Boatbuilding for Beginners
(and Beyond)
by Jim Michalak

Publisher's Introduction

I grew up near the ocean, and always had an admiration for boats, and a love of doing things myself. But it wasn’t until a few years ago, in my mid-30s and living far from the sea, that I came across a reference to home boatbuilding. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard of it, but this time something clicked. Once I learned that boatbuilding was not an impossibly complicated art reserved only for godlike craftsmen, I was hooked. Now, there is a level of boatbuilding reserved for godlike craftsmen, and their boats are wonders to behold, but there’s another equally worthy level, for beginners, for anyone who wants a boat. Possibly it will be unadorned and a little rough around the edges, but it’s a boat, and it will take you over the water, soon, with joy in your heart. 

I was obsessed. I dreamt about boats night and day. I built five boats in three years. Many more are coming, big and small. I’m learning more complicated techniques, and I study WoodenBoat magazine regularly, but I suspect no boat will ever bring me the extraordinary pleasure that my first boat, a Bolger Windsprint, did. I now have the excessive zeal of the convert. I tell friends and strangers alike: "Build a boat. It will change your life!"

You can build one, too. Now. Starting today. You need just a saw, some wood glue, a drill, and a bit of focus and determination. The plywood and lumber are available at any lumberyard. You can make a simple canoe in just a weekend (see Piragua in this book) or you can work for a few weeks (or months, depending on how much free time you have) and make a fine sailboat, outfitted with a sail and oars you made yourself.

These boats are great family projects. Mom or Dad can handle the few nasty tasks (circular saw, epoxy) if necessary, but kids of nearly any age will delight in hammering nails, applying wood glue, tightening a bolt here, a screw there, sanding, painting (a huge favorite with my four-year-old daughter), or any of the dozens of little jobs involved—and watching a boat emerge from a pile of wood. Scout troops and school shop classes can take on a boat project for the skills to be learned and, of course, the boat waiting to be used at the end. It will be a source of recreation, learning, and immense pride for all involved.

The feeling of sailing or paddling a boat you made yourself is unlike anything else: There’s pride of craftsmanship, an amazement that this gorgeous boaty shape was made by your hands, and the primitive sense that you have build something that will transport you over another element. The horizon beckons. The world is yours. The sense of self-reliance found in building a boat carries over to many other areas of life. And these boats are particularly satisfying because you can make them for a fraction of the cost of buying a new factory-made boat. 

My initial instruction came from Harold Payson’s excellent book Build the New Instant Boats. I highly recommend it. But that volume doesn’t give details of how to make your own sail, or oars, and a number of other things. So when, in the course of my wild boat-obsession, I finally found Jim Michalak designing easy-to-build boats, much in the style of the great Phil Bolger (whose boats are featured in the Payson book), I asked Jim if he would write a complementary book for beginners, covering a few of his designs, giving basic building instructions, and adding in the sail-making, oar-building, and other extras. His tips on trailering, cartopping, motors, sails, hatches, flotation, rowing technique, sailing basics, and even watching the weather are all eye-openers, yet profoundly sensible.

His pivoting leeboard is a bit unusual for most of us brought up to expect a daggerboard or centerboard in sailboats, but the ingenuity of this design becomes apparent quickly when you sail a boat with one. The cockpit is big and open, uncluttered by a centerboard case. The board pivots up on its own when you sail onto a beach or go over a sandbar, or clunk into a submerged log, so you are spared those frantic moments of trying to go forward to haul up your daggerboard while still steering and handling the sheet. 

Likewise, the weighted kick-up rudder is a marvel of practicality. It not only pops up when it needs to, with no effort on the part of the sailor, but it also puts itself down automatically, making those first moments of sailing off a beach or out of a launching area much easier. You won’t have to handle sail and steer straight while attempting to reach over the transom to push down your rudder.

Jim’s focus on watertight compartments with access through hatches is extremely valuable, making a safe small boat, capable of being self-rescued if necessary, while affording much handy stowage room for extra clothes, picnic lunches, etc.

Jim has even more information on his extensive website, like the essay on tabernacles, or the one on jiffy-reefing systems, that aren’t in this book. I encourage you to visit the site at:

http://homepages.apci.net/~michalak/  

and explore other boatbuilding site on the web. See the Appendices for a list of some of them.

I hope the boats in this book bring you much joy, in the building and in the boating. Your life will never be the same.

Finally, a note on pronunciation: Michalak is pronounced like "metallic" but with a "k" instead of a "t."


Garth Battista, Publisher, Breakaway Books

June 2002