Many of us enjoy quiet mornings canoeing on the lake, an afternoon of sailing on the ocean, or a weekend of adventurous kayaking through river rapids. But how do boats float? And what is the best way of powering them? Young readers will enjoy learning about the surprising variety of small boats, their basic structure, and their uses throughout history. Small boats are used for conveyance, security, rescue, and, of course, recreationally. This fully illustrated, engaging resource will appeal to anyone who loves being out on the water.

Greg Rossel grew up cruising the waters of New York Harbor and spending time in the boatyards on the south shore of Staten Island where economics (more than anything else) made wooden boats the craft of choice. He makes his home in Maine where he specializes in the construction and repair of small wooden boats, as well as writing for several publications. Greg has been an instructor at WoodenBoat School in Maine since the mid-1980's, teaching lofting, skiff building, and the "Fundamentals of Boatbuilding".

Learn Sailing Right Intermediate Sailing is the next logical step in the progression of skills. Learn Sailing Right! Intermediate Sailing is about sailing faster and smarter with greater confidence. As an intermediate sailor, you no longer need to think about how to tack, return to the dock or rig your boat. These maneuvers are now as natural as breathing. Where sailing is simplified for beginners as they learn fundamental skills and concepts, intermediate sailors are ready for deeper explanations and some of the details behind how a sailboat works.

For the first time ever, a comparative survey of 95 percent of the fiberglass pocketcruising sailboats ever built Author Steve Henkel has researched hundreds of cruising sailboats less than 26 feet long--pocket cruisers--to create this definitive gallery and handbook of the small cruising sailboats built in the last 45 years. With detailed plans, specifications, performance indexes, and commentary for every model the author could find (360 in all!), The Sailor’s Book of Small Cruising Sailboats is your ideal core reference for the used and new boats you see on the water.

John Vigor turns the spotlight on twenty seaworthy sailboats that are at home on the ocean in all weather. These are old fiberglass boats, mostly of traditional design and strong construction. All are small, from 20 feet to 32 feet overall, but all have crossed oceans, and all are cheap. Choosing the right boat to take you across an ocean or around the world can be confusing and exasperating, particularly with a tight budget. Vigor sets out to remedy that in this book. He compares the designs and handling characteristics of 20 different boats whose secondhand market prices start at about $3,000. Interviews with experienced owners (featuring valuable tips about handling each boat in heavy weather) are interspersed with line drawings of hulls, sail plans, and accommodations. Vigor has unearthed the known weaknesses of each boat and explains how to deal with them. He rates their comparative seaworthiness, their speed, and the number of people they can carry in comfort. If you have ever dreamed the dream this book can help you turn it into reality.

High-spirited and passionate--at once a useful guide and a record of an extended love affair with small boats--Away All Boats is a blending of sparkling waterlands and vivid memories. Author of Striper and Fishing Came First, John N. Cole takes readers from the dangers of haul-seining for striped bass that challenge a wooden dory's limits in the surf to the excitement of searching the flats of the Florida Keys for tarpon and other game fish aboard a shall-draft, high-tech craft perfectly matched to the task. Evocative of nature's miracles and realities (and the foibles of men who go down to the sea in "ships"), the writing is dry and witty, tender and perceptive. Alongside the hard facts and opinions about the selection, refitting, maintenance, and use of small boats is a series of wonderful stories about the author's explorations as a bayman and fisherman in the waters of eastern Long Island, Maine, and the Florida Keys. Each boat described serves to introduce a key chapter in the author's life and his taste for adventure. John Cole's first love is the skiff, rowboat, dory, or sharpie--any relatively stable wooden boat that can be easily and efficiently rowed--but the author also takes on larger craft powered by the internal combustion engine to indicate that every boat is designed to perform a limited family of functions. The trick, as we learn in these robust pages, is to find the boat you need (not always the boat you want), and Cole offers practical advice on how to go about it. The surprise is that a good boat doesn't have to be expensive; some are even gifts from the sea. As to basic equipment, the author keeps the advice simple: a compass, charts, a tachometer, an ammeter, an understanding of local winds and tides, and, with luck, an informed "weather eye" to minimize risks in open water.

A fascinating collection of articles by various authors, first published in 1886. Contains detailed, illustrated chapters on making and sailing a variety of boats. Contents include: Small Boats: How to Rig and Sail Them - How to Make a Boat - How to Build a Catamaran - Flat-Boating for Boys - How to Make a Canvas Canoe - Canadian and Birch Bark Canoes - Paper and Other Typical Canoes - How to Build a Punt - Rafts and Catamarans, etc.