Customer Reviews

The Expectant Father's Cradle Boat Book

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This book is a wonderful inspiration, and even the expectant moms can make the boat taking into account modifications to eliminate ANY exposure to the various toxins in epoxy etc. The boats are beautiful especially the historic examples. The instructions are excellent and diagrams clear. But be warned you may have trouble enlarging the plans. I went to all the blue print copying firms in a major metropolitan area and none of them had printing capabilities above 36" and I had no reply to the answer-phone messages left on the number to order plans. Time and time again. Otherwise it's got the be the best thing to focus on before baby arrives and nothing else can tell the baby(or mother) that you love them more!

I purchased this book with the idea a boat cradle would be a unique gift from boat crazy Uncle Bill for my soon to be niece or nephew. Although not extensive, I do have some experience building strip built sea kayaks; very similar to the method used for the Bahama dinghy cradle discussed in the book.

Overall, the instructions are fairly clear and easy to follow. There are, however, a few pitfalls to avoid before construction starts. If you plan to enlarge the plans and patterns included in the back of the book with an architectural reprographics firm (as I did), be cautioned. The 600% enlargement specified by the book proved inaccurate. 548% brought them to scale without distortion and this was expensive (over $50). Once the plans were to scale, any stated measurements on the plans were not necessarily accurate so again, beware. Some measurements had to be coaxed from the plans and the exact placement of the transom mold still eludes me. Also a little confusing is that all the patterns are not square on the graph and, in fact, some patterns are not symmetrical. In particular the transom and rocker patterns. Purchasing the available full size plans may be the way to go.

Again the book is fairly well written as an instructional guide, even for someone like me with little boat building or woodcrafting experience. I'd have rated it much higher had the supporting plans and patterns better lent themselves to more rapid and better construction and less head scatching.

This book is reasonably well written, though it is clear the author didn't build several of these boats before writing. . .perhaps just a single prototype. Given that a whole book is devoted to two cradles, the lack of detail, tips, strategies, etc with respect to clamping and fastening strips is disappointing. The author essentially recommends that the builder use their creativity and do the best they can--not amazingly helpful. There are a few frustratingly-sparsely-described-but-critical pieces, measurements, etc that crop up. Another indication of the carelessness of the author (and lack of proofing by a builder). That said, it a decent book. It's detailed enough for someone with a few tools and some time to make a nice little cradle. I scanned the plans in the book on a flatbed scanner, enlarged 600%, and printed on a large paper on laser printer (11 x 17--large enough to print half of even the largest forms) and used large sheets of carbon paper from a local art store to transfer the plans to the wood. I have about 1/2 of the strips on, and things seem to be going reasonably well. I'm using cove and bead construction and wood glue rather than epoxy (not mentioned in the book to my recollection) rather than square edged strips. I would recommend this extra step (cove and bead) as it results in virtually seamless joints.

As the author recommends, avoid using kiln-dried wood. It's quite brittle. I had a number of strips crack as I was bending around the most severe radii (near the bow) as expected. What I didn't expect was that the staples weakened the stressed strips enough to make breaks in about half of the strips on one side of the boat--subtle enough to be covered by the staples but catastrophic enough to have to scrap the build. Sigh. I will get back to it and build one of these when I find a source for appropriate wood (i.e. not a home center).

I would also recommend modifying the form nearest the bow. The pattern is for a very narrow form that results in the convex curve of the hull transitioning to a slightly concave curve. I suspect this is important for a good, seaworthy boat to cut through the water. This dingy will never get wet, so that extra curve is a lot of work for (and potential frustration) that really isn't necessary for this project.

At the end of the day, I recommend this book. Just be prepared for some frustrations along the way.

I've built the pram twice. Lots of fun! To build this boat you may have to learn a little about epoxy. Although it can be built without epoxy. I highly recommend buying the plans. If you already have the plans, then the book will help greatly in building the boat.