Tom Schmidt

Boatbuilding in the Back Yard Tom Schmidt

This book is my personal journal of my boatbuilding project. I hope it will be useful to anyone considering undertaking such a task. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to building a boat. I'm strictly an amateur builder with very little experience. I've built a couple small boats when I was younger. I helped my dad and brother build a little runabout and I built a johnboat in my living room one time, but other than that, I have only done routine carpenter and cabinet type work building houses. I do not possess any special skills or education, which makes this task easy for me. I learned a lot about boats in the service where I was a vessel master for the US Army. I got my masters certificate, which qualified me to operate unlimited tonnage open ocean vessels for the military. These are the sum total of my qualifications to try to build a boat. I'm not saying it isn't a formidable task no matter your qualifications, just that if I can do it, anyone can.