Building Strip-Planked Boats [Paperback]

Nick Schade (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2009

The first comprehensive book on stripbuilding almost any type of small boat

Strip-planking is a popular method of amateur boat construction, but until now there has never been a book that showed how to use it for more than one type of boat. Author Nick Schade presents complete plans for three boats of different types (canoe, kayak, and a dinghy) and shows you step-by-step how to build them. Written for all amateur builders, the book covers materials, tools, and safety issues.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nick Schade runs Guillemot Kayaks, one of the best-known providers of plans and kits for strip-built kayaks. He has written feature articles for Sea Kayaker and other magazines.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (March 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071475249
• ISBN-13: 978-0071475242
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #50 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Boating
  • #65 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Ships

More About the Author

I started building boats when I graduated from college and needed a boat of my own. With the goal of a small boat for exploring the coast of Maine, I designed and built my own sea kayak in 1986. Since then I have continued to design kayaks and developed techniques for building them, and have been self employed as a professional kayak designer and builder since 1995. I still approach boat design and building as a user of the finished product.

In 1998 I wrote "The Strip-Built Sea Kayak" which has become the bible for building kayaks using the strip-planked method. In 2009 my second book "Building Strip Planked Boats" came out detailing much of what I had learned the the intervening 11 years. The new book is provides boat builders with the knowledge to create any kind of small boat using the strip-built method.

I continue to design, build and use kayaks, refining my skills in all three. Guillemot Kayak designs are being built around the world and my finished boats are receiving recognition at top museums and exhibitions.

http://www.Guillemot-Kayaks.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book for Builders of Wood-Strip and Fiberglass Boats, May 2, 2009

By 

John D. Caldeira (Rakiraki, Fiji) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Building Strip-Planked Boats (Paperback)

Building Strip-Planked Boats by Nick Schade primarily describes methods for building beautiful boats from wood strips, fiberglass and epoxy. It updates many techniques that were described in the author's earlier book, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak. This book also provides offset dimensions and instructions to build a dinghy, a one-person canoe and a rough-water sea kayak.

This book provides an excellent overview of wood-core and fiberglass construction, and detailed information on working with wood strips, fiberglass and epoxy. Many practical tips are included, as well as suggestions for avoiding and dealing with the most common problems.

However, the book seems to be missing a few chapters. Significant information for the first-time builder is absent in this book: The kayak section contains no information on the construction of bulkheads, footbraces, rudders, retractable skegs, or outfitting the boat with deck rigging and a seat. Many best practices are missing, such as measuring epoxy with nested cups, preserving brushes and rollers by freezing, pre-taping seams for joining hull and deck, and using webbing for deck riggings.

Other best building practices receive only scant mention, such as using masking tape and a sharp blade to trim secondary layers of fiberglass. The book would also have benefited from more photographs of the finished boats.

The book would have been more appealing if it offered designs for a more general-purpose canoe and a more general-purpose kayak, as fewer people will be interested in these niche designs.

This book is a good supplement for boat-builders, but most first-time builders of a strip boat would probably learn more from the step-by-step organization of Nick Schade's first book, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak: Three Rugged, Beautiful Boats You Can Build, or Ted Moores' books Canoecraft: An Illustrated Guide to Fine Woodstrip Construction and Kayakcraft: Fine Woodstrip Kayak Construction. This is a 3-star book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, December 12, 2009

By 

R. Meyer (Lima, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building Strip-Planked Boats (Paperback)

I'm currently makeing a caone out of this book. The first 150 pages tell you about cutting the wood and laying fiberglass. Things you need to do for all 3 of the boats that you can build from this book. It gives great detail on how to do stuff and the material needed. So If you want to know how to build a boat this is a 5 star book, but if your going to actually build the boat its a little diffrent story.
It gives you the form points so you can plot the points out on graph paper I did it using a program call CAD at school. I'm only 17 so my wood working knowledge is limited. But so far I'm doing great I have all the forms layed out and done. SO my only problem, is It tells you how to make a one seat less than 150LB person caonoe. What grown man weighs 150LB and u cant take any gear with you even if you are in that range. Plus the seat is the bottom of the boat. It's more of a kayak than a canoe.
Bottom line if you want to build a normal 2 person coanoe with about 500 LB max weight this is NOT your book. If you just want to build a little boat to dink around in and it says it will weigh around 15Lb and 10feet long so it will be light.
I guess I was hoping that by canoe it meant a 16 foot 2 person canoe.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good but too scattered, November 10, 2009

By 

Just Me (Seattle) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Building Strip-Planked Boats (Paperback)

There are many good points in this book but in my opinion it is trying to be too much for too wide an audience. In the process of covering multiple types of craft the "gems" are somewhat hidden. It was a good effort, but I wish in this case it had been more linear in the presentation. Don't get me wrong, I would buy it again.