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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.82260288
EAN num: 9780743202398
ISBN number: 0743202392
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: June 03, 2008
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Sale Popularity Level: 58086
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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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.
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Rated by buyers -
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 very first book I've read to completion in a long time.
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