The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching

If you want to build your own sailboat, this is the BEST - bar none - book you can get.There are TONS of books out there (I know, I've read them all, or just about), but this one is the best.I am building a 52' schooner with this book - even though it gives more information for building a 44' sloop - and it's going VERY well.The author helps you avoid trial-and-error mistakes, and that alone is worth a hundred (a thousand?) times the price of the book.Also, he doesn't lie or cajole you into thinking that building a sailboat is a quick easy thing to do. It is NOT.The boat I'm building, with the author's advice, and according to his reckoning, should take between 6,000 and 7,000 hours of work. The materials are not that expensive - depending on where you live, I'm guessing anywhere between $30,000 and $60,000 - but of COURSE the time you spend cannot be counted... This has GOT to be a labor of love.In any case, when I'm done building my boat, it will be worth half a million (EASY) on the open market.This is a terrific book. Don't waste your time reading a lot of other books: buy this one.Ten years of my life's worth of advice...

A well thought out book on the processes involved with building a boat. It assumes a basic carpentry/handyman level of knowledge, and other information sources would certainly be required for information on wiring, rigging and other detailed finishing work. The main detractor for this book is the quality of the photographic images. Mr. Parker refers at times to details which were probably quite evident in the original pictures, but were lost in the publishing and printing process. Overall, a valuable addition to my expanding reference library on how to build a boat, and a confidence builder for the amateur boatbuilder.

If you plan to build a big boat, such as the live-aboard sailing boat pictured on the cover, this is absolutely your book- 5 stars! It is thorough and comprehensive. If you are looking to build a smaller boat, such as the cold-molded, mahogany speed boats offered by the popular internet plan seller we all know and love, this book would need to be supplemented and/or substituted in different areas by another publication. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the book would prove useful for any size of boat. Because of emphasis on larger craft, however, I would give it 4 stars for smaller boats. 5 stars + 4 stars = 4.5 stars, which rounded off = 5 stars.

This book it full of excellent building tips and tricks. It is the how to for Reuel's designs. I'm giving it a 4 star because the photos really do suck, too small and lacking detail. But then, I'm not sure he was planning to write this book 20-30 years ago when he took the snap shots in the book. Still worth buying if you're infected with the boat building bug.

This I found very good , but there is a lot of emphasis for the US preferences for chine construction,In the uk ,GRP has still the upper hand in the market so wood traditionalist are in a minority.

Very general overview of boatbuilding. I am looking for more specific guidance of the process. It's an easy, fast read to it's credit. Gives me a good sense that a project of this nature is doable for me. So, for that reason, I'd recommend it for anyone thinking about wanting to build a boat!

As I am building a cold moulded schooner (not one of the designs in the book which do not appeal) I have referred to this book as my 'bible' Its excellent - dont start without reading this book first. Goudgen book is excellent too of course but I have referred to Parker's book ten times more often. R Millen

I was been in the boat building industry for many years, read many books on the subject, and have been building a few myself since then, but Reuel B. Parkers's The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding covered details and considerations I had never seen before. The say we learn from our mistakes, but you can learn a lot from Mr. Parker's experiences without the costs of making them yourself.

I love this bookwell written methodical andenjoyable to readThis isn't a book for scantlings ora set of plans but is a quide to constructionmethod and sequence and full of handyt and practical informationand is a great addition to any boat building book shelf

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Having read a number of books on a variety of boat construction methods, this book gives a good description of how to cold mould boats, although it suffers from a few shortcomings common to books of this type.Firstly, it only describes the author's way of doing things instead of elaborating on different techniques and discussing their advantages and disadvantages. (The method described in this book uses a tongue and groove self fairing inner layer overlaid with diagonal marine ply strips; and plywod for decks and the topsides of chined hulls.) Often the author says words to the effect of: this is the specific way I do things, if you want to deviate from that path, you're on your own.Secondly, the book is biased towards his opinions.Thirdly, it could use a lot more illustrations to describes concepts in a simple clear way, instead of just describing them in words, which can be quite confusing. I guess illustrations are expensive and words are cheap.However, I was listening to an interview with Bob Perry, (one of the great modern boat designers), the other day. He singled out cold moulded, epoxy sealed plywood hulls such as those described in this book, as being very good, as good as fibreglass, and highly underrated. If I ever build that boat I am dreaming of building, it may well be using this method.

Great resource for building a boat!

Good info