Best Boat Building

Here are eleven new Instant Boats to choose from, including three built with a new "Tack and Tape" method that eliminates most of the beveling and results in a very shapely and spritely craft. Years ago, when Dynamite began supplementing his boatbuilding work by selling boat plans, he got feedback from a number of customers who found the boats too difficult to build. He outlined the problem to Philip Bolger, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, arguably the most innovative small-craft designer around, and Bolger agreed, on one condition, to design a series of boats that would require no lofting, no jig, and no lumber that could not be obtained at any local building-supplies store. You can then start right in cutting readily available plywood sheets to precomputed patterns. (You can build directly from the book, but the purchase of larger-scale plans at a modest cost from Dynamite will make the task of scaling off the patterns easier.).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Building a plywood boat is a bagatelle particularly using the stitch and glue method. The books are “Go Build Your Own Boat” and Build The New Instant Boat by Harold Payson, “Boats with an open Mind” by Philip Bolger, “Boat Building For Beginners” by Jim Michalak, “Ultra Simple Boat Building” by Gavin Atkin and “Understanding Boat Design” by Ted Brewer There are separate reviews for each of these books. “Build The New Instant Boats” by Harold Payson is a superior book compared to”Go Build Your Own Boat.” and I give it five stars. Again we are reading about how to build boats of Bolger's design. The boat plans are legible and one could actually build the boats from the book."
"I like the book, but I bought the kindle version and unfortunately you cant read any of the dimensions on any of the drawings so it makes it difficult to build any of these boats if you cant read the dimensions off the plans."
"The book contains full plans for 3 or 4 S&G boats as well as a similar number of complete plans for "conventional" Instant Boats."
"If you want to tinker with a wooden boat or build a powered fishing boat."
"Dynamite Payson's easy to follow instructions and Phil Bolger's (almost) idiot-proof plans will have you in a boat of your own construction sooner than you think."
"all of the photos and illustrations are overexposed [very pale, no contrast]."
"A great book on boats, even if you never cut a single sheet of plywood."
"The central subject of this book is the boat plans, and they are not readable in the Kindle version."

The rich oral tradition of Norse legend, written down hundreds of years after the events happened, sifted the story of Ragnar’s exploits through time and poetry to create for Ragnar a lasting image of bravery in the face of the unknown. We can thank Ragnar’s kind for creating trade routes throughout Scandinavia, Britain, Europe, and even into Russia. As you read this book, you can enjoy learning about a character that is larger than life and fascinating in a way only legends can be. After you finish reading, we suspect you’ll want to know more about Ragnar Lothbrok and delve into the poetry that tells his story so beautifully.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Those of us who are hooked on the series "Vikings" will begin to understand what made Ragnar, how he is."
"Very concise and poor of details, excused by the. lack of written chronicle of the era."
"This short book contained a lot of interesting information about the historical figure known as Ragnar Lothbrok, but the writing style left much to be desired."
"Of particular note is that this book relies in part on a recorded version of the oral history of Lothbrok written some two hundred years after his death."
"This book is short."
"Between the grammatical errors and spelling errors, it jumped around quite a bit."
"There is some magnificent literature around the Vikings, from translations of the Eddas to novels like The Long Boats ---- read them, don't bother with this."

In all my years as a boat builder and Naval Architect, I can't count how many times I've been asked how to build a boat. Here is what’s included in this exclusive Boat Building Master Course: Beginner′s Guide to Boat Building. Boat building like our grandfathers did. Building your new boat. Building materials. Building places. Lofting Manual. Tools. The boat plans. Assembly Manual. Gluing the seams. Laminating Manual. Fillets at the chine and inside. Applying fiberglass tape. Fairing and epoxy coating. Epoxy Manual. Dispensing and Mixing. Adding Fillers and Additives. Bonding (gluing). Final surface preparation and coating. Final thoughts. Clint Gray, England You can find Morten Olesen online at boatplans.dk/ or visit his blog at BoatBuildingArticles.com/. Master boat builder and Naval Architect Morten Olesen is the owner of the company Boatplans.dk, which for decades has delivered boat plans for home and back yard boat builders all over the world. His idea was to create a line of exclusive, quality boat designs as well as detailed instruction and support materials that would allow boat builders of every skill level to create the wooden boat of their dreams.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It is a good book that can help you build a durable and serviceable wood/fiberglass small boat for knock around use."
"If you have read any of Dynamite Payson's books, or Beuhler's Back Yard boat building then you have at your hands much better and more complete information."
"I purchased this book to go along and supplement the books from my boat plan maker Glen-L. Reading two different explanations on some subject allow you to totally understand what you are doing."
"For first-time boat builders this is a great book."
"Boat Building Master Course This book is one of the clearest and most concise explanations of the stitch and glue method of boatbuilding that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Written by a master of his subject I can highly recommend it to anyone contemplating building a boat by this method - especially first time boat builders."
"It's okay, if you haven't read anything else start here...it was free for me so..."
"If you are really wanting the details how how a wooden boat is built buy John Brooks book on boat building."
Best History of Books

With classic simplicity and a painter's feeling for atmosphere and detail, Isak Dinesen tells of the years she spent from 1914 to 1931 managing a coffee plantation in Kenya. Out of Africa is Karin Blixen's love letter to the country she called home for nearly 20 years. simplicity and a painter's feeling for atmosphere and detail, Isak Dinesen tells of the years she spent from 1914 to 1931 managing a coffee plantation in Kenya.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A great memoir of the interaction and changes that happened between white colonialists and Native Africans in the early 1900s.. Isak's understanding of the Natives she knew and loved in Africa is a treasured historical perspective well worth reading."
"The excellent biography by Judith Thurman. adds much to the understanding of all Isak Dinesen's writings and shows Karen Blixen to be a most interesting and intriguing person, even apart from her literary accomplishments."
"Friends: The Hollywood movie " Out of Africa " with Robert Redford is one of my favorites but the book mentions some things that you would never have guessed from watching the movie so it is well worth reading the book."
"A touching account written with some depth about others, but superficially when she was discussing her own life."
"Intriguing story and lots of detail about life in Africa."
"If you don't think Isak Dinesen is the finest author, in at least one hundred years, then you simply don't understand."
"It is plenty of lovely pictures of life in Africa: flowers, plants, bugs, animals and some "native" designs, don't know if genuine or an artistic recreation, but very nice."
"The book not only offers sensitive portraits of a range of characters who played a role in the daily life of Blixen (Dinesen)when she lived on her famous farm (at the foot of the Ngong Hills), but it also reveals, thereby, the surprising depth of Blixen's empathy with the people around her."
Best One-Hour Biography & Memoir Short Reads

Not yet born, the author would come to know his brother only through photos. “The Girl in the Photo” is the story of a man’s search for the brother he never knew—the truth about how his brother had lived, and how he had died—and the lessons he learned along the way: about love, loss, and coming to terms with the past. "[An] extraordinary and moving memoir."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I actually bought this for my parents kindle, while learning how to use it."
"As a Vietnam vet I found the narrative by Mr. Gonzales to be both sad and inspiring God bless Mr Gonzalez."
"So like this war, the vagueness & yet heart-wrenching feelings, are so raw and relatable."
"Story is not enough for a book, but was kind of fun."
"Very good era piece about a time in history many try to forget."
"Kept me interested, I wanted to find out what he also wanted to know."
"What a hard life This Cuban mother endured,she work as a maid at nine years old,has her first son at fifteen years old,and the war in Vietnam kill him,( I never understood that war,and they explained to me so many times,) "was the girl in the photo?would have remembered her brother after so many years."?"
"This could have been a good BOOK."
Best Ship History

But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Finalist for the Washington State Book Award — History/General Non-fictionA Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Book of 2015A Miami Herald Favorite Book of 2015BookTrib's Best Narrative Nonfiction Book of 2015#1 History & Biography Book in the 2015 Goodreads Choice AwardsA LibraryReads Top Ten Book of 2015 A Library Journal Top Ten Book of 2015A Kirkus Best Book of 2015 An Indigo Best Book of 2015 "Larson is one of the modern masters of popular narrative nonfiction...a resourceful reporter and a subtle stylist who understands the tricky art of Edward Scissorhands-ing narrative strands into a pleasing story...An entertaining book about a great subject, and it will do much to make this seismic event resonate for new generations of readers." — The New York Times Book Review "Larson is an old hand at treating nonfiction like high drama...He knows how to pick details that have maximum soapy potential and then churn them down until they foam [and] has an eye for haunting, unexploited detail." "This enthralling and richly detailed account demonstrates that there was far more going on beneath the surface than is generally known...Larson's account [of the Lusitania 's sinking] is the most lucid and suspenseful yet written, and he finds genuine emotional power in the unlucky confluences of forces, 'large and achingly small,' that set the stage for the ship's agonizing final moments." "Larson has a gift for transforming historical re-creations into popular recreations, and Dead Wake is no exception...[He] provides first-rate suspense, a remarkable achievement given that we already know how this is going to turn out...The tension, in the reader's easy chair, is unbearable..." — The Boston Globe. Larson is an exceptionally skilled storyteller, and his tick-tock narrative, which cuts between the Lusitania , U-20 and the political powers behind them, is pitch-perfect." "Larson so brilliantly elucidates [the Lusitania 's fate] in Dead Wake , his detailed forensic and utterly engrossing account of the Lusitania 's last voyage...Yes, we know how the story of the Lusitania ends, but there's still plenty of white-knuckle tension. "Larson's nimble, exquisitely researched tale puts you dead center...Larson deftly pulls off the near-magical feat of taking a foregone conclusion and conjuring a tale that's suspenseful, moving and altogether riveting." "With each revelation from Britain and America, with each tense, claustrophobic scene aboard U-20, the German sub that torpedoed the ship, with each vignette from the Lusitania , Larson's well-paced narrative ratchets the suspense. His eye for the ironic detail keen, his sense of this time period perceptive, Larson spins a sweeping tale that gives the Lusitania its due attention. "[Larson] has a gift for finding the small, personal details that bring history to life...His depiction of the sinking of the ship, and the horrific 18 minutes between the time it was hit and the time it disappeared, is masterly, moving between strange, touching details." Not so with Erik Larson...Larson wrestles these disparate narratives into a unified, coherent story and so creates a riveting account of the Lusitania 's ending and the beginnings of the U.S.'s involvement in the war." —Pittsburgh Post Gazette "In your mind, the sinking of the luxury liner Lusitania may be filed in a cubbyhole...After reading Erik Larson's impressive reconstruction of the Lusitania 's demise, you're going to need a much bigger cubbyhole...Larson's book is a work of carefully sourced nonfiction, not a novelization, but it has a narrative sweep and miniseries pacing that make it highly entertaining as well as informative." "Larson breathes life into narrative history like few writers working today." "Now the tragic footnote to a global conflagration, the history of the [ Lusitania 's] final voyage... is worthy of the pathos and narrative artistry Erik Larson brings to Dead Wake ...Reader's of Larson's previous nonfiction page turners...will not be disappointed. "The story of the Lusitania 's sinking by a German U-boat has been told before, but Larson's version features new details and the gripping immediacy he's famous for. The fact that this is coming through a page-turner history book, where all the figures and details reveal an impeccable eye and thorough research, is just one of the odd pleasures of Larson's writing." He draws upon a wealth of sources for his subject – telegrams, wireless messages, survivor depositions, secret intelligence ledgers, a submarine captain’s war log, love letters, admiralty and university archives, even morgue photos of Lusitania victims… Filled with revealing political, military and social information, Larson’s engrossing Dead Wake is, at its heart, a benediction for the 1,198 souls lost at sea.” — Tampa Bay Times. "Larson, an authority on nonfiction accounts, expounds on our primary education, putting faces to the disaster and crafting an intimate portrait in Dead Wake . "In a well-paced narrative, Larson reveals the forces large and small, natural and man-made, coincidental and intentional, that propelled the Lusitania to its fatal rendezvous...Larson's description of the moments and hours that followed the torpedo's explosive impact is riveting... Dead Wake stands on its own as a gripping recounting of an episode that still has the power to haunt a reader 100 years later." — Booklist , starred review "[Larson] has always shown a brilliant ability to unearth the telling details of a story and has the narrative chops to bring a historical moment vividly alive. But in his new book, Larson simply outdoes himself...What is most compelling about Dead Wake is that, through astonishing research, Larson gives us a strong sense of the individuals—passengers and crew—aboard the Lusitania , heightening our sense of anxiety as we realize that some of the people we have come to know will go down with the ship. "Critically acclaimed 'master of narrative nonfiction' Erik Larson has produced a thrilling account of the principals and the times surrounding this tumultuous event in world history...After an intimate look at the passengers, and soon-to-be victims, who board in New York despite the warning of 'unrestricted warfare' from the German embassy, Larson turns up the pace with shorter and shorter chapters alternating between the hunted and the hunter until the actual shot.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In DEAD WAKE: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Larson returns to the subjects of war and ships and stirs in a potent mixture of international politics as well as a little romance to once again seduce his readers with a contemporary view of an historical situation. Written to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, a Cunard passenger liner sunk by a German U-Boat, Larson's account differs in several ways from other well-known books produced on the subject. The pluses of Larson's latest work are his acute examination of Room 40, his up-close look at Woodrow Wilson, and his ability to swing between the behind-the-scenes action and balance his discoveries with a conventional but absorbing look at some of the passengers on board the Lusitania all while building a true and terrifying suspense in the narrative. Whether one reads a great deal about WWI history, maritime disasters, or early 1900s international politics, there is something new to be learned in DEAD WAKE."
"This book gradually brings the whole events out from all the small perspectives of people who got involved or lost their lives in it. The author’s big motivation for writing this book is to let people experience the whole events from the basic stories. The author of this book drew the world of readers back to the last century, the happiness, desires, hopelessness from people are all seems close enough to touch. Even though the book itself focused mostly on the Boat and the submarine U-20 which sunk it, the characterization of other passengers on Lusitania is attractive and interesting. The movement of different organization and famous people such as American president Wilson were all caught by Erik Larson. Rather than just talking about the big historical event itself, Erik Larson fills in more small details and personal life parts into the skeleton of the book, to make it more vivid. Also, for one who is learning the First World War, this book gave me more new knowledge and brought me a historical event that I did not even hear before. The meeting of U-20 submarine and lusitania was not predicted by room 40, an organization which mainly focused the interception of telegrams from German in that period this time. Some ships “have warm, friendly atmosphere while others are only steel plates riveted around throbbing turbines.”’ There were some children and infants on the boat and only one tenth of them finally survived. The intention of For example, ‘Lauriat took the scrapbooks back to his home in Cambridge, where he inspected them in the company of his wife, Marian. At the station later that night, he checked his trunk and shoe box for transport direct to the lusitania but held back his other three pieces. He kept these with him in the calendar.’ the characteristics of one of the passengers on the boat, Lauriat, a bookseller who usually went to Britain for transporting books, is fully shown for the readers. ‘U-boats in fact traveled underwater as little as possible, typically only in extreme weather or when attacking ships or dodging destroyers.’ The professional explanation like this line appeared commonly in the book. In short, the book is fascinating and interesting, feeling the past historical events from it is the attraction no readers can reject."
"I didn't expect to be so emotionally moved by this book, but I had a visceral, emotional reaction to the chapters that described the human drama of the poor souls trying to survive the sinking of the Lusitania, especially when mothers and their children where involved."
"I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, naval battles, presidential decisions, and the life and times of the early 1900's."
Best Pictorial Ship Books

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artefacts made by the craftsmen of the navy or the shipbuilders themselves, and ranging from the mid seventeenth century to the present day. The Naval Review Robert Gardiner is the author of three books on sailing cruisers, including Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars , published in 2000 and re-released in paperback in 2006.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"To understand the development of ships over the centuries you should compare models, and the author should assist you by pointing out the differences not so obvious to a beginner's eye."
"Perusing the photos in the book reveal how model ships should be built; attention to realism and details of sailing ships in the 17th and 18th centuries."
"Fantastic book."
"I'm a professional model maker, aerospace (unfortunately), but whose true love the past 45 years has always been man-o-war models. Frequently the books in my collection featured images of the beautiful Admiralty style models. None the less, being such as I am, those photos further wetted my appetite for yet more data which could be of use in building an Admiralty model. Should one be have an interest in Admiralty models or the desire to build one I highly recommend this book."
"It is one of most complete book I've ever seen for ship modelers."
"It arrived in good condition."
"Must have for students and model builders."
Best Ships Repair & Maintenance

Now updated with information on fuel injection systems, electronic engine controls, and other new diesel technologies, Nigel Calder's bestseller has everything you need to keep your diesel engine running cleanly and efficiently. Now updated with information on fuel injection systems, electronic engine controls, and other new diesel technologies, Nigel Calder's bestseller has everything you need to keep your diesel engine running cleanly and efficiently. Nigel Calder , a diesel mechanic, boatbuilder, and machinist, is widely acknowledged as the world’s foremost writer on boat systems maintenance.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I've read through some of it and I would highly recommend if you want to learn about marine diesel engines."
"If you are a marine diesel owner, but not yet a marine diesel mechanic, this book is great to have on board."
"The book is covering basic engine parts, more in depth explanations of engine parts, fuel system, how to troubleshoot start problems, diagnosing different sounds and symptoms, maintenance and repair procedures (probably more than most of us will want to perform ourselves - like opening up cylinders and decarbonizing the engine)."
"But very informative for the novice to the knowledgeable."
"great buy, well written, easy to understand book."
"I have spent my life working on the water and with Diesel engines every day , this book in my opinion is very very good it is easy to read and understand it has saved me money and is well worth it I highly recommend this book."
"Great, detailed explanation of the principles, operation, and troubleshooting of marine Diesel engines."