Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard

by Michael Ruhlman

Book Overview

There are fewer than 10,000 wooden boats in America, but the circulation of WoodenBoat magazine exceeds 180,000. What is it about these boats that has captured the popular imagination? With his lively blend of reportage and] reflection (Los Angeles Times), Michael Ruhlman sets off for a renowned boatyard in Martha's Vineyard to follow the construction of two boats-Rebecca, a 60-foot modern pleasure schooner, and Elisa Lee, a 32-foot...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014200121X
• ISBN13: 9780142001219
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

gets ya motivated to build your own.

im nearly done with this book,and ill tell ya,,what a book it is. its a enthralling story about a shipyard and the boats they build. it tells about the boat shop,and nearly what it might feel like being/working in one. i for one would love to have a job in one,,money or no.(being disabled,,it aint gonna happen) the boats they build are amazing,and the writer describes them in a way that i can imagine what it will look like even before i check out the pictures. the best part of this book,,is its a true story. if there is a boat lover in your life,,or you happen to enjoy all things boat,,this book will not disapoint. buy it and enjoy, roystr

Wooden Boats

The book Wooden Boats is a non-fiction story set in Martha's Vineyard and about two shipwrights and their business. Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin strive to find the perfect design for a ship and try the boat built as smoothly and traditionally as possible. Michael Ruhlman writes, "They were still being made here the old-fashioned way- by craftsmen in small yards." Regarding the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway. Jon Wilson is quoted in the book commenting that Nat Benjamin is, " one of the best designers and purest builders in the country." Wilson also says, " Gannon and Benjamin are real sailors: they know firsthand the kinds of pressures the sea puts on a boat and build their boats according to that." It is always a challenge because ninety percent of the boat is made of wood. The only things that aren't wood are the brass fittings and technical devices. Working with wood makes the process long and tedious. The shipwrights build the hull by a plank on frame method that is tedious and difficult. Each plank has to be specially cut and fit to its place on the hull. They have to be extremely accurate to avoid gaps between planks. They build two boats over the course of the book. The first, Rebecca, is a sleek schooner built for Dan Adams who is a boat struck man who has trouble financially funding the project. The other is for Jonathan Edwards. Elisa Lee, a shorter boat similar to a lobster boat with two sails and a motor. Besides these two boats they also indirectly follow the building and repair of other ships. One part I vividly remember is when Elisa Lee is finished and the author vividly describes the launching ceremony. Then Elisa is lowered into the water and she floats. It sounds rather anticlimactic now, but when you read and see the effort and time that was put into building it, it is truly a triumph. The theme throughout Wooden Boats is probably how the shipwrights Ross Gannon & Nat Benjamin live their lives doing something they love. They travel all over the world and make close to nothing. They also point out that while fiberglass boats are modern, wooden boats are made to last. Most wooden boats will outlast their owners. There is something about wood that is memorable something that burns the image in your mind. The beautiful curves, the traditional rigging, all of it make up the soothing karma of wooden boats. I loved this book. It was a truly remarkable tale that I can't say enough about. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in boats and sailing. I feel that no words I write could possibly do justice to this book. Jon Wilson, the editor of Wooden Boat Magazine, says Wooden Boats is, " an intimate portrait of the passions pursued by men and women...and the beauty and power of the most sensuous seagoing ships ever devised by mortals."

Wooden Boats

As a wooden boat enthusiast and long time woodworker, I read Michael Ruhlman's book with enthusiasm. I found it to be a wonderful piece of work that portrays woodworking, and boat building in particular, as dying arts that are not art for arts sake, but an art with an end result in mind. The boatyard in question is the Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway of Martha's Vineyard. This yard has been doing excellent work for quite some time and has aided in the renaissance of wooden boats that has largely been inspired by WoodenBoat magazine. Mr. Ruhlman does an excellent job of portraying the daily life of a boatyard, as well as a thorough history of G & B. The main thrust of the book however, is the now unconvential perspective that G & B has on their work and the world, which is to build something beautiful that will last for generations, and is ultimately perfectly suited for its task. In the end, I found myself wanting to quit my job and hire on with G & B. I'm still not sure I won't do that.

Excellent Book, tremendous story, wonderful read

Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard was the best 2001 Christmas present I could have hoped for. It was read it with delight, enthusiasm and enjoyment and then immediately given away to the owner of the riverside wooden boat yard in Maine that shares in caring for my wooden boat. Then the same HARDCOVER copy was ordered for a friend who also owns a wooden boat. He too loved Ruhlman's writing. Then I ordered my self a new copy! Cheers for Ruhlman's outsider curiosity and courage to peer into, get dusty and dirty and come away intoxicated with the pine pitch, paint and varnish and cotton, sisal, hemp, red lead and hand and power tool; the appropriate technology we wooden boat owners love. When (not if) you buy this book, you will, I believe, agree that wooden boats are (mostly) crafted not just built, sailed (power too) not just driven and amazingly and appropriately simple not simplistic.

Enter the world of the prefiberglas boatwright

The subtitle,"In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard" sums it up. It's the lifestyle of the boatwrights at this small boatyard on Martha's Vineyard that stand out.They build 60' plank on frame schooners w/ century old techniques. The two owners of the yard learned boatbuilding by sailing around the world in their youth and being allowed to work on their own boats at various boatyards in exchange for their labor on boatwork in progress at the yard. The writing is elegant and clear, a series of profiles about people living what they believe. How the rich and famous are humbled in the prescence of those who design and build boats that will outlast everyone involved.