American Small Sailing Craft

Rating:
Summary: Dry but great guide to the history of American work boats.
Review: Each section on the boat type is both too short and long enough. I wanted more text on dories, and Whitehalls, my favorite boats but there was enough about Bermuda fishing boats and Jersey Shore boats to pique my interest to go google them and see if I could find a modern version to look at. If you are considering buying or building a 19th century style boat this is a great guide to what you are getting. It's original purpose and design guidelines. It is not a how to build a boat unless you already know what you are doing and can read micro drawings of lines. To a master boat builder this book would be enough to a garage shop guy, only a taste.

I bought it to research Jersey Shore boats and ended up reading it all. A boat nuts bible.

Rating:
Summary: There is no substitute for this definitive work
Review: Howard Chapelle lived and wrote at a time when the fleets of working small sailing craft rapidly vanished. His life's work was to preserve a lowly, humble part of American maritime heritage, and his efforts are without peer.

In American Small Sailing Craft, Chapelle shows us a number of the plain work-a-day craft of the watermen of old. Although people of those times took little notice of such common, plain, ordinary vessels, we modern readers are left to marvel at their seaworthiness, sturdiness, simplicity--in short, their consummate practicality.

Any maritime heritage enthusiast will love this classic book.

Rating:
Summary: classic
Review: This is the classic book about classic boats. I bought it because of my interest in one particular boat and ended up reading it cover to cover. The author put together a large part of the Smithsonian's collection of boat plans and definitely knew his stuff. This is a great book if you are interested in a particular type of historic boat. It is also worth reading just to compare the relative merits of different designs. The lines and offsets given for the many of boats are enough to build from.

Rating:
Summary: classic
Review: This is the classic book about classic boats. I bought it because of my interest in one particular boat and ended up reading it cover to cover. The author put together a large part of the Smithsonian's collection of boat plans and definitely knew his stuff. This is a great book if you are interested in a particular type of historic boat. It is also worth reading just to compare the relative merits of different designs. The lines and offsets given for the many of boats are enough to build from.