Take plywood, cut to shape, smear on glue, drive nails, and presto! You have an instant boat. When Harold Payson�known to associates, friends, and his wife as Dynamite�began supplementing his boatbuilding work by selling boat plans, he got feedback from a number of customers who found the boats too difficult to build. Selling plans for boats that never got built went against Dynamite's Down East grain, and it was also, he figured, a straight road to bankruptcy in the long run. He outlined the problem to Philip Bolger, arguably the most innovative small-craft designer around, and Bolger agreed, on one condition, to design a series that would require no lofting, no jig, and no lumber that could not be obtained at any local building supplies store. The one condition was that Dynamite would build and thoroughly test a prototype of each design to wring out every bug before offering the plans for sale. The eventual result was the original fleet of six boats described in his first book, Instant Boats. Here are eleven new Instant Boats to choose from, including three built with a new tack-and-tape method that eliminates most beveling. There are complete building instructions and plans for the Gypsy, a 15-foot, double-chine outboard speed boat; Windsprint, a 16-foot, double-ended, lug-rigged sharpie; and others. (Full-size plans are available from the author; you can build directly from the book, but the purchase of larger-scale plans will make the task of scaling off the patterns easier.) Table of Contents: Preface / Acknowledgments. Part One: Basic Training Opening the Door / Ways and Means / A Closer Look at Wood. Part Two: Tack and Tape Introduction / Building Gypsy the Easy Way / Building Gypsy Full Size / Nymph: A 7-Foot 9-Inch Mind Boggler / Diablo: Speedster and Workhorse. Part Three: New Boats to Join the Original Fleet Introduction / The Lug-Rigged Windsprint / Tortoise�The Ugly Duckling / Skimmer�The Poor Man's Whaler / The Dynamite Sailboard / A Workhorse Called June Bug / The Handy 10 1/2-Foot Pointy Skiff / The Pedal-Driven Sidewheeler / The 23 1/2-Foot Light Schooner. Appendixes: Feet, Inches, Eighths / Audel on Quarter Sawing Lumber / My Favorite Luff-Tie System / Scarfing Plywood / Learning to Sail. Published by McGraw-Hill/International Marine. Softcover. 148 pages.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Pin It