Book purchase

[steamschooner]

I recently went to a local book sale and picked up these 10 books for 2 dollars each. Just to add to my collection, admiral approved of course.

[bruce d]

I wish I could find a book sale like this.

Well done.

 

 

[Jim Lad]

What a great find! Those old books of boat plans are always fascinating to browse through.

 

John

[Bob Cleek]

Great finds! Those old MoTorBoaTing magazine Ideal Series plans books are really great. Apparently, Hearst Publishing still owns the copyrights on the Ideal Series. There's something between twenty and thirty volumes to the set, but I've only seen a handful here and there and always grabbed them when I could. Some are full of really classic William and John Atkin designs. Years ago, I tried to find out of Hearst Publishing would allow me to do a "Best of" anthology of plans from the Ideal Series. The jerks wouldn't even reply to my letter. 

[steamschooner]

Bob my Zipper build came from one of the Ideal Series books. I also will buy them when I find them.

[Harvey Golden]

The MotorBoating/Ideal Series is a great collection-- I've built a number of models out of the 6 I have when I was prototyping a full-size cabin cruiser design.   One issue I've noted with them is that sometimes the same designs will persist through two or more volumes, so there is redundancy.  That is a superb haul, by the way!

[NoelSmith]

Great 20 bucks worth!

[steamschooner]

Well I went back to the little book store this weekend as I knew they had gotten in some more maritime related books. This is what I bought home at 2 dollars each My motorboat series collection is growing

[Bob Cleek]

Gol-durn! You've really got some luck. You've got all the really good ones full of the best plans right there. From what I've seen over the years, that's pretty much as many as anybody's ever likely to find. They are numbererd and there are supposedly at least that many, but those are the only ones it seems anybody ever bought, or at least the only ones that show up in circulation these days. 

 

The Hathi Trust has digitized the first five volumes of MoToRboaTinG Magazine's Ideal series and has them available on line at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011692724. The first four volumes look to be mainly how-to-build Hand designs, all from 1920 to about 1922, both sail and power. There are also excellent sections on general traditional boatbuilding methods from start to finish. The fifth volume appears to be the first edition of "Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship. (Chapman was the editor of MoToRboaTinG (why the weird spelling, I have no idea.) This was originally the manual for a mail order course in piloting and seamanship which the magazine offered in the early Twenties. There's a lot to learn from the stuff in these books. The later editions were full of Atkin designs into the Forties and Fifties and are treasured additions to the wooden boat afficianado's library, but I've never seen the early volumes from the twenties before. (Used copies go for as much as $150 these days.) Juicy stuff! Knock yourself out!

 

The William and John Atkins estate has now provided a link to a full index and PDF copies of every design in the Ideal Series. It may be found at: An Index of Plans and Articles in the MoToR BoatinG Ideal Series (boat-links.com) Click first on the links to the various volumes in the Ideal Series, then on the names of the designs in the chosen volume, and keep clicking on links within linked pages to "drill down." You will find the full "study plans" and comments for most every plan set. From there, copies of the full-sized plan drawings and table of offsets for each design are available, as indicated, from the Atkin design firm and/or Mystic Seaport plans outlet.

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Bob Cleek