Customer Reviews

Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson: 15 Instant Boats for Power, Sail, Oar, and Paddle

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although I enjoy so much woodworking, my mayor motivation to buy a boatbuilder's book was to go sailing in a budget. This is not my first try, but it is the most down to earth for a curious do-it-yourselfer. Others told me to use mahogany plywood, full epoxy and fiberglass covering to obtain a 10 footer with just $700. I can buy a fine second hand boat for less than that!
Payson says hat I can build a boat that I can be proud of with some reasonably cheap plywood and polyesther and go sailing for a reasonable $200 or even less. And he's right! I am halfway to my boat in just 20 hours or so and can not be more satisfied.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to try his skills at woodworking and go sailing in a budget. The only reason I don't give it five stars is that the plans are too small and I had to put some working to scale then properly. But the results pretty much are worth the effort.

Another great book from Harold Payson. It's down to earth and easily followed format is inspiring and makes you want to go out and build another of these wounderfully created boats.

A book you must have in your library alongside the other greats.

Mr. Payson clearly shows how to build a very good selection of Bolger-designed boats for the beginning builder to the more advanced. The building methods are straightforward and the explanations very clear. The author is a very honest person who is willing to admit his past errors. That information is valuable to the builder who can avoid those mistakes and not feel badly about his own faux pas. For example, Dynamite is now using water base boat paints instead of oil paints he strongly recommended in earlier writings. Dynamite provides an excellent discussion of materials including various types of plywood. One might assume that the expensive marine plywood is the only suitable product, but that is not necessarily the case.

I like plywood and the tape and glue method a lot. The last boat I built was a skin on frame. I built that boat for lightness but by the time I was done it weighted as much as the Rubens Nymph and is nowhere near as useful.

If you want to learn how to build a boat, you need this book. Also, I would suggest getting copies of Paysons earlier books too. There are different plans in the different books. And great info in all his books.

And yes, I have built 3 of his boats so far.

Ive build several stitch and glue boats over the years and have spent thousands on fiberglass and epoxy. Payson describes other adhesives and methods to use that are as strong and more cost effective than epoxy. Although many of his designs in this book and others are not designed for ocean going ventures, they do serve there purpose. Overall this is a great design book and instruction manual for building some nice boats for the pond or small lake with a couple of salty, throw away boats for the bay.

this book has great info for anyone how is serious about boat building, i got this book and an other one and i am in the proses of building my first boat right now if i had to choose between the two book this would be it because he gives details and tricks that only come from actually building the boats. i am documenting my project step by step if your interested

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The book's common sense style and instructions are very well done, but there are a few things you need to know before you purchase. For starters, there are only fully detailed plans for a small number of the 15 boats - for all the others, you'll only get very scaled down images of the plans (The author advocates that you go purchase the full plans online from his website). I thought that was a bit of bad advertisement in regard to the book's title and blurb, but with what content and plans it does have, I wouldn't have hesitated buying it anyway. Payson is fairly easy to understand and explains most things thoroughly; I believe this book will get you started on the journey of building your own boats, but you should look for other resources if you're really serious about getting into it in depth - that's not to say you shouldn't buy this book because it's great, but know the book really only covers basics as far as tools & their use, useful tips, and materials.

This is a well written book that explains evrything you need to know to build
a bunch of small boats. Having been building boats since I was 11 years old (long time ago),
I still like building small boats. This book makes it quite easy to build several small boats.
My current interest is a small sailboat, and that is handled nicely in the book.

I am very satisfied with the book, it has provided all the information I was in need of. I would not hesitate to buy additional offerings by the author and to use Amazon as my purchasing avenue.

The sequel to Build the New Instant Boats which was the sequel to Instant Boats (no longer in print but sporadically available), this book runs the reader through stitch and glue boatbuilding step by step. In Harold "Dynamite" Payson's inimitable style, he again takes the readers hand from a pile of plywood to a full scale boat.

Paysons "Just Do It" philosophy has started many on the way of boatbuilding. Either this book or Build the New Instant Boats is a "must have" for anyone interested in S&G boatbuilding. This book contains full plans for 15 boats not included in either of the earlier books. Study sheets for the designs in each book may be found on the authors website. This book is very similar to its predecessor, although the boats are somewhat different. For the price at which they sell, it is worth buying both books just to get access to the full plans for study purposes.

The reader should be aware that the plans in the book are NOT any particular scale and small at that, so anyone intending to build is advised to purchase proper scale plans from the author, although the information in the book is amply sufficient for an experienced builder to build from.