How to Build Glued Lapstrake Wooden Boats

Rating:
Summary: An Epic, A Bible, a Masterwork, . . . and Such a Bargain!
Review: I am someone who has to think twice on which is the business end of a hammer, but after reading this book I am nearly to a point of conversion on wanting a new hobby. In a delightful, light, humorous tone, Brooks and Hill give step-by-step instructions on how to build a glued-lapstrake wooden boat. The book has a drawing or a photograph on practically every one of its 270 pages. Useful drawings and graphics and notes for how to do hundreds of steps pop up every other page. Clever ways to do things, jigs you can build, tools you can construct yourself, serendipitous discoveries, and hints and tricks and lessons learned from their own mistakes appear in jaw-dropping detail throughout the book, shared in a reassuring "don't worry, if we can do it, so can you!" tone. Brooks and Hill obviously have great senses of humor and untold amounts of patience and resourcefulness which they transmit to the reader, page after page, from the beginning of the project to the bitter end of painting, varnishing, installing hardware, and even launching.

Brooks and Hill seem to have anticipated every spot in the process where a builder might encounter a pesky problem or where goofups are common. They are there ahead of time to warn of the potential problem, and they're there after the fact with a fix-up if the goofup occurs anyway. This advice has to be worth its weight in gold, considering the number of complicated steps involved.

I am not a religious person, but just knowing that there is a paragraph in this biblical work on what I can do if my keelson warps or how I can fix it if my spiling pattern for the sheerstrake curves out into free space gives me spiritual reassurance. Read it yourself and see if you don't feel just a little better about the state of the world -- even if you never build a boat!