Customer Reviews

Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Wooden Boats" reminded me of similar extended narratives by Tracy Kidder (think of "House" or "Soul of a New Machine"). Quite well done, with a strong sense of a story being told.

Ruhlman comes to the topic with no experience in boat construction, or even boating for that matter, but gets to the heart of why some people become obsessed with these projects. (This is a book about wooden boats, but this kind of obsession is certainly not limited to nautical pastimes. Read Rebuilding the Indian for a similar story involving two wheels instead of a hull.)

Although the characters in this book spend an awful lot of time denigrating "plastic" boats, their enthusiasm for boat construction and traditional methods is hard to resist. What these throwback builders are creating are "plank on frame" craft, vessels sculpted out of traditional materials with every part unique and handmade, boats that will (according to their proponents and backed up by history) far outlive their builders.

As a sailor I found this book inspiring. Maybe someday.

As a wooden boat enthusiast and long time woodworker, I read Michael Ruhlman's book with enthusiasm. I found it to be a wonderful piece of work that portrays woodworking, and boat building in particular, as dying arts that are not art for arts sake, but an art with an end result in mind. The boatyard in question is the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway of Martha's Vineyard. This yard has been doing excellent work for quite some time and has aided in the renaissance of wooden boats that has largely been inspired by WoodenBoat magazine. Mr. Ruhlman does an excellent job of portraying the daily life of a boatyard, as well as a thorough history of G&B. The main thrust of the book however, is the now unconvential perspective that G&B has on their work and the world, which is to build something beautiful that will last for generations, and is ultimately perfectly suited for its task. In the end, I found myself wanting to quit my job and hire on with G&B. I'm still not sure I won't do that.

The subtitle,"In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard" sums it up. It's the lifestyle of the boatwrights at this small boatyard on Martha's Vineyard that stand out.They build 60' plank on frame schooners w/ century old techniques. The two owners of the yard learned boatbuilding by sailing around the world in their youth and being allowed to work on their own boats at various boatyards in exchange for their labor on boatwork in progress at the yard. The writing is elegant and clear, a series of profiles about people living what they believe. How the rich and famous are humbled in the prescence of those who design and build boats that will outlast everyone involved.

The book Wooden Boats is a non-fiction story set in Martha's Vineyard and about two shipwrights and their business. Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin strive to find the perfect design for a ship and try the boat built as smoothly and traditionally as possible. Michael Ruhlman writes, "They were still being made here the old-fashioned way- by craftsmen in small yards." Regarding the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway. Jon Wilson is quoted in the book commenting that Nat Benjamin is, " one of the best designers and purest builders in the country." Wilson also says, " Gannon and Benjamin are real sailors: they know firsthand the kinds of pressures the sea puts on a boat and build their boats according to that." It is always a challenge because ninety percent of the boat is made of wood. The only things that aren't wood are the brass fittings and technical devices. Working with wood makes the process long and tedious. The shipwrights build the hull by a plank on frame method that is tedious and difficult. Each plank has to be specially cut and fit to its place on the hull. They have to be extremely accurate to avoid gaps between planks. They build two boats over the course of the book. The first, Rebecca, is a sleek schooner built for Dan Adams who is a boat struck man who has trouble financially funding the project. The other is for Jonathan Edwards. Elisa Lee, a shorter boat similar to a lobster boat with two sails and a motor. Besides these two boats they also indirectly follow the building and repair of other ships.
One part I vividly remember is when Elisa Lee is finished and the author vividly describes the launching ceremony. Then Elisa is lowered into the water and she floats. It sounds rather anticlimactic now, but when you read and see the effort and time that was put into building it, it is truly a triumph.
The theme throughout Wooden Boats is probably how the shipwrights Ross Gannon & Nat Benjamin live their lives doing something they love. They travel all over the world and make close to nothing. They also point out that while fiberglass boats are modern, wooden boats are made to last. Most wooden boats will outlast their owners. There is something about wood that is memorable something that burns the image in your mind. The beautiful curves, the traditional rigging, all of it make up the soothing karma of wooden boats.
I loved this book. It was a truly remarkable tale that I can't say enough about.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in boats and sailing. I feel that no words I write could possibly do justice to this book. Jon Wilson, the editor of Wooden Boat Magazine, says Wooden Boats is, " an intimate portrait of the passions pursued by men and women...and the beauty and power of the most sensuous seagoing ships ever devised by mortals."

If you have a fondness for wooden craft, you'll find the book interesting, readable and generally enjoyable. From an editorial point-of-view, it's a little uneven. Partly a technical book, it suffers from the author's complete lack of prior background in his subject, resulting in too much concentation on fundamentals. But in places the book soars with a romance I did not expect from someone not "boatstruck." Perhaps this is born of the author's obvious respect, and I suspect, admiration for the men who build them. It's a good read, and one I'll hang onto in my library.

This book documents the building of two wooden yachts in a boat shop in Martha's Vineyard.

At the beginning of the book, the author takes care to inform his readers that he is not a sailor, not a boat-lover, and in no way "boat struck". Yet he manages to convey the stately, majestic grace that a classic wooden sailboat alone can possess. I can only wonder if, after finishing writing, he has caught the bug.

The owners and most of the workers at the yard are exceptional sailors. They learned their skills "haphazardly" (and I mean no negative implication) while adventuring around the globe. Their skills at boat construction were also learned during their adventures, when repairs were needed. These things were learned as required. They are indeed "Ancient Mariners".

The author contrasts these blue-collared 'salts' with the yachties, those fortunate enough to afford the quarter-million dollar boats they make. And he documents the distrust and suspicion between the two groups: those rich enough to pay, those talented enough to build.

I thought this was an excellent book. My one complaint, and the reason I withheld a star, is that there was too much detail regarding various aspects of wood construction. Of course, some of this information is important, otherwise the reader would have no idea of the skill required, the costs involved, etc. However, I think there was too many little details, and this distracts from the "greater" story. Perhaps the author was torn between providing a book for a general audience or one for those with prior knowledge of boat building.

Overall, this was a very interesting read. However, the book is not about wooden boats so much as it is about the people who build wooden boats - their lifestyles, their backgrounds, their mannerisms, their work ethics. All of which is, mind you, interesting stuff, but wasn't quite what I was expecting (or looking for). While the author does a very good job of describing many of the steps taken to produce a big wooden boat from a pile of logs, there are many areas where a photo or an illustration would've been helpful.

Alas, the eight or ten black and white photos in the center of the book don't provide any of the missing details, and, in fact, mostly focus on the two main subjects of the book, the owners of the boatyard mentioned in the book's subtitle. Again - nothing wrong with this, just not what I was expecting or looking for.

If you're curious about the people who build these big, wooden beauties, then by all means, click "Add to Cart" now and you'll be happy with it. If what you're looking for is technical information on how to build a wooden boat, you'll want to look elsewhere.

Michael Ruhlman's WOODEN BOATS is not only a celebration of wooden boats and wooden boatbuilding but is an exposition on the very idea of wooden boats. Ruhlman expends considerable effort describing the construction of two boats and how the wood was obtained to build them; he also borrows David Pye's idea of "the workmanship of risk" (from THE NATURE AND ART OF WORKSMANSHIP) to elevate the building of a wooden boat to the level of an art form, which may be contrasted with the mass-produced nature of the fiberglass boat.

Ruhlman's book focuses on the G&B Boatyard on Martha's Vineyard. The principle subjects of his book are Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin, master builders of wooden boats and the proprietors of G&B. Ruhlman is steered their way by the founding publisher of WoodenBoat magazine, Jon Wilson. Ruhlman couldn't possibly have gone wrong with Wilson's advice, and Gannon and Benjamin are perfect subjects: great boat builders who are also interesting men. Ruhlman, a complete novice to boatbuilding, is warmly welcomed by Gannon and Benjamin and put right to work in the boatyard. Much of the book revolves around the building of a 60-foot schooner, REBECCA, and another boat designed after the traditional lobster boat, the ELISA LEE. The book also takes diversionary excursions to Malta and Surinam, among other places, to follow adventures from Benjamin's youth and to follow G&B associate Brad Ives as he procures wood for boatbuilding. The variety gives the narrative some added color and energy.

I really wanted to love this book more than I did. Though a complete novice (like the pre-G&B Ruhlman), I love wooden boats: the craftsmanship, the materials, the aesthetics, and the sensation of being on a wooden boat on water. My feeling in reading the narrative was one of impatience; this is definitely one case where I'd rather do it than read it. One who doesn't know his way around a boat or their construction--someone like me who is boatstruck but not boat smart--can easily get lost in the jargon. Ruhlman truly had a challenge as a writer: he needed to get the process right, including correct terminology, for the boat builder, but somehow explain it all for the more general reader. The informed reader of WoodenBoat magazine will be able to ascertain whether he got the details right, but this lay reader found himself lost in the boatyard. Sign me up for an internship!

However that may be, the book has its appeal, at the very least, in being devoted single mindedly to wooden boats. Ruhlman is also very fair in his narrative; he doesn't take potshots, even at fiberglass boats. Though the story of Gannon and Benjamin and their boatyard might have been more compelling in the hands of another writer, one whose prose is not quite so--forgive the pun--wooden, I credit Ruhlman for his dedication to the subject, and for bringing to wider attention the joy of wooden boats and the G&B Boatyard, an American original.

im nearly done with this book,and ill tell ya,,what a book it is.
its a enthralling story about a shipyard and the boats they build. it tells about the boat shop,and nearly what it might feel like being/working in one. i for one would love to have a job in one,,money or no.(being disabled,,it aint gonna happen)
the boats they build are amazing,and the writer describes them in a way that i can imagine what it will look like even before i check out the pictures.

the best part of this book,,is its a true story.
if there is a boat lover in your life,,or you happen to enjoy all things boat,,this book will not disapoint.
buy it and enjoy,
roystr

Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard was the best 2001 Christmas present I could have hoped for. It was read it with delight, enthusiasm and enjoyment and then immediately given away to the owner of the riverside wooden boat yard in Maine that shares in caring for my wooden boat. Then the same HARDCOVER copy was ordered for a friend who also owns a wooden boat. He too loved Ruhlman's writing. Then I ordered my self a new copy! Cheers for Ruhlman's outsider curiosity and courage to peer into, get dusty and dirty and come away intoxicated with the pine pitch, paint and varnish and cotton, sisal, hemp, red lead and hand and power tool; the appropriate technology we wooden boat owners love. When (not if) you buy this book, you will, I believe, agree that wooden boats are (mostly) crafted not just built, sailed (power too) not just driven and amazingly and appropriately simple not simplistic.