There are only a few books out there that capture the materials and manufacturer's methods of building vintage boats, luckily we have one from Barry Thomas, he interviewed Charlie Sylvester who worked in the Small Boat Shop at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in the early 1900s. The book is about the building of the boat, how they set up the molds, keel, frames, floors, planking and finishing at HMCo, the materials used and the process to assemble the bits. Barry would know a bit about the subject, he was the Supervisor of the Boat Shop at Mystic Seaport Museum.
It takes time, effort and a sense of collaboration to record and share a craftsman's story like this, and we are grateful that the folks involved chose to do so. Thank you Mr. Sylvester and Mr. Thomas, and the other folks who helped pull this book together. Barry crossed the bar January 6th at the gentle age of 86, we hope he is telling tall tales with Charlie now.
FMI:
Thomas, Barry. 1977. Building the Herreshoff Dinghy: the manufacturers method.
A Tip: If you are looking for a copy of this book, try a search in WorldCat, the World Library Catalog. Put in your zip code and there is a list of closest libraries that have the book, and also links to booksellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Abe Books.
Worldcat
More from the Small Boat Restoration Library
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