Practical Boat Building for Amateurs
By Adrian Neison and Dixon Kemp
“To be able to build a boat well, and to his own ideas and plans, requires that the amateur should be both a designer and builder, which, in their turn require that he should be an efficient draughtsman and carpenter. No one can hope to succeed in building a boat to his own plan, unless he is fully able to design and lay down the lines and body plan of the proposed craft, and added to this in many kinds of boats, such as a small sailing boat, or a steam launch, it is necessary that he should be able to calculate the displacement and the position of the centre of buoyancy. With this knowledge at his command, an unlimited field is opened to the amateur boat-builder, as he will be able to build after his own ideas.”
With these goals firmly in mind, Adrian Neison set out to write a book to take the mystery out of boat building “for boat-building is well worth the amateur’s attention; for it is really a simple craft, not requiring nearly so much skill and technical knowledge as good joiner’s work. For instance, anyone who can make a box or a table would be able to make an ordinary punt.”
His step by step method was later expanded and enhanced by renowned designer Dixon Kemp to ensure that the little manual would give beginning builders a solid foundation to learn the craft of boatbuilding. Together the chapters take the novice boatbuilder through a rigorous curriculum:
I—Introductory—Designing
II—Tools and Materials
III—Punts
IV—Clench-built Skiffs
V—The Rob Roy Canoe
VI—The Sailing Boat
VII—Canadian Bateau—
Canvas Canoe—
American Shooting Punt
We also recommend:
Small Boat Building by H.W. Patterson
Boat-Building and Boating by D.C. Beard
A Practical Course in Wooden Boat and Ship Building by Richard Van Gaasbeek
Title: Practical Boat Building for Amateurs
Author: Adrian Neison, Dixon Kemp
Publisher: Dixon-Price Publishing
Mechanicals: 5.5x8.5 - trade paperback
131 pages
ISBN-10: 1-929516-13-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-929516-13-1
Price: U.S. $ 9.99