Building Small Boats [Hardcover]

Greg Rossel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1998

This book is destined to become the text of plank-on-frame and lapstrake boat construction. A straight-forward approach in lively text, with hundreds of drawings, and photographs that drive home the lessons.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Greg Rossel grew up cruising the waters of New York Harbor and spending time in the boatyards on the south shore of Staten Island where economics (more than anything else) made wooden boats the craft of choice. He makes his home in Maine where he specializes in the construction and repair of small wooden boats, as well as writing for several publications. Greg has been an instructor at WoodenBoat School in Maine since the mid-1980's, teaching lofting, skiff building, and the "Fundamentals of Boatbuilding".

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wooden Boat Publications (December 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937822507
• ISBN-13: 978-0937822500
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Book, July 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Building Small Boats (Hardcover)

It is well written and illustrated. It is 8 1/2" by 11" about 280 pages, hardback, and published by WoodenBoat Publications. Apparently, the author was a teacher at the Wooden Boat School.

It covers everything from tools, wood selection, joinery and finishing. Best of all it had an in depth section on lofting that even me, a former Marine could understand. It is the only book that I have read that introduces lofting to a boat building novice and lifts the shroud of mystery around it.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cover to cover, an extremely enlightening book, March 14, 2000

By 

R. Briggs (Boxborough, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Small Boats (Hardcover)

If you plan to build a wooden boat for the first time, this book is just what you need. When I embarked on my first boatbuilding project armed with my hobbyist's furniture building skills and a set of boat plans, I nearly gave up in frusteration. After reading this book, everything makes so much more sense. He explains the terminology, the woods, the tools, the glues, and all the little pitfalls you will encounter along the way. My boat is now well underway and it would probably still be couple sheets of paper nailed to the wall of my garage if it weren't for "Building Small Boats."

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Primer on Traditional Boatbuilding, October 29, 2001

By 

picea mariana (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Small Boats (Hardcover)

This book should be called "Building Small Wooden Boats." The author sticks to traditional methods and materials and he's very good at explaining these. It's much more accessible than general boatbuilding manuals such as Steward and Chapelle, but more in depth than the usual how-to book. The drawings are very helpful and the text is clear, concise and well organized (though for some reason there's no index). There are some subjects I would have liked to see discussed in more detail, but overall a great boatbuilding book.