Books About Boat Building
Boat Building For Beginners And Beyond
This is the number one boat building book when talking about small plywood boats like ours. It goes into topics of designing boat, sizing parts for them, placing the mast & leeboard etc. It comes with instructions on how to build (and design) good daggerboards, leeboards, sails, rudders and includes plans for 6 other types of boats. While not specifically written about puddle ducks, all of the information in the book relates to them.
Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson
For the longest time this was the best text on building plywood boats which were called "instant boats" because they were so easy to make. Lots of classic general techniques as well as specific instructions to build 15 Bolger designs.
Boats With An Open Mind
If you like interesting plywood boats this is a book worth getting. Has examples ranging from the very small 5'6" box boat called a "Breakdown Punt" up to a 95 foot long ship. Multihulls, tortured plywood, all sorts of variety of boats that you can only envision if you have an open mind.
This Old Boat
This is not a boat building book and won't have that much to apply to a puddle duck but after you have been bitten by the sailboat bug you may want to start finding older factory sailboats and fix them up. This is a great realistic book on how to restore older boats in a way that won't cost a fortune. Such as how to refinish a hull with gelcoat and also describes alternate methods like using regular house paint (and it works, really!). All sorts of solutions like how to do fiberglass repairs, repair and replace rigging etc.
Sailboats You Can Build
This book has special meaning to me. Written by Peter Stevenson, the guy who is famous for the Stevenson Weekender sailboat and other projects, see stevproj.com The book was originally published in 1974 and contains plans for 3 boats: Circle Cat 14 foot long catamaran which sort of resembles a Hobie 14 but uses a lateen sail. Skipjack 11 foot long salty looking day sailor, which resembles an open cockpit version of the Weekender that he is famous for. Lake Scow 12 foot long box boat, which is the predacessor to the Winged Dinghy. The Lake Scow has a neat simplicity to her, she is made with 1x12 pine boards for her sides so they don't need to be framed with chine logs, you simply attach the bottom and deck directly to those pine boards. The bow is narrower than the stern, but the sides are not bent -- instead they are angled in slightly. The book also has some basic sailing, rigging and transporting instructions. The reason this book is special to me, is because my dad had a copy of this book laying around the house when I was a kid and I dreamed of building the Lake Scow one day.
Backyard Boatbuilder: How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat
100 Fast & Easy Boat Improvements
A Manual of Plywood Boat Construction for Larger Craft
Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding
Devlin's Boatbuilding: How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way
Bolger: Boats with an Open Mind: Seventy-Five Unconventional Designs and Concepts
Bolger: 30-Odd Boats
Bolger: Small Boats (plans included)
Bolger: Different boats
Bolger: Combining Small boats and The folding schooner, and other adventures in boat design
Bolger: 103 Sailing Rigs 'Straight Talk'
New Plywood Boats
The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails
Building Outrigger Sailing Canoes
Tolman Alaskan Skiffs
Cheap Outboards: The Beginner's Guide to Making an Old Motor Run Forever
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