My fascination with floating in a boat, and working with wind and water to travel the watery world, led me to building boats. This interest stirs in people around the world. For thousands of years wooden boats have been successfully built and operated on the waters that surround us. Often the builders of these boats worked to preserve jealously guarded crafts. Today, marketing has left these crafts free to all who would apply their hands to tools and create vessels of their own. In this book, I present the processes followed to build a Norwegian Pram and an Arthur Spurling rowboat, along with discussion and anecdote on the impetus and skills that make building these and other boats possible. The pram, a lapstrake boat with transoms at both ends, built without plans, is the simplest of vessels built with techniques perfected by Vikings 1000 years ago. The lapped method of plank fashioning and fastening described can be used for a wide range of other designs. Arthur Spurling built
