), heavy construction, joiner-work, iron-work, and spar making. Each chapter is organized for easy and quick reference, and the book is completely indexed. An added feature is the inclusion of building plans for nineteen boats designed for this book and suitable for amateur building.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 The Trusted Foundation & Classic April 20, 2008
I bought and read this book first, then bought and read most of the boatbuilding books on the current market over the last five years. This book clearly provided a trusted foundation for many of the others. Six decades later it is still an extremely useful and trusted foundation that probably should form the core of a very serious boatbuilder's library. Although fiberglass and epoxy have transformed amateur boatbuilding, this is still the 'go to' book for many fundamentals like lofting. Get this book and supplement it with others more specifically focused on the particular type of boat you want would be excellent advice.
It is worth noting that this book contains sets of plans for a range of boats that would cost many times what the book sells for if boought separately. With this,his "American Small Sailing Craft" (lines plans and tables of offsets for traditional craft), John Gardner's books (lines and offsets for classics such as dories, peapods and whitehalls with building procedures) and "The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction" (for fiberglass work)one would have a championship foundation library, already stocked with a wealth of plans for solid, beautiful boats.
simply great August 31, 2006
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
this one is simple. if you work or are interested in old school wood boats,,then you must have this book on your shelf.
thats it
~R~
 Don't let my three star rating turn you away from this book. May 8, 2005
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
Don't let my three star rating turn you away from this book. It is well written, complete in every sense of the word and well illustrated. I gave it three stars because I found other books on this subject to be more readable and easier to use as a guide and reference. This is a text book style work and it has a great place in all the books on boatbuilding. It is a fine work, but then, I must ask you, how many fine books can there be? What if I said that this was yet another fine boat building book...then what? This book makes a wonderful reference. It makes an excellent text book. It is useful if you have more than two people working on a hull (one to read aloud and the other to work). But it is not an easy, cook book on boat building. I recommend it, But there are other books out there that are better sources of information for the home builder.
What About the Designs? September 11, 2002
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I agree with the other (positive) reviewers--not an easy read, but well worth the investment in time. My favorite part of the book, though, has not been mentioned. Mr. Chapelle includes a number of sample designs--wonderful classics from a rowing peapod to a large commercial fishing boat. If you have some solid boat building experience, the plans are complete enough to build from, with a little eyestrain. For historical purposes, these designs complement those in American Small Sailing Craft, another worthwhile book by H.I. Chapelle. There is also an interesting, though too brief, section on choosing a design.
The reference on wooden boatbuilding May 7, 2002
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
Pure and simple. I'm a professional, doing repairs on wooden workboats and I do refer to it whenever I'm stumped. Not the easiest read, not completely user-friendly.....well, I'll let you in on a little secret; neither is boatbuilding. Some have whinged about the terms, some have groused about the old-style construction methods. Well, there are certain terms that are used for certain things and you are not knowledgeable unless you can use and understand them. Learning them is part of learning the trade. Study! Tremendous detail, wide variety of different methods covered. Chapelle was a NA/ME and a skilled designer in his own right and it too shows. Highly recommended.
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