Ultrasimple Boat Building: 17 Plywood Boats Anyone Can Build

The book, Ultrasimple Boat Building etc. makes building a small boat, literally ultrasimple.
I've been building boats since I was 11 years old...a long time ago!...and wish this book was around, then.

I bought this book for my son for Christmas and we're working together to build a Micro Mouse. The book is comprehensive, clear and encouraging. The only thing I could wish for are more construction photos or illustrations. I am astounded by how well the project is going, as we have just a bit of woodworking experience and no boat building experience. It has been a wonderful project and thanks to this book there are more boats in our future!

I built two of his designs before he published the book, I discovered gavin from Messing About In Boats, and managed to download his plans from his mouseboats site at yahoogroups. Now I have a better grasp of what he was talking about on his website and how some details of construction work.
I like that the plans are in a usable size and some of the designs that I had a hard time downloading are printed out in the book.
This book would be great for the first time builder, the designs would help give you the confidence to move on to a bigger more complex boat design, after you see how a sheet of plywood and a couple tubes of polyurethane construction glue turn into a boat. (and the best part is being able to say "I built it my self")
The boats would be great for a parent/child project, scout troop, or school project, children are able to paddle under supervision at age 6 or so, and being Captain of your own boat is priceless.
Get the book, build a boat, get out on the water! don't sit there dreaming, if it isn't the boat you want you can always build another one!

The book was good and it did contain plans however I was looking for plans for a jon boat and this book does not have anything about a jon boat.

This book is good guide for builders starting out. The boats range from projects for the first time builder to accomplished builders. It is well written with accompaning diagrams that explain the process of building stich and glue boats. Read it and build your first boat and enjoy the process.

The cover illustrated is not the book I received; so I assume the BOOK I did receive called Ultra Simple Boat Building is of the same contents. Not a bad book, but I was looking for something more detailed other than plywood boats yet, this is very good information for plywood boat construction.

Interesting book about beginner boat building.

I felt the book was a little complicated for someone that isn't steeped in the art of boat building. You can work through it with some study, but I feel the name is a little misleading.

Gavin Atkin's design expertise leaps from every page of this excellent book, and his clear instructions blended beautifully with my own carpentry skills developed over many years as a bench joiner. Within eight working hours of collecting the plywood I had a boat ready to paint, including some nice modifications of my own based on what I needed for messing about on canals and rivers. Now beautifully painted and with decks varnished so you can see your face in them, my dinghy built at a cost of less than £100 goes onto the water tomorrow and I shall spend a lovely day picking the blackberries the narrow boat users (with their 12" draught against my 3") cannot reach. Thank you Gavin Atkin for this bible for small boat builders. I'm already planning an ambitious winter project.

Not as creative as I hoped it would be.