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| You'll read it again!Daniel Robb's book Sloop was a shear joy to read. It is one of those books I know I will read many times. Daniel has that unique style of writing where he tells more of the story than just the story. What I mean is, he describes the characters involved, from the guy who sells him wood at the lumber yard, Boat Builders who offer sound advice, and the rich people who are not easy to please, to his fond memories of his childhood home long lost. I enjoyed learning a little of the place he is from and his descriptions of walks around the bay.
I applaud Daniel's insight in that he included drawings of the boat as well as photos. I did hope for a more detailed schematic of the boat, though, my only criticism. I am going to wait a few months, then pick this book for another read. I also just purchased Daniel's other book about his time spent on an island teaching troubled boys. If it is half as good as Sloop, I know I will enjoy it.
One final note about sloop. Some politics are discussed in this book affecting local policies. I get the impression that Daniel is perhaps a liberal and I am a conservative. I have to say that Daniels treatment of politics in this book was in now way offensive to me, and was not at all overboard. I think that he communicated well, the changing economics as well as other concerns, which affect this interesting area he hails from.
Thanks Daniel for such a fine book!
Like Sharing the Author's mindThis 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 that makes this book an interaction between the writer and the reader that is savory. You want to be hanging out in the coffee shop with these people. I highly recommend this; it will enrich your life. Maybe change it, too.
Sloop: restoring my family's wooden sailboatOne 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.
The boat as a metaphorWhile 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 age - as the world was moving from natural to manufactured propulsion. Our own age is similarly transitional, and this is his starting off point for a number of meditations on the durability of man-made goods, and the old fashioned values of craftsmanship. He contrasts these with the challenge of the modern - when is "good enough" good enough?
Maybe because we share a few childhood memories, a first name, or maybe because we're both human - Daniel's detailing of the honest hesitation he experienced in what might otherwise be a straightforward restoration carpentry project spoke to my own experience - not of boatbuilding, but of life.
The only thing bad one can say about Daniel's memoir of boat building in Woods Hole is that he changes the names of most of the other people he meets and works with. Which, for a small town memoir, is probably a good thing, but for a reader intimately interested in said small town, well, one can't help but wonder who's who.
I could not put this down.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 in a long time.
Product DescriptionWhen 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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