Howard I. Chapelle – författare

American Small Sailing Craft (originally published 1951) is considered the classic among small-boat builders and historians. In it Chapelle has documented many fast-vanishing working boats, making this the authoritative history of a passing maritime fleet.

The text covers all types of craft from flat-bottom rowboats to ocean cruisers and commercial vessels, and aids the builder in overcoming difficulties and discouraging delays resulting from the lack of easily available information on the practical side of boatbuilding. Boatbuilding gives detailed instructions, with many illustrations, on all phases of boatbuilding written out of actual boatbuilding practice and aids the builder in planning each job in its proper sequence in relation to those that follow. After a chapter discussing the choice of plans suitable for amateur work there are chapters on lofting, the backbone and setting up, flat-bottom hull construction, V-bottom hull construction, round-bottom hull construction, deck framing and building, special construction (plywood, strip planking, lap-strake, diagonal, ribband carvel, canvas), heavy construction, joiner-work, iron-work, and spar making. Each chapter is organized for easy and quick reference, and the book is completely indexed. An added feature is the inclusion of building plans for nineteen boats designed for this book and suitable for amateur building.

The evolution of the American fishing schooner from the 18th century to the last working and racing schooners of the mid-1930s is recounted in this book. The designers, builders and crews are discussed, and 137 plans of schooners show graphically the development of the type.

Written primarily for the beginner, the book first gives directions for the use of tools, and suggestions for material and other equipment. Successive chapters cover specific problems relating to the preliminary design, the lines, construction and joiner plan, and sail plans, with full discussion and directions for the handling of the many problems involved. Of very real importance is the chapter describing in detail the complete process of drawing the lines of a yacht as it is done in actual practice. A chapter is devoted to the list of items that should be described in the specifications. The author has written a practical handbook which explains, with the help of many drawings and diagrams, methods as actually carried out in the drafting room. The book approaches the subject entirely from the point of view of American requirements and conditions.