Book and Movie List
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Throughout our Web pages,
we provide links to books or other items we've found useful in boat building.
The links lead to Amazon.com. If one purchases the item by following the link
from our pages, a percentage of the purchase price is credited to us at no additional
cost to the buyer. This is a "trickle income," one of many that we're
trying to establish to support our off-the-grid lifestyle.
We've collected all the links on this page,
and categorized them, along with other links to items we've enjoyed or found
useful. We appreciate everyone who purchases from these links, as it's a great
help to us!
Boat Building:
Buehler's
Backyard Boatbuilding, George Buehler
Instant
Boats, Harold "Dynamite" Payson
Build
the New Instant Boats, Harold "Dynamite" Payson
Boats
With an Open Mind, Phil Bolger
Boat
Joinery and Cabinet Making Simplified, Fred P. Bingham (Great ideas
for interiors, deck fittings, etc.)
Sailor's
Sketchbook, Bruce Bingham (This is a really cool browsing book with
excellent ideas for your boat!)
Boat Building Magazines:
Woodenboat
Messing
About In Boats
Sailing How-To:
The
Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing, Dave Seidman (This is
THE BEST! We constantly refer to this one!)
The
Craft of Sail, Jan Adkins (Good theory, great illustrations.)
Sailing
for Dummies, J.J. and Peter Isler (More about high tech sailing than
homebuilt, but still useful.)
The
Complete Rigger's Apprentice: Tools and Techniques for Modern and Traditional
Rigging, Brion Toss
The
Arts of the Sailor : Knotting, Splicing and Ropework, Hervey Garrett
Smith
Morrow
Guide to Knots, Mario Bigon, Guido Regazzoni (If you need your knots
spelled out for you, like we do, this and the next book will be very useful
to you!)
Pocket
Book of Knots, Maria Costantino
Basic
Coastal Navigation: An Introduction to Piloting, Frank J. Larkin (Getting
there . . .)
Staying
Put!: The Art of Anchoring, Brian Fagan (Staying there once you get
there!)
Storm
Tactics Handbook: Modern Methods of Heaving-To for Survival in Extreme Conditions,
Lin and Larry Pardey
Self-Sufficient
Sailor, Lin and Larry Pardey
Instant
Weather Forecasting, Alan Watts
Sailing Philosophy:
Sailing
to Simplicity: Life Lessons Learned at Sea, Migael Scherer (Buy this
one for your reluctant spouse!)
Sailing
in a Spoonful of Water, Joe Coomer
Voyaging
on a Small Income, Annie Hill (She REALLY makes it sound like it can
be done!)
Beachcruising:
An Illustrated Guide to the Boats, Gear, Navigation Techniques, Cuisine, and
Comforts of Small Boat Cruising, Douglas Alvord
Seafaring Writing, History, Fiction:
Riddle
of the Sands, Erskine Childers (Not only one of the first and best spy
novels, but an excellent description of life on a small boat in cold, rainy
seas. Worth owning and rereading often, which is why we recommend it in hardcover.)
The
Sea Wolf, Jack London (Perhaps the best of his sea stories.)
Tales
of the Fish Patrol, Jack London (Great stories of San Franscisco Bay
in the age of sail. Includes a comment on the superiority of junk rigs.)
The
Ocean Almanac, Robert Hendrickson (Excellent reference/trivia book of
all things oceanic and nautical.)
Captains
Courageous, Rudyard Kipling. Masterpiece of fishing on the Grand Banks.
Patrick
O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin Series Excellent sailing historical novels.
Arthur
Ransome's Swallows and Amazons Series Kids sailing their own small
boats in England's lake district (and beyond!) in pre-WWII England. Inspiring
for those wanting their kids to like sailing.
Alaskan
Maritime, Jim Gibbs. Good history of Alaska ships, shipping, ship-wrecks,
lighthouses, etc.
Pirates!:
Under
the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates,
David Cordingly
Pirate
Hunter, The: The True Story of Captain Kidd, Richard Zacks (Was Captain
Kidd everything we thought he was? Apparently not!)
Treasure
Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (This is the edition with the N.C. Wyeth
illustrations. Accept no substitutes!)
Porto
Bello Gold, A.D. Howden Smith (There are many sequels to Treasure
Island. This is one of the worthier ones, and a prequel to boot!)
The
Pyrates, George MacDonald Frasier (Monty-Pythonesque pirate adventures,
with one very intriguing real-life character!)
Alternative Living: Controling money, simple living, frugal living,
survival:
The
Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, Richard
Heinberg (This book spells out why we need to learn and practice alternative
life-skills NOW! This ought to be required reading for all school children,
and anyone seeking public office.)
Your
Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving
Financial Independence, Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin (Your path to freedom
starts HERE!)
The
Complete Tightwad Gazette, Amy Dacyczyn (Amy's compiled newsletter on
frugal living has saved us thousands in just a few years.)
Sailing
the Farm, Ken Neumeyer (Your boat is your world! Very intriguing practical
advice.)
Where
There Is No Doctor, David Werner et. al.
Pain Free
, Pete Egoscue. Boat building can be tough, and injury and pain must be avoided! This is an excellent guide to eliminating pain, plus a super easy exercise regime to keep your body aligned and pain resistant.
Alaska:
Exploring
the Southeast Alaska: Dixon Entrance to Skagway ; Details to Every Harbor and
Cove: Itineraries of the Inside Passage San Juan Islands to Glacier Bay,
Don Douglass, Reanne Hemingway-Douglass
Alaska's
Southeast, 9th Edition: Touring the Inside Passage, Sarah Eppenbach,
Michelle Gurney
Discover
Southeast Alaska With Pack & Paddle, Margaret Piggott
Movies:
Boats, Sea-Faring, Pirates:
Pirates
of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl We were disgusted when
we learned Disney was going to make a movie based on a ride. But, what a ride!
This is a surprisingly entertaining movie, and it features the Lady Washington,
built in Michelle's home town.
The
Bounty A great depiction of the most famous mutiny, featuring young
Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Daniel Day Lewis, and Liam Neeson.
Treasure
Island The Disney classic! Robert Newton defined the voice of Long John
Silver for a generation.
Muppet
Treasure Island Irreverant treatment of the classic. Loads of fun and
great songs, too!
Treasure
Planet I don't know why this movie flopped at the box office. Suspend
your disbelief (and knowledge of physics, etc.) and enjoy the cruise!
Sinbad
- Legend of the Seven Seas This is not the Sinbad of the Middle East,
and I was disappointed that he had a junk rig instead of a lateen, but junk
rigs are cool, too. Great sailing scenes in this one.
Riddle
of the Sands Not out on DVD yet, more's the pity. Good movie, but no
substitute for the book.
Captains
Courageous Strays from the book, but we love this one for the footage
of the fishing schooners.
Cutthroat
Island This was a bomb that sank the studio that released it, but it's
actually a good seafaring popcorn adventure.
Master
and Commander - The Far Side of the World (Widescreen Special Two-Disc Set)
Not only is this an incredible seafaring movie, it stars the ultimate Bolger
boat! Phil Bolger designed the H.M.S. Rose, the ship used to represent
the H.M.S. Surprise in this movie. If you really want to give a "yachtee"
fits, just mention that interesting bit of trivia. Grown men have wept!
Other Topics (a small sampling) We Find Interesting:
Benjamin
Franklin We can't recommend this one highly enough. Excellent overview
of the greatest American, with excellent actors bringing his writings and correspondence
to life. Bonus: great shots of period ships sailing!
Walking
with Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Beasts We love dinosaurs, and this series
is the closest you'll get to seeing the real thing. The computer animation is
incredible! We bought all of these individually before they combined them into
this set. Wish we'd waited, but then, how could we?
When
Dinosaurs Roamed America The animation's not as good as the Walking
With . . . series, but the program's great.
The
Future is Wild So, what might animals look like when the ones
we know are as dead as the dinosaurs? This is a very intriguing series.
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