Boats, Seamanship and Marine Books

Oars, Sails, and Steam: A Picture Book of Ships

Oars, Sails and Steam: A Picture Book of Ships ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Edwin Tunis / IBSN: 0801869323 / Paperback 80 pages / Published September 2002
This book presents a nicely illustrated and skillfully written history of water transport from the dugout to the modern aircraft carrier. The concise drawing and illustrations of the vessels are remarkable for their clarity and accuracy. Covers the most interesting and important types of boats and ships and are described in chronological order, revealing each advance that made navigation easier, faster, and more efficient.
Contains fine detailed drawings of Egyptian sailboats, Phoenician warboats, Greek war galleys and Roman triremes, Norse long ships, Mediterranean carracks, Elizabethan galleons, river steamboats, and the ocean going steamboat Curaçao which in 1827 became the first ship to cross the Atlantic almost entirely under steam power. Also includes sea going clipper ships, whaling barks, tramp steamers, steam liners, and warships, including destroyers, submarines, and aircraft carriers.
Includes a glossary of seagoing terms and detailed diagrams that illustrate ships below decks, up in the rigging, and topside. This book is a treasure for all those readers who are sailors, or sailors at heart.
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Boat Joinery and Cabinet Making Simplified

Boat Joinery and Cabinet Making Simplified ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Fred P. Bingham / ISBN: 0070053073 / Paperback 256 pages / Published May 1993
This book explains nineteen useful joints and how to use them. Also covers basic hand tools, stationary power tools and electric hand tools. Plus tools, jigs, and accessories that you can easily build. Includes expert techniques and tips, and expert opinion.
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Ashley Book of Knots

The Ashley Book of Knots ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Clifford W. Ashley / ISBN: 0385040253 / Hardcover 320 pages / Published June 1993
This book is the definitive book on knots, a comprehensive bible. There are described about 3900 different knots, from simple hitches to fancy marlingspike seamanship work. Each is described with explicit step-by-step instructions with over 7000 illustrations on how to tie them. So grab a piece of cord and this book and open up a new world of practical knowledge and an education in knots, plus a bit of adventure. The art of knot tying lives on in this book, which is an indispensable and essential source book as a historical reference and an indispensable handy source of knowledge. This book is somewhat expensive but it is well worth the price.
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Marlinspike Sailor

The Marlinspike Sailor ~Usually Ships With 2 Business Days

Great Knots and How to Tie Them

Great Knots & How to Tie Them ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Derrick Lewis, Herb Gustafson / IBSN: 0806948892 / Paperback 128 pages / Published May 1999
This is a good book for those beginning to learn how to tie knots. This book describes 175 knots than you can make to secure heavy loads, fasten things securely, while others come apart easily, and others are made just to look decorative. You'll find knots described here to serve every kind of purpose. These knots include the basic overhand, slip and square knots, hitches, constrictor and package knots, scarves and lanyards, sheet bends and ties. Plus many more. With a little practice and these clear instructions, detailed drawings, and full-color photographs, you can learn to make them all.
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The Complete Book of Decorative Knots

The Complete Book of Decorative Knots: Lanyard Knots, Button Knots, Globe Knots, Turk's Heads, Mats, Hitching, Chains, and Platis ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Geoffrey Budworth / ISBN: 1558217916 / Paperback 160 pages / Published April 1999
This book describes over eighty ornamental and useful knots with easy-to-follow, step-by-step illustrations and color illustrations throughout the process of tying each knot. Most knots serve useful purposes, but other serve as attractive decorations with appealing shapes and interwoven designs and textures. Some of the different knots covered include lanyard knots, button knots and globe knots, Turk's heads, mats and hitching, and chains and plaits.
A useful glossary explains the terms and techniques used with ropes, lines, and knot tying.
This book would be a good a companion to "The Ashley Book of Knots" in the library of any serious knot student.
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The Splicing Handbook: Techniques for Modern and Traditional Ropes, Second Edition

The Splicing Handbook: Techniques for Modern and Traditional Ropes
~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Barbara Merry, John Darwin / ISBN: 0071354387 / Paperback 160 pages, 2nd Edition / Published February 2000
This comprehensive guide book is simply one of the best reference works for the working rope splicer and professional rigger. This excellent book provides easy to follow instructions to to learn a new splice, review rusty skills, and as a convenient compendium of splice history to settle any shipyard, boatyard, or construction site argument on how to splice a specific configuration of rope. Also cover one the most difficult technique of rope work, that is making a proper end termination. Perfect reference book for professional splicers!
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How to Build a Wooden Boat

How to Build a Wooden Boat ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
David C. McIntosh, Samuel F. Manning (Illustrator) ISBN: 0937822108
Hardcover 255 pages / Published March 1988
This book is one of the best book around for understanding wooden boatbuilding. This book is very comprehensive and technical. The author presents the process in a very understandable manner, for readers of any experience. The thoroughness and detail of how this author covers every aspect of wooden boat building is worth reading for an understanding of boat construction. The author uses a "Merrywing" boat as a model. Every aspect of the book relates a detailed description of methods and tools he used on that particular boat, though he does generalize a bit in places. The first chapter presents an excellent explanation of the lofting process. This requires the reader to make some level of abstraction to apply the information.
Not only does How to Build a Wooden Boat offer us one of the clearest explanations of building a traditional wooden boat ever presented, it does so in a way filled with humor and lively anecdotes. Whenever you need a definitive answer on how to lay out curved components, or design joints to shed water, or find an answer to any number of questions where the technology of traditional wooden boats is concerned, give this book a try.
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How to Build Wooden Boats: With 16 Small-Boat Designs

How to Build Wooden Boats: With 16 Small-Boat Designs ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Edwin Monk / ISBN: 048627313X / Paperback: 96 pages / Published February 1993
This excellent and concise manual by noted naval architect offers a portfolio of designs for 16 basic wooden craft, including rowboats, sailboats, outboards, runabouts, and a hydroplane. Detailed illustrations and instructions for amateur boat builders cover selecting a design, choosing and assembling building materials, building and finishing. Includes 15 halftones and 49 line illustrations.
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The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge: 420 Sea-Tested Rules of Thumb for Almost Every Boating Situation

The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge: 420 Sea-Tested Rules of Thumb for Almost Every Boating Situation ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
John Vigor / ISBN: 0070674752 / Paperback 256 pages / Published February 1994
The outstanding book is filled with helpful information from the introduction to the last page. Covers many of the least understood rules as well as some of the more obvious rules of thumb that apply too mariners.
The knowledge is dispensed with the witty sense of humor that would appeal to more than most fisherman all the way to seasoned sailors.
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The Elements of Boat Strength: For Builders, Designers, and Owners

The Elements of Boat Strength: For Builders, Designers, and Owners
~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Dave Gerr / ISBN: 0070231591 / Hardcover 352 pages / Published November/December 1999 This book is significant because of it's thoroughness it has become one the industry's standards. This book details construction methods and recommended scantling dimensions for fiberglass, wood, aluminum, steel, and composite hulls.
Acclaimed author and naval architect Dave Gerr created a unique system of easy-to-use scantling rules and rules-of-thumb for calculating the necessary dimensions, or scantlings, of hulls, decks, and other boat parts, whether built of fiberglass, wood, wood-epoxy composite, steel, or aluminum. In addition to the rules themselves, this book covers in-depth, plain-English discussion of boatbuilding materials, methods, and practices that will guide you through all aspects of boat construction.
Now you can avoid working through dense technical engineering manuals or tackling advanced mathematics. The Elements of Boat Strength has all the formulas, tables, illustrations, and charts you need to judge how heavy each piece of your boat should be in order to last and be safe. With this book, an inexpensive scientific calculator, and a pad of paper, you'll be able to design and specify all the components necessary to build a sound, long-lasting, rugged vessel.
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How to Read a Nautical Chart : A Complete Guide to the Symbols, Abbreviations, and Data Displayed on Nautical Charts

How to Read a Nautical Chart: A Complete Guide to the Symbols, Abbreviations, and Data Displayed on Nautical Charts ~Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Nigel Calder / ISBN: 0071376151 / Paperback 240 pages / Published August 2002
This comprehensive "How to Read a Nautical Chart" should be on every navigator's bookshelf, and this easy to read and understand book on nautical charts should be required on all boats. In 2000, the U.S. government ceased publication of Chart No. 1, the invaluable little book that generations of mariners have consulted to make sense of the complex system of signs, symbols, and graphic elements used in nautical charts. Now Chart No. 1 is not just reborn but expanded and improved.
Arranged and edited by Nigel Calder, and containing four-color illustrations throughout, this reader presents a number of original features that help readers make optimum use of the data found in Chart No. 1, and including a more intuitive format, crucial background information, international chart symbol equivalents, electronic chart symbology, and thorough explanations of the practical aspects of nautical chart reading.
This is a wonderful chart companion: an intriguing investigation of chart development combined with practical, hands-on data on how to really put a chart to use.
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