Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps the best book availible on the subject
Review: If you have ever wanted to build a boat, quit your job, and move off to the caribean, this book is for you!
Buehler's technical know-how, sense of thrift, and mildly anarchistic humor combine to make this one of the best books on the building of larger wooden boats availbile. He focuses on inexpensived and easy construction methods that yeild highly seaworthy, servicable cruising power and sailboats. With this book in one hand, a saw in the other, and determination on the mind, there is nothing to stop you from building a fine cruising yacht, at a very low cost.
He even includes complete plans and tables of offsets that allow you to build several boats, ranging from 27 feet to 55 feet in length, directly from the book, rather than dishing out an additional thousand bucks for plans. This is definatly a Must-Own book!
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best book availible on the subject
Review: If you have ever wanted to build a boat, quit your job, and move off to the caribean, this book is for you!
Buehler's technical know-how, sense of thrift, and mildly anarchistic humor combine to make this one of the best books on the building of larger wooden boats availbile. He focuses on inexpensived and easy construction methods that yeild highly seaworthy, servicable cruising power and sailboats. With this book in one hand, a saw in the other, and determination on the mind, there is nothing to stop you from building a fine cruising yacht, at a very low cost.
He even includes complete plans and tables of offsets that allow you to build several boats, ranging from 27 feet to 55 feet in length, directly from the book, rather than dishing out an additional thousand bucks for plans. This is definatly a Must-Own book!
Rating:
Summary: How boatbuilding books should be written.
Review: As a wooden boatbuilding teacher, I must recomend reading materials to my students, some of which do not read all that well. Mr. Buehler writes a manuel on the construction of wooden cruising boats, which, Although written in a lighthearted, easy to read style, tells all the details needed to build a boat. He is a man who has done it and continues to do it, and I would imagine will always do it. It, being building wooden boats. He, like many of us "neither worships nor derives sexual pleasure from wooen boats", but will always love them nonetheless. I recomend this book to anyone even mildly interested in building a boat of any material.
Rating:
Summary: Correction!
Review: Boy, all these nice reviews are very flattering! However, the one where the comment is the review is about "an out of print or early edition" is mistook. The book IS in print, has NOT been modified, and the plans are certainly still in it! Thank you all for your interest! George
Rating:
Summary: THE way to build a boat.
Review: Buehler makes sense. His construction methods are in reach of the novice, the materials common and not exotic, and the designs are hearty. After reading his book, other boats will appear overly complex, expensive, and frail. You won't want to build a boat any other way.
Rating:
Summary: Down to earth, no nonsense aproach to boat building.
Review: For those of you who are tiard of having someone tell you how to spend your money when it comes to boating. For those of you who are tiard of look alike boats with no personality then this is a book for you. For those of you who dream of owning a real blue water cruising sailboat, this is a must have book. This book is a no nonsense, down to earth, how to manual for building a wooden sailboat. This book is biased towards hard chimed sailboats that are easier to build than round hulls so the builder has a better chance of completing their project. Everything in this book is simplified. Do not take this to mean that the boats described in this book are unsafe, they are probably the safest boats on the water, but that the building and maintenance of these boats are a first consideration in the design.
The book starts off with a description of different types of hulls along with different building materials. It then moves on to the different materials you will need and then a "this is step one" aproach to building a sailboat from the keel up. All steps from casting a keel to framing up, to planking, to building an interior, installing the hardware and standing up the rig are covered in detailed instructions with just the right amount of humor and story tossed in to keep you hooked. All the while it is assumed you are an everyday joe and not some millionair with money to burn doing the work.
To top it off, included in the back of the book are plans for several sailboats that are complete and ready to build from. What more could you ask. The plans themselves are worth the cost of the book!
Did I like this book, you better believe I did. You should pick up a copy and read it with an open mind, you might start thinking about boating with a different attitude towards what "must be done" to be on the water.
Rating: 
Summary: Building a HEAVY boat
Review: George Buehler builds boats based on northwest workboats. This book is not about building with fiberglass or steel or aluminum, it's about building with wood. A workboat from the northwest has two qualities that animate all of Buehler techniques and designs: they are made out of wood and, being from a part of the country where there are many forests, use lots of it and they are simple.
The designs presented in the book and most of the techniques are all based on chine-designed hulls. There is not much here about building carvel planked, round bottomed boats, nor anything about multi-chine designs, only hard chine very heavy craft that will be very tough for a very long time. Performance is not in the author's vocabulary.
This approach allows the author to use less than optimum quality materials and, accordingly, save a great deal of money. However, if you happen to reside in a part of the country where wood is less plentiful, you are going to have a hard time following the design principles that Buehler lays out and you are not going to recognize the same savings. Also, this book was published in 1991. A great deal has happened to the availability of timber since then.
What Buehler is very good at is debunking the myth that you need to spend top dollar on things that the industry says you have to have (e.g. galvanized stays work just as well as stainless steel stays for about a third of the cost). His emphasis is getting the builder safely into the water and there is a lot to be said for that. It's unfortunate though, that an acceptance of more modern and lighter weight building techniques that achieve the same level of safety could not be more explored. But then, that would be a different book.
Read it for his sense of debunking the modern sailing myths and to help you think out of the box. But if you are building in metals, strip or cold molding, or fiberglass, or anything which would be considered other than heavy displacement, this book will not help you much.
Rating:
Summary: Building a HEAVY boat
Review: George Buehler builds boats based on northwest workboats. This book is not about building with fiberglass or steel or aluminum, it's about building with wood. A workboat from the northwest has two qualities that animate all of Buehler techniques and designs: they are made out of wood and, being from a part of the country where there are many forests, use lots of it and they are simple.
The designs presented in the book and most of the techniques are all based on chine-designed hulls. There is not much here about building carvel planked, round bottomed boats, nor anything about multi-chine designs, only hard chine very heavy craft that will be very tough for a very long time. Performance is not in the author's vocabulary.
This approach allows the author to use less than optimum quality materials and, accordingly, save a great deal of money. However, if you happen to reside in a part of the country where wood is less plentiful, you are going to have a hard time following the design principles that Buehler lays out and you are not going to recognize the same savings. Also, this book was published in 1991. A great deal has happened to the availability of timber since then.
What Buehler is very good at is debunking the myth that you need to spend top dollar on things that the industry says you have to have (e.g. galvanized stays work just as well as stainless steel stays for about a third of the cost). His emphasis is getting the builder safely into the water and there is a lot to be said for that. It's unfortunate though, that an acceptance of more modern and lighter weight building techniques that achieve the same level of safety could not be more explored. But then, that would be a different book.
Read it for his sense of debunking the modern sailing myths and to help you think out of the box. But if you are building in metals, strip or cold molding, or fiberglass, or anything which would be considered other than heavy displacement, this book will not help you much.
Rating:
Summary: Must have book for anyone wanting to build their own boat.
Review: George Buehler dispels the myth that only trained professionals can build a boat. His methods and instructions are based on real world, common-sense techniques that have been used and still are used by people who make their living on the water. His boats are meant to be used and abused and still come out working good and looking good in the end as compared to most production boats today that need a weekend of maintenance for every weekend out on the water. Best of all these are boats that can be built by the backyard boat builder.
In addition to the good information his unique personality and humor make the book very entertaining. He provides many anecdotes relating to things that he or others have tried which have worked, didn't work, or failed spectacularly. These anecdotes though funny at times are the ones that count and should be remembered when building your own boat - sadly stories such as these are few or non existent in books that try to take a more academic approach.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant reality tests for the dreamer
Review: George Buehler is well known as the designer of the economical Diesel Duck series of ocean going troller style motorboats. These charming and seaworthy boats are gaining popularity as alternatives to 'gotta win the lottery' marine industry offerings. This tome explains the philosophical and design issues underpinning the Duck series. Buehler's writing style is fun, clear and irreverent. Various boat design issues are explained in a way that educates novices and challenges more experienced readers to rethink their assumptions. He begins to explain, but does not flesh out, the myriad practical details and decisions one must understand before following his iconoclastic vision to sea in a motorboat. I use the word iconoclast here to distinguish Buehler from the conventional wisdom for sale at boatshows. Buehler's ideas are actually more representative of a commercial seamen's considerations (sound fundamentals, less frills, no nonsense) than those of the weekend party boat set. The KISS principle abounds in his design approach and in his straight shooting opinions on mechanical, electronic, galley, head, water, fuel etc. systems appropriate for a passagemaking yacht. Too bad he doesn't write as voluminously as the Dashsews (who put out >700 page encyclopedias explaining their vision of high cost, hi tech cruising boats). Though I wish Buehler had written a longer book, this one is sweet, to the point and a delightful read. I highly recommend it for all the rest of you dreamers as a humorous, no nonsense antidote to boating industry marketing hype. As an enticing but teasingly short reference on the utilitarian and charming Diesel Ducks, it is a wonderful appetizer and will leave you wanting more. (And Mr. Buehler, next time besides larger portions, please make the illustrations bigger so I don't need to squint as I pore over construction details to avoid sending you $ for full size study plans.)
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