The Boatbuilder's Apprentice: The Ins and Outs of Building Lapstrake, Carvel, Stitch-and-Glue, Strip-Planked, and Other...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 352 pages
• Published by: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Edition: 1st Edition December 15, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0071464050
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0071464055
• Book Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 2.6 pounds

Product Description


Learn the Ins and Outs of Building Lapstrake, Carvel, Stitch-and-Glue, Strip-Planked, and Other Wooden Boats

Whether you are contemplating your first-ever boatbuilding project or trying to decide what design you'd like to build next, Greg Rössel can help. Here's just a glimpse of what's inside this complete overview of wooden boatbuilding:

• How rowing, sailing, paddling, and powerboat designs perform, and how they compare in cost, time, and necessary skills for building
• How wooden boats are built, including the pros and cons of carvel, lapstrake, dory lap, stitch and glue, strip plank, and other methods
• How to choose the best boat and building method for your next project
• How to loft a hull, steam bend frames, scarf a joint, cut a rabbet, laminate stems, and spile planks
• How to take the lines off an old classic whose plans have been lost
• How to make oars, spars, coamings, knees, gaff jaws, cleats, and more

Greg Rössel writes with warmth, wit, and an engaging style. The Boatbuilder's Apprentice is a must guide for anyone planning or even dreaming about building a wooden boat.

“Greg Rössel is a Renaissance Man. While there are many talented boatbuilders in the world, only a handful are also good teachers. Even fewer can write or illustrate effectively. Yet this author is highly skilled in each of these areas. . . . The Boatbuilder's Apprentice is a successful blend of technique and wisdom, and is, I believe, destined to become a classic.”-Karen Wales, WoodenBoat Review

Back Cover Copy


There is a peculiar form of insomnia that afflicts amateur boatbuilders. It consists of lying awake at night, reviewing the details of a boatbuilding project and wondering, "How am I going to do that?" Greg Rössel helps answer those questions.

Wooden boats have been called "the most lifelike" of man's creations. Their beauty can inspire even inexperienced woodworkers to attempt their construction, but their complexity can bedevil the most determined. In The Boatbuilder's Apprentice, longtime WoodenBoat writer and professional boatbuilder Greg Rössel helps weekend builders choose the best boat design and construction method for their first, second, or twentieth project.

Beginning with the question, 'why wood?,' and focusing on wooden boats less than twenty feet long, Greg provides a complete overview of the methods used to build small wooden boats, from traditional carvel or lapstrake planking to modern stitch-and-glue, strip-planked, glued-lap, cold molding, and others. He discusses their pros and cons, their adaptability to different boat types, and their degrees of difficulty in both construction and maintenance. He explains the basics of boat design and of hull form and function and helps the beginner decide which type of boat will best suit his or her needs, skills, and desires.

Greg also covers the essentials of every boatbuilding project, including:

• Tools, wood types, fasteners, adhesives, and coatings;
• Shop setup and safety;
• Whether to build right-side up or upside down;
• How to go about steam bending, cutting rabbets, scarfing, and laminating;
• Oar and spar making;
• Building knees, gaff jaws, and cleats, and taking the lines off an old classic.

Writing with wit and an engaging style, Rössel makes light work of that most feared of all processes for the beginning boatbuilder-lofting. He shares his extensive experience on problem solving, shows you how to work efficiently, and offers hundreds of ingenious techniques for surmounting age-old difficulties. He also includes a glossary as well as an extensive appendix of sources for plans and materials.

Reader Reviews
Although it's not too old, my copy of Rossel's book is dog-eared and stained. That's because it lives not on a shelf but on the work bench in my shop. I refer to it, and Rossel's earlier book, frequently. Building a boat involves hundreds of small tasks, some of them a bit tricky. Because many of those only come up infrequently, it's easy for even the relatively experienced amateur builder to need a little help remembering how it's done. This book is perfect for that. It is equally well suited to the beginner. I wish it had been around when I first started messing around with wooden boats. It really is the next best thing to being a real life apprentice to a master boatbuilder. If you can't build a boat with the help of this book, maybe you should consider taking up golf, or some other hobby.