Boats to Go: 24 Easy-To-Build Boats That Go Fast With Low Power [Paperback]

Thomas Firth Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1996

Here's what hard-core boat nuts call "really neat boats"; from a flyweight tack-and-tape kayak, to a 29-foot transatlantic trimaran-24 unique boats in all. These diverse designs are united by the common themes of simplicity of line, ease of construction, and high speed relative to the power used. A wide array of construction techniques are offered.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... unique boats that will captivate all boatbuidlers... the practical guide for all boatbuilders, amateur as well as professional." -- The Mariner

"These are our kind of boats." -- Messing About in Boats

"Total candor from somebody who does all his own thinking." -- Bolger, Phil

Product Details

• Paperback: 243 pages
• Publisher: Intl Marine Pub (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070330689
• ISBN-13: 978-0070330689
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,670,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New thoughts on old ideas, January 21, 2007

By 

Joseph L. White (Nashville, TN, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boats to Go: 24 Easy-To-Build Boats That Go Fast With Low Power (Paperback)

Thomas Firth Jones is a modern practitioner of old-fashioned boat design. His section on "long, narrow powerboats" explains how non-planing boats used to (and still can) go through the water at reasonable speed and with marvelous gas mileage.
The first section on small kayak-style canoes includes some simple math to show how he took the weight of the boater and designed a small, hard-chined canoe with that much displacement. One of the best explanations I've seen.
An experienced builder could probably craft one of the kayaks from the drawings in the book, but I've built two boats and I would pay for the full-size plans before I put saw to wood.
Having said that, the sketches of the boats illustrate the considerations a boat-builder (or boat-buyer) should think about when picking one's dream boat. If a boat is a hole in the water, surrounded by wood, into which one pours money, then this book is a great consumer guide about choosing which hole to jump into.
See also "New Plywood Boats" by the same author, which has some further critiques of some of the kayak designs in this book. If you are interested in boatbuilding, you should buy one of these two books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, April 12, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Boats to Go: 24 Easy-To-Build Boats That Go Fast With Low Power (Paperback)

An extremely well written book, you will learn a great deal about boat design and construction. Enjoyable reading, the author is a very good writer, concise, pithy, and interesting. He could probably make the phone book a good read.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An author with strong opinions, March 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Boats to Go: 24 Easy-To-Build Boats That Go Fast With Low Power (Paperback)

A reasonable book with good text and drawings, the only downside was the Author has very strong opinions regarding his subject, for example in such areas as wood choice etc. This rather jars when reading. The only other issue is the Author has tended to use some stronly American phraseology which for a non U.S. reader requires a consideerable amount of searching the text for a meaning.