Build the New Instant Boats [Paperback]

Harold Payson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1984

Here are eleven new Instant Boats to choose from, including three built with a new "Tack and Tape" method that eliminates most of the beveling and results in a very shapely and spritely craft. Flip through the pages and compare the odd, sometimes startling shapes of the patterns with the pleasing sheers and functional good looks of the completed boats. You will begin to appreciate the genius of Bolger. In the opening chapters Dynamite tells you with common sense and uncommon good humor everything you need to know to build one of his boats. You can then start right in cutting readily available plywood sheets to precomputed patterns. (You can build directly from the book, but the purchase of larger-scale plans at a modest cost from Dynamite will make the task of scaling off the patterns easier.) Before you know it you will be fastening them together--all your basic assembly virtually behind you, and years on the water just ahead.

Editorial Reviews

Review

``Clearly the best encouragement I have seen for those of us who want to get afloat at reasonable cost in the same season that we start building. . .Good advice abounds for the neophyte builder.'' (Small Boat Journal )

From the Back Cover

Harold H. Payson--known to associates, friends, and his wife as Dynamite--thinks you can build a boat. In fact, if you can saw a penciled line, apply glue, drive nails, and bring a modest measure of patience to the task, you can build and launch a smart and able craft in as few as 40 man-hours. You need not be driven by lack of tools, materials, skills, or time to abandon in frustration a project you conceived in a spirit of pleasurable anticipation.

Years ago, when Dynamite began supplementing his boatbuilding work by selling boat plans, he got feedback from a number of customers who found the boats too difficult to build. Many of these would-be boatbuilders had never heard of lofting and were intimidated and discouraged by the necessity of building the boat itself. Many of them, too, could not find local suppliers of the lumber and other materials called for by the plans.

Selling plans for boats that never got built went against Dynamite's Down East grain, and it was also, he figured, "a straight road to bankruptcy in the long run." He outlined the problem to Philip Bolger, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, arguably the most innovative small-craft designer around, and Bolger agreed, on one condition, to design a series of boats that would require no lofting, no jig, and no lumber that could not be obtained at any local building-supplies store. Boats that would not require a great investment of time to cut out and button up. In short, boats for the inexperienced builder whose fundamental desire is to get out on the water. The one condition was that Dynamite would build and thoroughly test a prototype of each design to wring out every bug before offering the plans for sale. Dynamite readily agreed, and a felicitous partnership was born. The eventual result was the original fleet of six boats described in his first book, Instant Boats.

Here are eleven new Instant Boats to choose from, including three built with a new "Tack and Tape" method that eliminates most of the beveling and results in a very shapely and spritely craft. Flip through the pages and compare the odd, sometimes startling shapes of the patterns with the pleasing sheers and functional good looks of the completed boats. You will begin to appreciate the genius of Bolger. In the opening chapters Dynamite tells you with common sense and uncommon good humor everything you need to know to build one of his boats. You can then start right in cutting readily available plywood sheets to precomputed patterns. (You can build directly from the book, but the purchase of larger-scale plans at a modest cost from Dynamite will make the task of scaling off the patterns easier.) Before you know it you will be fastening them together--all your basic assembly virtually behind you, and years on the water just ahead.

Pleasant sailing.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (December 15, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071559663
• ISBN-13: 978-0071559669
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Ships > Boat Building

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Construction of simple, elegant designs explained clearly, November 25, 2000

By 

"mctaggert" (Sugar Grove, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Build the New Instant Boats (Paperback)

A great book about simple, straight forward boatbuilding. The author presents information and designs on building boats using a tack and tape method and a more convential framing method. I've built one boat from this book and am starting a second one. Payson's boatbuilding information or Bolger's designs alone are worth the price of this book.

I have to take to task the two reviewers who have indicated this book short changed them. For starters, I think the author is an honest person. In one reviewers case, the problem is a lack of plans. I've bought plans for both the boats I built because it makes building easier. For both boats, the plans were in the book. This is generous of the author considering he earns some income from plan sales. In the second case, materials price seems to be the problem. The book was published in '85, so some inflation should be allowed for. Even so, for half of his total investment, the materials for that particular boat could have been bought including epoxy adhesive and bronze oar fittings. The author also points the several levels of materials that can be used to build these boats, explaining how this affects the finished boat. Another thing the author points out is that boatbuilding takes imagination and perserverance. A lack of both of thse traits is the real problem facing the two reviewers.

If you want to build a Bolger instant boat, this book is great to have on hand. The author helped work the bugs out of these designs. You can't get better help than that.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Go build a boat!, December 19, 1999

By 

dave nolan (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Build the New Instant Boats (Paperback)

Harold Payson makes a first time boat builder a success.

I built Diablo in my backyard with hand power tools and fished the beaches for 9 years with a 25HP Mariner.

My advice- buy the book - build a boat. Start with a little design to gain confidence.

Use epoxy over fiberglass resin, on Marine Plywood and you'll have no problems...

Dave

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the Best Small-craft building book on the market..., April 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Build The New Instant Boats (Paperback)

When you combine the building genius and straight-forward writhing style of Harold Payson with the amazing, easy to build marine designs of the notable Phil Bolger, You have a sure winner!

The book combines general technical knowledge on boatbuilding with a large assortment of plans. This book allows you to build everything from a six foot row/sail boat, aptly named the tortise, to a classic looking, incredibly fast 25 foot schooner, simply called 'scooner'.

It is written with the beginner in mind, giving only small ammounts of technical information. The construction methods are virtually fool proof, and you can emerge from your workshop in a weekend with a complete boat, ready for the water.