A great book for anyone contemplating the madness inherent in building a boat is George Buehlers "Backyard Boatbuilding" and while his real heavy but sort of light displacement boat designs may not appeal to everyone (Personally I think they make a lot of sense and have been perusing some of his designs for the Loose Moose 4/4/4 project), his thinking is first rate and any project would profit from his insight if only to cleanse the palette from the same old same old consumer yachting syndrome so many seem to be stuck into... When I built Loose Moose 2 "Backyard Boatbuilding" was a constant resource. For those who like salty you may want to check out George's website (http://www.georgebuehler.com)
Warning rant coming...
Just thinking about George Buehler's designs and website has made me think about something that really gets up my nose... The way some of the naval architects and designers suck you into buying study plans because they won't put even minimum information about their designs on their websites... I have a file cabinet of study plans that I never would have purchased if the NA involved had provided even scant information as to their use or payload, not to mention being coy about the cost of designs and construction... A lot of the time I will see a boat here in Paradise and being impressed I'll check out the designers website to find hardly any information. So I find myself ordering a study plan by Zen, if you will, only to find that the $35 I just spent is for a daysailer... arrrghhhh!!! George Buehler has great info on his site and a lot of designers should take note of how he does it because he's got it right!
Bruce+
9 hours ago
