Wooden boats by Michael Ruhlman

[Wild Dingo]

Subtitled... "In pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard" Published by Penguin books ISBN # 0-14-200121-x

What a flamin rip snorter of a book!!! :cool: get it read it enjoy it :cool: ... if youve got it already stuffed into some hidden cavity in the bookcase get it read it enjoy it!

Man those guys at Benjamin and Gannon know how to live work and everything boats! Totally different people yet work in such synchronisity its aweflaminsome.

One thing really stood out in the book was the correlation between woodenboat the company {our hosts} and B&G... fire was a turning point in the fortunes of both, a company of fine people an acceptance of the fates that drive one to wooden boats and the beauty they hold... an amazing read...

What I wouldnt do to be able to sit in their company for a few hours... well okay I wouldnt be sitting probably be thrown a sander and told "see that plank?" :D the company of giants.

Thanks go to woodenboat library member Steven Bauer for the loan of the book :cool: Your a legend mate! ;)

Well to the post office in the am to shoot it off to the next reader :cool:

[hokiefan]

My wife and kids gave me this book. They're not "woodenboatstruck", but they know I am. I loved every minute of it and will one day pick it up to read again. I found it really neat how they caught the author, who said he had no real prior knowledge of wooden boats. It wouldn't surprise me to hear of him ending up with a wooden boat somehow. Anyway, I recommend the book to anyone with any interest in wooden boats.

Bobby

[Bark]

Thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like a good read. In fact, I just ordered a copy from Amazon.com, where there are multiple used hard cover copies going for just a buck or two.

Another book I enjoyed a couple of years ago was
A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time by Douglas Whynott. Another boatbuilding shop story dealing with Joel White's last boat. Very lyrical and well written, as I recall.

Thanks again.

[Dale Genther]

Bark, that's the book I pointed out to you at the the bookstore/coffeehouse, when we were in Annapolis. It was only $7.99 there. Good Book!!

[Bark]

Right, Dale. Guess it didn't register. My brain needs more RAM. Hope all is well with you guys. We almost got caught in Sunday's afternoon blow--made it back just in time. Winds had to be 35-40 down our way.

[Doug Wood]

Both great reads, and for those of you who are Joel White fans, the recent book "Joel White: Boatbuilder, Designer, Sailor" is great.

[Figment]

As coincidence would have it, I just pulled that one off the shelf for the 3rd read a few days ago.

This time through, I'm developing the opinion that the author, in his effort to portray the parties involved as insightful, passionate, unique individuals, might have gone over the top a bit. This time through, I can't help but think that they're sounding more and more like a bunch of crackpots.

An alternative subtitle might have been Boats that just feel right, and the lunatic zealots that build them.

For all that, though, you can hear the rip of the plane and smell the shavings with every turn of the page.

[Kronos]

yea... I read it.
Then I went out and bought a wooden boat...
changed my life.

[Wild Dingo]

Originally posted by Figment:

An alternative subtitle might have been Boats that just feel right, and the lunatic zealots that build them.See thats EXAKARLY why its sooooo good!! :D We all sorta fit that profile :cool:

[Figment]

Right, but it occurs to me that wooden boat culture is currently oriented toward the oddball 1% who are crazy enough to engage in something so antiquated. (like it or not, that's how the other 99% see us)
It also occurs to me that this culture is nearing full saturation at that 1%. If we want wooden boat numbers to continue to increase, we need to tone down the zealotry, and let some of the sane people in on the experience.

I'm not talking about magazine subscriptions. I'm talking about actual people actually messing about in actual boats.

....or maybe I'm just frustrated with hunting for parts that don't exist because "there's not enough demand to make production worthwhile", and I wish I could just stroll on into West Marine and get what I need like everyone else on the dock.

[Matt J.]

Figment, I think you nailed it pretty well. I happen to have met one of the more "mysterious" characters, and the description seemed exagerated. STill, a great book which I did enjoy. I think the embellishment was unecessary.

I also agree about expanding beyond the eccentric 1%. I often wonder what RARUS's precense does for people's attitudes about wood. I think her beauty, often noted by even the most ardent plastic boaters, and some care by us, may just open their eyes to the possiblity of wooden boats. They all see ours (she does need some cosmetic work, but is a 20' stunner) and the plastic boats either side (one has been listing severely for 6 months and is chalky and the other is absolutely falling apart (peeling paint, cracked decks, rusty fittings...) and I would think it must prod their convictions about wooden boats being derilicts or too muc work.
-Matt

[Aramas]

If wooden boaties are the lunatic fringe, then what would someone that likes wooden boats with junk rigs be? The dags that dangle from the lunatic fringe?

J
Now with 50% more dementia

Evidence of my impending commitment

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid67/pb4ad29199384c1d690cf1327e788bd31/fbc5c7c0.jpg

[LisaS]

Another I would recommend is "A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time" written about Joel White. After you read that one, buy the book on tape "White on White" in which Joel White reads his dad's (EB White) writings.

Lisa

[Figment]

Unit of Water Unit of Time is another great one for sure.

Also, if you've read both books, you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about in my previous post. The folks at the Brooklin yard aren't painted so heavily with the crazy brush.
Even the yard itself is a bit more of a tangible entity, because they're dealing with real issues of survival, trying to pay the bills like everyone else. That means they need to stray beyond pure plank on frame construction, but always building a wholesome craft, always accommodating the modern variation within a very strong identity of the traditional.

I think that Brooklin's approach (at least, as portrayed in A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time) will do a lot to convert that other 99%.

Oh, but none of what I'm saying is intended to insult or discredit G&B at all. I think what they're doing is amazing, and if I ever make it out to the Vineyard I hope to make a little pilgrimage to their shop and smell the woodchips firsthand.

[Fishboat]

I read the WoodenBoats book for the second time just a month ago. Even though I read it for the first time just 8-10 months back & still enjoyed it the second time around. I think Michael Ruhlman does an excellent job, particularly since he's not a boat-person, let alone a wooden boat person. Even if he was, the writing is still very good. I've read a library full of books over the years, Ruhlman has a very good style.

If there is any downside, he does belabor the wooded mystique a bit, but not overly so. G&B didn't strike me as the lunatic fringe. Just a couple guys that said no to much of the junk-baggage our society generates(there's so god-awful much)...more power to them.

During the second read I thought of a die-hard steel hull friend of mine and ordered him a copy for something like $3 off amazon. He's reading it now and is enjoying it alot. He did make the comment, "I've always liked wood, but somehow I'm not sure I'm worthy..".

[Fishboat]

The lobster boat that G&B built for Jonathan Edwards in the book WoodenBoats just came on the market in the last week:

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/pl_boat_detail.jsp?currency=USD&units=Feet&checked_boats=1134433&slim=quick&

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through A Unit Of Water A Unit Of Time. Thus far I think WoodenBoats is a more engaging book. A Unit of Water...is perhaps more interesting from a boat yard(s) history perspective.

[Leon m]

Fishboat
OH...MY...GOD!I have fallen in love with
that boat :eek: that is the sweetest boat
I have ever seen .

Anybody got an extra $175.000 that
I can borrow :D If I had it I would buy that
boat today without a second thought.

Thanks Fishboat...I'm ruined :( ;) :D

[Figment]

"this virtually new boat is reminiscent of the connecticut style lobster boats that fished Long Island sound in the 1930's and 1940's. "

It is?

Damn censors! The rich history of raised-foredeck connecticut lobsterboats has been wiped from the books!

[Billy Bones]

Well well well. Elisa Lee's for sale. I was going to offer to take a picture of her for anyone interested in the book, but it seems that's not necessary.

For anyone interested, I can say that she's almost never left her slip since she arrived here. I've seen her out only a few times in the three years I've been casually watching.

Oddly, Ruhlman's book cooled me a bit on wooden boats, at least insofar as G+B's vision is concerned. Don't know why, exactly; maybe the sedentary hippy thing--such a tired stereotype to me. In my experience such folks pay more attention to looking like craftsmen than actually being craftsmen.

Dunno, spose I could be wrong,

Billy Bones
Career Craftsman

[rbgarr]

When I read in the book about the Elisa Lee, and that she was going to St. Croix, I had my doubts about how much she'd get used. Unless you like deep sea fishing or diving there aren't too many places to go and anchor around St. Croix, are there? I guess you could go over to St. John, but that's a bit far to travel to regularly, if I remember correctly.

She's still an interesting boat.

[ 08-21-2003, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Keith Wilson]

Sigh . . .

http://newimages.yachtworld.com/1/1/3/4/4/1134433_1.jpg

[rbgarr]

Didn't quite get the locations of those ports in the hull sides right, did they? Maybe the sheer clamp was in the way. I also wonder if this boat would be a 'roller'.