Boating Books

I'm a professional boatbuilder in Port Townsend ,WA. While there are dozens if not hundreds of boat repair and building books out there, few are as user friendly to the uninitiated as this book is.If you are contemplating purchasing this book to perform maintenance or repair on a wooden boat, buy it! Along with "The Arts of the Sailor" and " The Marlinspike Sailor", this volume belongs on any traditional sailor's shelf.It is one of very,very few books I've encountered that explains repair of a lapstraked (clinker) plank. The overall layout and terminology as applied to parts of the boat is outstanding. The next apprentice that walks through my shop door is getting this book handed to him.

Boat Watching by engineer, educator, and world traveler Edmund W. Jupp is a compilation of thoughtful observations and meditations on the beauty, practicality, form, and function of boats. Intended for (and highly recommended to) casual readers who seek to reflect upon the value and use of boats and related matters, Boat Watching mixes wistful insight with a love of all things nautical.

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.

This book made me laugh. The author leaves no aspect of boating untouched with his keenly humorous insights into the whole boating experience. A must read for old salts and landlubbers alike. I look forward to more books from this author. To sum it up in "old Norse"...Ya, it vas vurth a gude larf!

This book saved me a lot of time. Very good discussion on establishing your buying criteria, how to buy used or new, gasoline vs. diesel, sail vs. power, negotiating skills, how to estimate a boat's value, timing purchase/sale. Alltogether excellent, highly recommended!!

I think any boater who wants to preview the Western Lake Erie area, including the islands, will find this book a real treasure. The narrative and annotated photos of harbors are excellent. This may not be the best source for finding a restaurant or tavern, but it's superb for providing familiarity with the approaches to harbors.

If you are like me, you wonder exactly what your legal rights are with regard to your boat. Admiralty law was actually developed to protect boat owners and it is quite different in unexpected ways from the civil and criminal laws you may be familiar with. This book shows you what the limits of your liability are. The subject is complicated, but the author does a good job of explaining things in laymans terms. Few people really understand this subject. Make yourself an expert. Buy it and and pull it off the bookshelf each year are refresh yourself on this subject--that is what I do.

For the past 15 years this book has been one of my favorites to share with young children. The colorful pictures of happy bears at the helm of all different sorts of boats is fun to look at. The sentences are short and the words are simple to keep toddlers interested. It is a book that toddlers want to read over and over and one that you won't get tired of sharing with them.

A well documented history of the Purdy Boat Company from the early 1900's written by the grandson and grandnephew of the Ned and Gil Purdy. This book includes pictures, line drawings and even some receipts. These wonderful boats (some of which are still in existence and documented in the book) have been owned by Carl Fisher, Caleb Bragg, Walter Chrysler, T.E. Lawrence, and Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (a distant relative of the Purdys). Included is also a partial history of Port Washington, NY, where most of the boats were built and some raced in the Gold Cup races of the 20's.

My son's very first word was "boat!" and now that he is 2 he is still fascinated by them. We were given this book as a gift and we love it. The pictures are beautiful. The text starts out informatively, naming and describing different types of boats--but towards the end it becomes fanciful, as the boats "sail among the stars" and the child falls asleep. If you have a little boat-lover in your family, or even if you don't-yet, this book will not disappoint you.