Details of Classic Boat Construction [Hardcover]

Larry Pardey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

This impressive book shows the process of constructing a boat hull with extensive photographs and drawings and includes ample time-saving procedures. Larry Pardey is accepted as one of the master craftsman of the wooden-boat building world. He and his wife, Lin, have built two, strong, handsome boats an sailed twice around the world in them. This book will help you to save money, time, and energy while creating the boat of your dreams. This book will also guide you with the right tools and equipment, planning and detailing as well as how to create and make your own tools. Guides to repairing and maintaining your boat are included as well. A world of useful information is contained in just these 500 pages.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Building a wooden boat is a deeply satisfying creative pursuit and one of the pinnacles of that near-relative of art craftsmanship. Larry Pardey dismisses the common moan that the traditional skills of this particular craftsmanship are lost. Nor, he shows, is there anything mysterious about them; they can be easily learned. Perhaps the most valuable quality of the book is the way it passes on vital know-how about details of construction methods and the relative importance of particular items and aspects. -- Lloyds List, London

Details, he says, and by golly, details it is. Such a great work cannot be summarized in a couple of paragraphs. No detail is omitted, and every picture has clearly worded supportive text. One can do little more than say this is a truly comprehensive handbook for anyone who aims to build a carvel hull. -- Denny Desoutter, editor emeritus, Practical Boat Owner

For me this has to be the book on traditional wooden-yacht construction to be published in over five decades. In some 518 salty and sawdust-laden pages there are lessons and new tricks for even the most horny-handed, time-served, and experienced exponent of this wonderful trade of ours. For the amateur interested in the more traditional side of things, this book will, I am sure, become their bible, and rightfully so. It is difficult to single out any one area of the book over the other, but I think that it would be worth buying for the appendices alone. -- Bob Forsyth

For someone, especially an amateur, about to start the lengthy and daunting process of building a wooden boat, it would be an invaluable and comforting guide. Pardey is perfectly upfront about the aims of the book: I have tried to concentrate on giving details of construction and information about skills that are not found in books available on boatbuilding. He has succeeded rather well, for the book does indeed go into considerable detail on the methods and tricks employed by an experienced builder to build a sailboat hull from scratch. -- Joel White, boatbuilder/designer, Woodenboat

This book will help sailors work with wood as well as educate them regarding the way classic wooden boats come together. It is a great collection of speed tricks. -- Sail Magazine

This comprehensive guide to classic boat construction contains a wealth of photographs and step-by-step guides to various aspects of boatbuilding, from lofting floors and framing to a selection of materials, design considerations, and the myriad details that make up a wooden yacht. -- Paul Gelder, Ed., Yachting Monthly

This is a comprehensive, well-illustrated, and thoroughly readable manual. In a clear, simple, and almost chatty text supplemented with well-selected photographs and simple sketches, the author has imparted a wealth of his expertise. Any amateur or professional, for that matter would do well to read this book from cover to cover more than once before he/she hefted an adze or rammed a pencil behind an ear. -- Peter Milne, editor, Classic Boat

Which of us hasnt been enamored of the beauty of wooden boats and the romance of building one. Now comes a book that outlines the reality. Even those wishing to do only a bit of touch-up work on their boats should have this in their library. -- Charles Barthold, Yachting

About the Author

Lin and Larry have been continuously wandering under sail since 1969 when they launched their first self-built 24' Lyle Hess designed cutter. Thirty years of cruising have taken them to more than 66 countries and logged them the mileage equivalence of five circumnavigations. Lin and Larry sail without auxiliary power and without electronic navigation, they cruise as simply as possible. Learn the Pardey way and you will truely be a self-sufficient sailor. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 520 pages
• Publisher: Pardey Books; 2 edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964603683
• ISBN-13: 978-0964603684
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lin and Larry Pardey - The Cold Hard Facts

Larry
Born 1939, Victoria, Canada. Raised on Shuswap Lake, Okenagan Valley and in Vancouver. First Boat, Indian dug out canoe, age 9. First sail boat - self-restored 8' EL TORO pram, age 17. 1st cruising boat - self-restored 20 foot Colin Archer Cutter. 1st racing boat, age 19 - self-restored 27 foot Tumlaren Sloop. 205,000 sea miles

Lin
Born 1944, Detroit, Michigan. Raised in Los Angeles County. Early sailing experience - summer sailing on lakes of Michigan in 14 foot Old Town Sloop until age of 5. Studied accounting and music. 198,000 sea miles

Lin and Larry
Met in 1965. Romanced three weeks. Joined forces June 12, 1965. Married October 31st 1968.

Seraffyn
Lyle Hess designed cutter, styled on lines of Falmouth Working Boats. Original hull (Renegade) designed in 1954 for Hale Field of Newport Beach as gaff-cutter. Marconi rig designed for Pardeys in 1964. Built by Lin and Larry. Launched October 31st, 1968. Length on deck 24' 7". Waterline 22' 2" beam 8' 11", draft 4' 8", displacement loaded for cruising 10,686 pounds, sail area - working plan 461 square feet. Construction - mahogany on oak steam bent frames with every third frame sawn. Solid teak decks, original cost $7,765 U S.Voyaged - 47,000 miles - eleven years, eastward through Mexico, Panama Canal, to Europe and Baltic. Three years in Mediterranean, south through Red Sea, across Indian Ocean and through China seas to Japan, then Canada and south back to launching port of Newport Beach, California
Taleisin
Designed for Lin and Larry by Lyle C Hess in 1977. Development of Seraffyn. Launched 10/ 31/1983. Length on deck 29' 6", waterline 27' 6", beam 10' 9", draft 5' 3", displacement for cruising 17,800. . Sail area - 740 square feet. Construction - Built by Lin and Larry, teak carvel planking over sawn black locust frames, bronze floors, bronze hanging knees. Solid teak decks, material cost $US 38,000 (1980 dollars).
Voyaged - 80,000 miles sailing westward from California through Pacific. Two voyages from New Zealand to Australia and return. Then through Cook Straits of New Zealand to Sydney, south to Tasmania, westward through Australian bight to Indian Ocean, South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, England, Scotland and Norway. East coast of US, then south to Argentina and westward around Cape Horn across outbound track to complete circumnavigation in 2003, then on to Canada . After spending three seasons exploring the sounds from Desolation sound to Seattle she cruised the west coast of North America then cross the Pacific via the Line Islands, Samoa and Tonga to finish another circumnavigation in New Zealand.

Thelma
Designed and built by C and W Bailey, 1895. Gaff cutter, length on deck 37' beam 7'6" draft 4'9" Ninety-five percent of hull is original. Has been in commission 100 of its 110 years. Purchased 2004 and currently being upgraded cruised and raced at home base in New Zealand during southern summers. Sailed to second in division, 2005 International Classics Regatta, Auckland. 1st in division 2006 International Classics Regatta, Auckland, 2nd 2008 Anniversary day regatta. With Taleisin back at her home base and needing the one winter mooring we have here, Thelma had some final restoration work completed and was adopted out to Matt Price a skilled wooden boat builder in Wellington, where she will race with two other vintage 2-1/2 raters.

Other voyages
Approximately 60,000 miles of yacht delivery work and racing. Have made ocean passages on 20 different vessels and raced on many others including; 85' Schooner, California to Hawaii and return, 54' Ketch, Palma, Majorca to New Orleans. Fleet Handicap winner, 1974 Round Britain two-handed race, First place, Auckland two-handed series.

Home base
New Zealand. Citizens of New Zealand, Canada (Larry) and America (Lin).



Books by Lin and Larry Pardey Videos by Lin and Larry Pardey
Storm Tactics Handbook Cruising, hints for improving your boat
Cruising in Seraffyn Voyaging, upgrading your cruising boat
Seraffyn's European Adventure The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew
Seraffyn's Mediterranean Adventure Cruising Coral Seas
Seraffyn's Oriental Adventure Storm Tactics Video
The Self-sufficient Sailor
The Capable Cruiser DVDs by Lin and Larry Pardey
The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew Storm Tactics
Details of Classic Boat Construction - The Hull Get Ready to Cruise
Cost Conscious Cruiser Get Ready to Cross Oceans
Cruising Has No Limits



Articles by Lin and Larry have appeared in
Sail Magazine, Cruising World, Woodenboat, Good Old Boat, Classic Boat UK, Yachting Monthly UK, Practical Boat Owner UK, South African Yachting, Cruising Helmsman - Australia, Australian Boating, Amateur Boatbuilder - Australia, Das Boot - Germany, Brazilian Sailing, Yacht - Germany, New Zealand Yachting, Sea Spray New Zealand. Pacific Yachting , Canada

Awards
Mauritanian Legion of Honour, as Captain of first American team to sail across the Sahara Desert in a land yacht,1966.
Cruising Sailors to contribute most to the sport of Sailing - voted by readers of Sail Magazine 1990.
International Oceanic Award - presented by Royal Institute of Navigation sponsored by Little Ship Club 1996 - in recognition of Larry's voyaging using traditional methods of navigation.
Ocean Cruising Club Award - for contributions to Seamanship for small boat sailing. Presented to Lin Pardey 1996.
Geoff Pac Memorial Award- to both Lin and Larry for fostering and encouraging ocean cruising in small yachts
Cruising World Hall of Fame-2000
Ocean Cruising Club Merit Award -To Lin and Larry for inspiring voyages including a west-about rounding of Cape Horn
Seven Seas Cruising Club Service Award - To Lin and Larry for their lifetime voyaging achievements 2004


Records-Smallest boat to have circumnavigated contrary to the prevailing winds around all the great southern capes. Only couple to have circumnavigated both east-about and west about on boats they built them selves, using traditional means of navigation and having no engine nor sponsorship.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The way it's done., December 8, 2004

By 

Ryan McNabb (Ooltewah, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Details of Classic Boat Construction (Hardcover)

What to say about this book...it shows you wooden boat construction at its very, very best. Starting with raw lumber and simple hand tools, Larry Pardey takes us, step by laborious step, on the odyssey of building a truly world class cruising yacht, his 30' Taleisin. Not only is every step of the hull construction detailed, but we also get "real world" time and cost estimates so there are no illusions as to how much time and money each step will take. There are superb "pro and con" treatments of aspects that have a variety of solutions. If there are multiple ways to tackle a job, he makes two columns and discusses the pros and cons of each in detail. Usually you just get the author's opinions without any extra information.

This book is famous also because of it's very important final appendix on epoxies in salt water craft, and how epoxy often is weakened to the point of failure by salt water, repeated stress, and heat - 3 things that a sailboat gets plenty of. I am told by many epoxy fans that this chapter "is now out of date", but I don't remember any amazing new epoxies coming out that make Pardey's findings defunct. George Buehler says it best - epoxy works best when it's backed up by a bolt. "Praise epoxy but pass the nails".

Also note the title "The Hull". That's all you get. When it comes to decks, houses, rigging, etc., you're on your own. Hopefully Pardey will bring out volume 2 on the rest of the boat.

He's a masterful carpenter and his work is glorious and gleaming, fully among the best of yacht-quality work ever done. This is something you need to seriously soak in. This is THE BEST, and not necessarily realistic for the average home boat builder. This book represents a set of skills that you probably don't have, and may find difficulty developing in your lifetime, unless you are really dedicated. Also, there is the time factor. It's one thing to look at a photo of fastening planking on the frame and say "I understand that...I can do that!" and it's quite another to realize how many HUNDREDS of hours are involved in just a few of the aspects of the hull construction. Pardey could work on his yacht full time - he didn't need to do other work to pay the bills. He was also in the prime of his health. Most Americans only have this kind of time if they're retired, and that often means not as strong as we once were. If we're young and strong it means we have to work for a living. So, this particular boat might be best aimed at the youngish man who doesn't have to work very much for his living. Either that or you'll spend about a decade of weekends on this boat.

If you want to get on the water a little quicker than that, consider George Buehler's "Backyard Boat Building", for salty and sea worthy crusising yachts that the average man or woman can build themselves in a year or two, and actually take to the Caribbean, or further. I'm not saying don't aspire to Pardey's level, but remember that you live in the real world. It's better to build a simple boat than to not build a fancy one. It's better to go sailing than it is to spend your free weekends for 2 years screwing down teak decking. But, that consideration aside, there is no better guide to traditional yacht construction than this.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent Display of Traditional Boat Building!, November 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Details of Classic Boat Construction (Hardcover)

Larry Pardey's volume on Classic Boat Construction is itself a classic. Hundreds of photos, detailed construction descriptions and pro/con lists that let the reader decide. My father and I are about to start construction of another Taleisin and have two copies because we fought over the first one! Recommended to any wooden boatbuilder, even just to find out the things they don't tell you in other 'text-books'.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Boatbuilding Book, January 28, 2000

By 

C. Hill (Virginia,USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Details of Classic Boat Construction (Hardcover)

As a novice boatbuilder I have found this book very informative. I especially like the Appendix on adhesives. Any would be expoxy boatbuilder would do well to read it and take head.