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List Price: $22.95Amazon.com's Price: $16.52 You Save: $6.43 (28%)as of 11/22/2009 11:39 EST
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 797
EAN: 9780743202510
Edition: Reprint
ISBN: 0743202511
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: September 21, 2009
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
When Daniel Robb set out to rebuild a family sailboat that had been deteriorating for years, he couldn't have anticipated what he was getting into. Although Robb was a skilled carpenter, boatbuilding (and boat repair) required a specialized set of skills. And this wasn't just any boat; it was a Herreshoff 12 1/2, a classic wooden sailboat. Built especially for the coastal waters of New England, this little sloop had sailed for years out of the author's boyhood home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, before being relegated to a quiet corner of a yard, no longer the focus of the family's summer. Restoring the sailboat was both an act of respect and an homage to a place and a way of life that are in jeopardy of disappearing.
Sloop is the captivating story of Daniel Robb's education in boatbuilding, peopled by an eccentric cast of characters -- lumbermen, boatbuilders, and local artisans -- who are part of a changing and perhaps dying world. They tell Robb how to find the materials -- certain kinds of wood, fastenings, caulking, and canvas -- he'll need, which are increasingly hard to come by, and they educate him in the techniques of restoration, an all-but-lost art. Building and restoring wooden boats means an initiation into a world where life is lived simply, with respect for materials, for labor, and for the local waters.
A craftsman and environmentalist, Robb is a willing and able student, and although the restoration of the boat takes far more time and effort than he'd calculated, it is ultimately successful. After all Robb's struggles with quartersawn white oak, homemade steam boxes, bronze screws, copper rivets, andold mast hoops, the Herreshoff sails again -- and a dying art and a vanishing way of life remain alive and vibrant just a while longer.
By turns charming, meditative, and wonderfully quirky, Sloop is a paean to a sense of place and to old-fashioned values.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
This book should appeal to any reader, but will be especially alluring to anyone who's ever done anything with their hands. The process of rebuilding the boat is somewhat about the boat, but far more about the people with whom the author comes in contact. The writer's learning curve is dependent on the condensed experience available to him through his friends and acquaintances. It's like mixing the perfect martini: blending together what he learns from others, and how he conveys that to the reader ... Read More
Rating: -
One of the best books on the love of traditional boats (particularly classic boats like the Herreshoff 12 1/2). I will enjoy reading this book again! Highly recommended.
Rating: -
While the world tilts and shrinks, our contact with the real things of this world, like wood and metal, like the wind and wave, get to be less and less. Daniel Robb doesn't want to lose touch with those things, so he provides readers with this excellent and thoughtful book. Part carpenter's manual, part memoir, part philosophical treatise, Sloop is thought provoking and tremendously readable.
Daniel points out that the sloop in question, a Hereschoff 12 1/2, was a product of a transitional ... Read More
Rating: -
This book was a gift and I could not put it down. Through a narrative the author draws into question our modern frentic lifestyle and finds folks who are able to find fulfillment doing what they love. The boat would seem to be the focus of the book, but the value is in the relationships with the other characters. I loved the soul searching when faced with the decision to restore the boat to museum quality versus making it functional again. An easy read, this is the first book I've read to completion ... Read More
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