George Buehler - Buehler’s Backyard Boatbuilding

Copyright 1991 by International Marine, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-181703-5
MHID: 0-07-181703-4

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-158380-0, MHID: 0-07-158380-7.

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@McGraw-Hill.com.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (McGraw-Hill) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hills prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGraw-Hill AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

To all people who arent afraid to do or think things for themselves, and thereby keep this world from becoming too boring.

The years thunder by. The dreams of Youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of Patience. Before we know it, the Tomb is sealed.

Sterling Hayden

BeBOP it!

Charles Mingus

A thanks to John Van Ameroggin, editor of Alaska Fishermans Journal, who by paying me just enough to force me to write the next article, got me to rewrite my whole shop manual as a monthly series of articles that evolved into this book, and who is a far easier editor to get along with than at least one I know.

And a tip of the glass to William Garden, whose incomparable designs and good humored writing I discovered in my very early teens, and who, as a result, is probably responsible for me not becoming an accountant or a minister or something.

Mose Allison sings a song that has the refrain: A young man aint worth nothin in the world these days. Well, that just isnt true, unless you believe it yourself. Sadly, many folks dont seem to know that.

Things is so damned serious anymore! Back even 20 years ago it was common to see folks out doing things, or at least trying to do things. Now too many folks just sit home and watch the toob.

Somewhere our culture seems to have lost that spark of imaginative energy that created it. I was thinking recently that I cant remember the last tree house Ive seen. Why dont high school kids build rods anymore? And why do so many people stand around with their mouths open, afraid to try anything unless they first take a socially-approved class to tell them how?

How, in just a few generations, did this countrys soul go from folks who walked, rode horses, and dragged wagons clear across our continent, to a majority who spend most of their time staring at teevees; whose feeling of self worth is based more on income than on personal accomplishment?

One reason is that the monthly magazines have pretty much stopped showing things people can do for themselves. Bought out by conglomerates, their old-time greasy-knuckled editors replaced by MBA types with no background in the subject, the American hobby-oriented press is, for the most part, pretty damned dull. Wheres the inspiring stuff like How to Build 20 Boats? Stuff like Atkins articles in the old Motor Boating & Sailing, and those by Hanna, Chapelle, Farmer, and Garden? And what about all those boat plans and airplane plans and cabin plans and stuff you can really build from the Mechanix Illustrated, which is also gone. Gone? How could that happen?

Unfortunately, a boring media results in a boring citizenry, because theres little stimulus around to feed the imagination. Back in the 60s, it was tritely written that, the medium is the message; yet the fact is that when the message is mediocrity, well, so are the people.

Figure 1/1.
Oh its salty I is I yam I arr, and when I spits, I spits tar. (Cutter Juno)

Anyway, it was thoughts like these that made me write this book. Of course, there was the wishful fantasy of financial gain, but that wasnt the whole motivation. Nope.

This thing was also written for fun. Yup! Its a finger-in-the-wind spread-legged hands-on-hip shaggy-haired and loud-voiced PHOOEY to all those who believe in personality-free boats. Its an UP YOURS to the marine press who drone on so seriously about the dramatic advantages of their advertisers newest products. More importantly, its a plug for individual accomplishment: building your own oceangoing boat. Theres nothing quite like it, you knowbuilding it yourself, then heading out in it and being completely dependent on your skills. It makes you feel alive.

Figure 1/2.
This cutaway of a typical hull, deck, and cabin (with apologies to Sam Manning) will help orient you when I start tossing around nautical terms later in the book. If you cant visualize a carlin or something and where it fits into the scheme of things, flip back here and stare at this drawing.