Boat-Building and Boating By D.C. Beard Paperback only $15.99 Check Amazon's Price

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This new reprint edition of Boat-Building and Boating by D.C. Beard shows beginners how to build everything from a log raft to a houseboat. Originally written for boys aged 12 to 18 by a co-founder of the scouting movement in the United States, Boat-Building assumes potential builders will have only the most minimal of skills but want to enjoy an outing on the water in an inexpensive vessel they have crafted themselves.

"Beard was concerned that recreational boating was priced beyond the reach of the average person," says editor Kendall Hanson. Beard also believed "there are so many books and magazines devoted to the higher arts of ship-building for the graduates to use, besides the many manufacturing houses which furnish all the parts of a sail-boat, yacht, or motor-boat for the ambitious boat-builder to put together himself that it is unneccessary for the author to invade that territory."

"That's a situation that's still true today," Hanson adds, "but it is also true that the beginner needs a place to start. We think this book helps fill that need as well as giving ideas to more experienced builders." In fact, he says, you won't find measured drawings for most of the craft. "The instructions will tell you how to go about building, but not what size to build. It is more in line with the idea of 'right-brain' woodworking that Roy Underhill urges woodworkers to try."

Along with instruction on how to build basic log rafts, canoes, a simple rowboat, a simple sailboat, a rugged houseboat, and a "cheap and speedy" motor boat, Beard also provides basic instruction on boat handling, knot-tying, seamanship, canoe paddling, and sailing.

Beard took his viewpoint from Emerson, and thought of his work as a "useful book to a large audience of new recruits to the army of those who believe in the good old American doctrine of: 'If you want a thing done, do it yourself.' And by doing it yourself you not only add to your skill and resourcefulness, but, what is even more important, you develop your own self-reliance . . ."

I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV.    How to Cross a Stream on a Log    A Raft That Will Sail    Canoes    Canoes and Boating Stunts    The Birch-Bark    How to Build a Paddling Dory    The Landlubber's Chapter    How to Rig and Sail Small Boats    More Rigs of All Kinds for Small Boats    Knots, Bends, and Hitches    A "Rough-and-Ready" Boat    How to Build a Cheap Boat    A "Rough-and-Ready" Boat    How to Build Cheap and Substantial House-Boats    A Cheap and Speedy Motor-Boat