Boat-Building and Boating
By D.C. Beard
ABOUT THE BOOK
This 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 ..."
CONTENTS
- How to Cross a Stream on a Log
- Home-Made Boats
- 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
- How to Build Cheap and Substantial House-Boats
- A Cheap and Speedy Motor-Boat
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Progressive-era reformer, outdoorsman, illustrator, and author, Daniel Carter Beard was known to millions of Boy Scouts as "Uncle Dan, the group's first National Commissioner, a post he held until his death in 1941.
Beard began a career as an illustrator with the Sanborn Map and Publishing Company, and went on to have his illustrations appear in dozens of magazines and newspapers from Harper's Weekly and the New York Herald to children's magazines such as St. Nicholas. In 1881 he was hired by Samuel Clemens to illustrate A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court which was published in 1889.
Before and during his involvement in scouting, Beard authored a number of how-to books including the American Boy's Handy Book; the American Girl's Handy Book; Shelters, Shacks and Shanties; the Outdoor Handy Book; Jack of All Trades; Do It Yourself; and The American Boy's Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft among others.
Title: Boat-Building and Boating
Author: D(aniel) C(arter) Beard
Publisher: Dixon-Price Publishing
Mechanicals: 5.5 x 8.5 - trade paperback
ISBN-10: 1-929516-17-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-929516-17-9
Price: U.S. $15.99