With more than 60,000 copies sold, Boatbuilding Manual is one of the most widely read texts on the subject, and it has been used for years as a standard reference at both boatbuilding and design schools.

A builder and designer for more than 55 years, Robert Steward has rare abilities as a writer and draftsman. His phrasing is clear and easy, and he writes the absolute minimum necessary for a complete understanding of the subject. His drawings are detailed yet uncluttered; they reward each increment of study with further revelations.

This fourth edition, like its predecessors, emphasizes traditional wooden construction but also surveys plywood, wood-epoxy, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, and other boatbuilding methods. The chapters on interpreting plans, lofting, and moldmaking are common to all methods. New to this edition are several chapters arising from the "Miscellaneous Details" chapter of earlier editions; an appendix on sharpening tools; expanded tables of metric equivalents; an expanded and annotated source guide for plans, fasteners, hardware, wood, and other staples of boatbuilding; and a list of additional reading.

Throughout the book, the author recommends products, materials, and services that he has either used or regards highly. This cataloging saves the amateur (and the professional, for that matter) from the considerable time and expense of ferreting out such sources on his own. Thoroughly updated with respect to modern tools and materials, Boatbuilding Manual remains both a professional reference and the first book a budding amateur should buy.

Praise for Boatbuilding Manual:

". . . the best building manual for wooden boats there is--clear, concise but inclusive, and written so the inexperienced boatbuilder can read it."--John Gardner, Mystic Seaport Museum

"I first got acquainted with the Boatbuilding Manual in the early 1970s when Murray Peterson, the yacht designer, gave me a copy saying, 'Read this. It's the best book on small-boat building I've ever seen.' I had to agree and it's still true. Steward's book is in a class of its own. It's the book I always recommend for boatbuilding classes, and we've used it to fine advantage at the local high school."--Sonny Hodgdon, Hodgdon Yachts, Inc., East Boothbay, Maine

This is a book at home in the workshop, not the library. Pulled from beneath a pile of shavings, it is the thing to help make a tough decision or to quiet an unwelcome adviser."--SAIL

"This is a first-rate book, and if you are a builder of wooden boats, you should have a copy on your shop's reference shelf."--National Fisherman

"Steward handles his subject in such a complete and knowledgable manner that we have long used his book as a text for our students of small-craft design. Boatbuilding Manual deserves a niche on the bookshelf of the designer, the wood boatbuilder, or even the fellow with an interest and hope that someday he will be able to lay the keel of his dreams."--Robert E. Wallstrom, YDI Schools