Both my Bootbouwschool courses (Ness Yawl and Galloway Faering) were on Iain Oughtred designs. So it's a no-brainer that my first book on wooden boat bulding is Iain's Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding Manual. This book very clearly illustrates his design and build philiosophy.
Also good reading is Iain Oughtred's biography by Nic Compton. You now much better understand the man.
To broaden my scope I bought the classic Building small Boats by Greg Rossel.
From that book I learned there is more than doing it the Oughtred way.
My first idea was to build the Ellen 12 by John Brooks. See www.brooksboatdesigns.com. To better understand the designer I bought his book How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats. This book almost made me decide to build the Ellen. Until I read the article in Wooden Boat magazine on the Arch Davis boat and I was hooked. I thought the construction method with stringers was appealing.
Recently I found a book that very much illustrates my own feelings about woodenboat building. The titel is The year of the Boat and it is written by Lawrence Creek, a Seattle resident, who at the age of 55+ decides to bult a wooden boat. As a novice he encouters a lot of problems and learns more about himself.
The text on the back of the book illustrates ...
The project began with a vision of perfect beauty, but as the flaws compounded, Cheek had to come to terms with his limitations as an amateur. The boat finally, became a vehicle for teaching how to navigate life's course between complacent mediocrity and destructive perfgectionism. Along the way, he learned how not to build his own character defects into the boat. In the end. he had a boat and a more satisfying life.
Need I say more. A lot of parallels with my favourite book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
Never thought I would write something about motorcycles in a boatbuilding blog
Enough food for thought.
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