Wooden Boat Renovation: New Life for Old Boats Using Modern Methods Hardcover - 1993

The economics of fixing up an old boat are exactly the same as the economics of fixing up an old house: You substitute time you can spare for money that you can't. Either way you end up with something you probably couldn't have otherwise afforded. As if that weren't enough, you also learn a whole new set of skills and gain a healthy measure of self-respect and satisfaction. You develop a deep and thorough knowledge of your boat--or house--that allows you to fix something gone awry instead of being at the mercy of a $45-an-hour-and-I'll-get-it-to-you-when-I-can repairperson. And, maybe most important, your renovated old boat--or house--becomes a true reflection of your needs, desires, and fantasies, not those of a faceless factory seeking to sell you and everyone else the same cookie-cutter dream on the installment plan.

This book is about fixing up old boats made of wood. For many people, a boat isn't a boat unless it's made of wood. The psychological and philosophical reasons for needing to own a boat made from honest trees instead of the material that L. Francis Herreshoff characterized as "frozen snot" needn't concern us. But in this day and age, hard-nosed economics and the ubiquitous bottom line certainly should.

FACT: You can buy a repairable wooden boat and renovate and remodel it for a lot less money than you can buy and renovate a plastic or metal of similar size and condition. Note carefully the absence of the word "restore" from the preceding assertion. If you want to "restore" a valuable antique boat to museum standards, you're holding the wrong book, and you should replace it carefully, face-out, on the bookshelf and look elsewhere.

But if you want to be out on the water in a biodegradable boat of character and style, a boat you've salvaged from biodegradation by the sweat of your brow and the barking of your knuckles, and you hope to do this on the pitiful remainder of the paycheck Your Government has graciously allowed you to retain, then clutch this book to your bosom and walk, nay run, to the checkout counter.

Jim Trefethen has renovated dozens of good old wooden boats, and in this book he's sharing his collected wisdom, craftsmanship, and penury with you. This isn't a generic step-by-step renovation manual. All wooden boats are different--even wooden boats that left the same boatshop on the same day. The ravages of time and the elements and uncaring ownership conspire against each wooden boat from launch day on, but each is affected differently.

This book will supply you with the basic skills you'll need to successfully renovate an old wooden boat--any old wooden boat, from a 16-foot canoe to a 50-foot cruiser, and everything in between--provided the boat actually is repairable (and you'll learn how to determine that, too). You are expected to know a bit about boats and how to work with tools, but you needn't be a master craftsman or Joe or Josephine Truesalt. After you've read Wooden Boat Renovation, we hope you come away knowing what is possible and how to accomplish it. Then we hope you actually do it.