Wooden Boat Site

New Zealand Backyard Boatbuilder : How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat - John Wellsford

John Wellsford is the man responsible for me turning my carport into temporary boat building shed.

After reading his New Zealand Backyard Boatbuilder : How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat, the carport is on a place that is far to dangerous for my children to play in and a source of constant complaining from my wife about mess and dangerous tools and substances left lying around.

After purchasing a house in the coastal suburb of Beach Haven, Auckland - I thought it might be a good idea to build a boat and take advantage of the nearby Upper Waitemata Harbour. So off I went to the library to see if there were any books on the topic of Boat Building. One book that stood out from the rest was titled Backyard Boatbuilder : How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat.

Perfect! I checked it out and then spent the rest of the day and evening reading it. I then spent the next few nights reading it too.

John manages to detail how to go about building a woodenboat by explaining what tools you need and what to expect in the building process with a high level of knowledge and humour. Also, what I believe makes it a great book, is that the chapters are interspersed with tales of John’s openboat adventures around New Zealand waters. And this is what really made me decide to try and build a woodenboat.

If you want to find out more about John, his boats, and what he is up to the visit his website - John Wellsford - Small Craft Design.

Dave Perillo’s Open Boat Web Site

If you are keen on John Wellsfords Navigator and also enjoy reading about some open boat voyages then I suggest you take a look at Dave Perillo’s Open Boat Web Site.

Dave is an open boat enthusiast who enjoys living in some of the world’s best open boat cruising waters - Aucklands Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand.

His web site is chock full of really cool photos of his voyages around Auckland and accompanied with some equally great writing which make you want to pack up your tent and head of for a few days of exploring.

Be sure to check out his 5 reasons for open boat sailing and his account of his voyage around the islands of Fiji.

I’d also like to thank him for letting me use some pictures from his site here

Welcome to my Wooden Boat Web Site

Hello and welcome to my Wooden Boat Web Site.

Withing these pages I aim to document the building of my D4 Sailing Dinghy and bring news of wooden boat topics from around the internet.