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Summary: Excellent source of boat building instruction and motivation
Review: As a person looking to choose a boat building method, I found Sam Devlin's book extremely interesting. After reading his book, I felt confident that I could tackle such a project and was inspired by his personal love of the craft. As a matter of fact I purchased some of his plans and found Sam and his wife to be extremely friendly and helpful!
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Summary: New to boat building
Review: Great reading. This book answered all of my questions and then some. I would recommend this book to new boat builders.
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Summary: A bit more history on the author and his subject.
Review: Having been in the business of designing and building wooden boats for the last 21 years, a couple of years ago I sat down and started to write about my particular boatbuilding method and the psychology and philosophy of being a wooden boat builder in todays world. When I first started my original goal was to simply make my living building wooden boats, and truely I didn't know if that would be possible. But some 400 boats later I find that building and designing wooden boats is an intensly fascinating way to make a living. What the boat builder does is to start with a pile of lumber and enough gumption to tackle the project. What they can end up with is a boat that exhibits a spirit and a life that no off the shelf mass-production boat can ever feel. I hope that you will enjoy Devlin's Boatbuilding, and perhaps you too will find the simple joy that I do in the creation of a wooden boat. We also have a webpage with good photo's in it! You can visit the site at devlinboat.com
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Summary: A pionneer of stitch-and-glue tells all
Review: The stitch-and-glue technique was pioneered by builders of small boats, so it's not surprising that most boatbuilders think of it as a technique appropriate only for small boats. But Sam Devlin has been building large boats for many years with stitch and glue, and in this books shows why it's an appropriate technique for any size boat.Traditional plywood boatbuilding doesn't really take advantage of the structural properties of plywood, argues Devlin; if you build a frame and then cover it with sheets of plywood in the same way you'd plank with boards, you're not really gaining much other than the convenience of the larger sheets. You're still using the same techniques of a century ago. Stitch and glue allows the builder to make strong frameless monococque structures in which the entire skin, and not just the frames, carries the load. Such structures are much lighter and stiffer than traditional framed structures. Aircraft builders have been using monococques since the 1930s, and automobiles have been built using monocoque ("unibody") construction since the 1960s. Devlin assumes the reader of this book knows a little about boats, but nothing about stitch and glue construction. He provides excellent detail on the tools, techniques and materials needed, as well as numerous photos and a number of designs. Whether you're planning to build a 7' pram or a 30' cruiser, there's much useful information here. Even if you already have one of Dynamite Payson's "Instant Boats" books or Chris Kulczycki's "The Kayak Shop" you'll want a copy of this book as well.
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Summary: A must for every boatbuilder
Review: This is a great book. Every aspect of stitch and glue boatbuilding is covered in great detail, from shop practice to lofting, assembling and finishing the boat. The style is plain and enjoyable and the drawings are excellent. The author's love for boats, fine materials and good workmanship is evident in every page. I found just a few minor issues. First, the quality of the photographs is questionable. Moreover, from the builders' perspective, some more hints and suggestions on how to use power tools to cut sheet plywood, as well as a more in-depth discussion on epoxy-sealing the hull, would have been useful. Apart from those points, the book is excellent and should be in every boatbuilder's bookshelf.
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