Wooden Boat Building

How to Build a Dragon Class Sailboat by Nick Loenen

Wooden Boat Building recounts the joy of acquiring new skills, such as, working with brass flat bar and stainless steel; how to melt 2,400 pounds of lead wheel-weights to pour the keel; how to roll a hull effortlessly and craft beautiful blocks, almost entirely out of wood, yet strong enough to take an enormous load.

The author’s lessons learned have application for all back-yard wooden boat builders. Practical advice and helpful hints gathered over a life time of wood working and illustrated here with professionally drawn sketches and pictures are useful to all who love to work with wood, whatever the project.

Nick Loenen

Nick Loenen grew up in Nieuw Loosdrecht, the Netherlands, a water wonderland, particularly for sailing. As a teenager he immigrated with his family to Vancouver, where he lives with his wife Jayne. While pursuing a business career in residential construction he sailed his Flying Dutchman on Vancouver’s English Bay. Since retirement he indulges his passion for wood working and sails the much admired Lady Jayne.

Lady Jayne was on show at the Sunshine Coast Wooden Boat Show in Madeira Park, 2008, receiving the coveted Judges Award for best overall and went on to win her division at the 20th Malaspina Annual Regatta, 2009, plus the Race Committee Award the same year.

Loenen’s book draws on a life-time of woodworking which includes construction of a 12 foot sailing dingy, a cedar strip canoe, an Optimist and finishing a Flying Dutchman.

Loenen has served in elected office as Councillor for the City of Richmond, and as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of BC. He has taught in the Political Science Department at UBC and in 1997, Dundurn Press, Toronto, published his Citizenship and Democracy, a case for Proportional Representation.