BOOK COVER: Steel Boatbuilding
Softcover, 7"x10", 480 pp.
ISBN-10: 1-888671-02-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-888671-02-5
Many illustrations.
Price: $34.95 plus s&h.

Steel Boatbuilding combines both volumes of Colvin's masterwork on building boats from steel in one complete volume. This book offers the insights, experience and mature thinking of a man who has been a merchant seaman, naval architect, yacht and shipbuilder, sailmaker, and consultant to shipbuilders and governments on matters of vessel design and construction.

There is, quite simply, no one more qualified than Tom Colvin to have written this book.

Tiller Publishing and Thomas Reed Publications in the U.K., have re-issued Steel Boatbuilding: From Plans to Launching, the classic construction manual by Thomas E. Colvin.

Steel Boatbuilding gives an overall view of the subject from raw materials to the finished vessel.

The wealth of detail pertinent to every step in the building, fitting out, and launching of a 25- to 79-foot yacht or commercial vessel will ease the first-time builder or the professional over problems that might otherwise have seemed insurmountable.

Part 1 covers the building of hull and decks, while Part 2 takes you through the remainder of the process, including joinery, machinery installation, rigging, and launching.

The author first discusses in detail such topics as purchasing and studying plans, communicating with materials suppliers, choosing and obtaining necessary tools, estimating costs and lofting.

He then describes building of one of his designs, a 50-foot pinky schooner intended as a yacht or cargo carrier, using this vessel to provide a context for information that can be applied to the building of any steel boat.

The procedures outlined assume that you will be working unassisted on a rented or backyard site.

Part 2 completes the building, fitting out, and launching of the pinky, with in-depth discussions of plumbing, refrigeration, heating and other systems of steel craft in general.

The chapter on spars and rigging reflects Colvin’s long experience with commercial sailing vessels.

The coverage of paint systems and finishing will be invaluable for steel boat owners.

The final two chapters are full of advice worth listening to for anyone considering a venture into commercial sail or boatbuilding as a business.

Thomas E. Colvin is a naval architect, builder and consultant who apprenticed on some of the leading European yards after World War Two and has since built numerous steel, aluminum and wooden boats. He has been a senior designer at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, a consulting naval architect to Kaiser Aluminum Company, and president of his own boatbuilding and sailmaking enterprises.

It's the best I’ve seen on starting from square one and getting through a completed hull. For people without experience, Colvin’s book provides a reasonable substitute, both in terms of understanding the magnitude of the task and how to accomplish it. The Houston Post
It contains a wealth of expertise which was easy to absorb and which I would thoroughly recommend to would-be steel craft builders. Cruising Association Bulletin