Customer Reviews

How to Build the Haven Twelve & a Half Footer

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book contains some excellent photos of how to build a classic small sailboat, along with a clear step by step procedure for construction. It is, however, lacking in one regard. They fail to mention that you cannot build this boat without ordering the plans from the author. I suppose with a comprehensive experience with lofting you could reverse engineer a fine copy of this boat, but based on the title you would tend to believe that it presents everything you need to reproduce this boat. I still found this book useful in presenting some basic construction techniques, and an orderly process, for constructing this, or a number of similiar boats that utilize a basic plank on frame construction. The other problem this book presents is any sort of detailed instruction for manufacturing some of the parts. For example, how do you construct a form fitting, several hundred pound, lead keel. He has some pictures of the process, but no detailed instructions on how to do this. This is still an interesting book, and I would recommend it to someone who already understands most of the basics of sailboat construction.

I saw a lovely little boat in Penzance Harbour, decided I liked the look of it, and tracked down what it was - a Haven 12 1/2! I bought this book to whet my appetite with respect to building one sometime in the future. First off - this book assumes a certain level of boatbuilding knowledge. That is not to say that you must be an experienced builder; you'll just need to read "Building Small Boats" by the same publisher concurrently (which I also own - it is fantastic). This is not an easy boat to build, and the first thing that will strike you is the amount of work involved. It's at least twice the amount you're expecting if this is your first boat. Prepare to be shocked.

As for the content, the book pretty much consists of 224 individual steps in building the boat - each with a black and white photograph and a paragraph or two describing what needs to be done and some common problems you might encounter. As I said before, sometimes these descriptions slip into jargon which you need to have prior knowledge to understand, but if you're serious about building this boat you should be researching the topic quite well anyway. Some of the photos would benefit from being in colour but this isn't really a concern. They get the general gist across.

The book closes with some beautiful sketches of the boat in plan and cross section, and small excerpts from the boat plan. Note that this book does not contain actual plans. Unless you are very adept at lofting (and not too concerned about accuracy) you will need to buy the plans too.

The book also gives you advice on how to care for the finished boat and use it.

In conclusion, a fantastic book for what it is, but you will need to buy the full-sized plans (which are expensive), and if you are a first timer you should also buy "Building Small Boats" or a similar book as well.

As others have said in their reviews, this book does not contain EVERYTHING you need to know to build this boat, but you will need this book to build a Haven. You should also join HavenBuilders.com to see hundred of pictures of the construction process, by dozens of builders. There is also a Forum on the site where builders share ideas on how to perform various parts of the construction process.

Great book taking the prospective builder through the construction of this beautiful boat. As good a book on boat construction as I've seen. Check it out with the book, then buy the plans and build it!