The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching [Paperback]

Reuel B. Parker (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; Rpt edition (August 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007048578X
• ISBN-13: 978-0070485785
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,092,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of two you must have, January 29, 2008

By 

stephen sittler (oak lawn, il United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching (Paperback)

I'm a 66 y.o. retiree, working solo, in my second year of building a 34' schooner. I've never built a boat. There is only good news: it's a step-by-step process, the steps are small but many, the harder ones will yield to thinking. DO IT! - you won't regret it. Mr. Parker's book is invaluable, and densely packed with good advice on every page. Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding also highly recommended (for attitude adjustment), and the west system/Gougeon brothers' one also. A sailboat may be the most beautiful object that ordinary men have ever achieved. Or extraordinary ones, for that matter. Good luck! The big Festool "Rotex" sander, a makita battery-powered impact driver, epoxy and a bosch power hand planer will be your friends for life - money well spent.
stephen sittler

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boatbuilding 201, April 8, 2008

By 

Sam Spangenberg (Whittier, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching (Paperback)

Excellent technical information.
Well illustrated with photographs and drawings.
Analytical in organization, construction topics with invaluable index.
Directed at a slightly larger construction than average.
Terminology only slightly salty, but a good sailing vocabulary (or dictionary) will help.

The idea of cold-molding a boat (using thinner woods laminated with epoxy or polyester and a glass or synthetic cloth) has intrigued me for more than 30 years now. A lot has changed for the better in that time.

The method allows someone with average woodworking skills and a nominal disdain for the dangers of chemical coatings to create a boat that can provide generations of pleasure without the continuing demands a wooden boat makes on time and wallet. This is not to say that such cold molded boats are maintenance free, nor inexpensive however!

While much of Mr. Parker's book is related to the construction of a large (44 feet) boat, the information is invaluable regardless of boat size. It seems likely he would recommend something a bit smaller for your first attempt, but I got the feeling (I'm fighting the urge still) that even I could build that cruiser and head for the Caribbean.

The technical information alone, replete with careful practical and experiential considerations, makes the volume well worth adding to your bookshelf if you are planning on making, rather than buying, a boat, or if you just enjoy the pleasures of fleshing out your dreams with a significant bit of knowledge and an understanding of craftsmanship.

If you are serious about wooden boats, whether to dream of or build, I would put this on the shelf together with titles by John Gardner, Samuel Devlin, Iain Oughtred and John Brooks & Ruth Ann Hill.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best sailboat-building advice, August 12, 2010

By 

Frank (Busan, Korea (South)) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching (Paperback)

If you want to build your own sailboat, this is the BEST - bar none - book you can get.

There are TONS of books out there (I know, I've read them all, or just about), but this one is the best.

I am building a 52' schooner with this book - even though it gives more information for building a 44' sloop - and it's going VERY well.

The author helps you avoid trial-and-error mistakes, and that alone is worth a hundred (a thousand?) times the price of the book.

Also, he doesn't lie or cajole you into thinking that building a sailboat is a quick easy thing to do. It is NOT.

The boat I'm building, with the author's advice, and according to his reckoning, should take between 6,000 and 7,000 hours of work. The materials are not that expensive - depending on where you live, I'm guessing anywhere between $30,000 and $60,000 - but of COURSE the time you spend cannot be counted... This has GOT to be a labor of love.

In any case, when I'm done building my boat, it will be worth half a million (EASY) on the open market.

This is a terrific book. Don't waste your time reading a lot of other books: buy this one.

Ten years of my life's worth of advice...