: I'm wondering what the feasibility is of building a large wooden sailboat?
: I'm talking something that is 30'+. Or is this something that is best left
: to fiberglass or metal hull? Are there any decent books on building larger
: sailboats? Perhaps I should be referring to a "sailing yacht"
: instead of sailboat.

The costs and logistics (place to work, moving the thing to water, storae, etc) get to be a bit more involved, but this is certainly possible. People do it all the time--you are just looking at a boat which specializes in samller boats.

What you want to do is expand your online viewing to sites which are populated by people who are doing this, or planning to do this kind of building project.

You also want to start looking at plans for wooden boats so you can get an idea of what is out there. Sometimes you'll be able to rule out a design just from its picture in a plan catalog, but at other times you will want ot buy a set of study plans or even the full building plans. Then you'll need to go over these-- building the boat on paper, as a model, or in your head--befopre deciding whether to buy the materials and start working on this particular model or design.

To get a start, let me suggest you look at two of the bigger names in sailboat plans in the US. Both have websites and printed catalogs. You can get a lot of info from the catalogs which is also availale on the web pages, but not always as well organized on the web as it is in print. The lesson here is: read ALL the pages on the site, even those for designs you are not interested in, as they may contain useful information. Soi, check our Clark-Craft, and Glen-L at www.clarkcraft.com and www.glenl.com, respectively.

Glen-L has larger sail boats in their catalog. The biggest one which they offer which can be built with plywood is the 49 foot Reliant. But check out those boat designs which are meant for fiberglass, aluminum, or steel construction as they sometimes list variations to the main plan sets which show details for constructing the boat from wood.

One name of a sailboat designer that I've remembered is Herreshoff. While I was doing a search for links to some of his plans I came across a site for the MacNaughton Group (http://www.macnaughtongroup.com/designs.htm) which offers a set of drawings based on herreshoff plans which are archived in the MIT library. (Contact MIT for more info on access to these if you want to go to the source.) MacNaughton had a nice link to a bibliography which had titles of plan catalogs. It is easier to point you there than for me to copy the list here: http://www.macnaughtongroup.com/publishingdesigncollection.htm

Similarly you cna check on Amazon.com for books which contain plans for wood sailboats. I'd start by searching for bboks by Phil Bolger and then follow all the links amazon provides for similar books and authors. Most of these books have brief descriptions of a boat design, and then direct you to a surce for buying full-sized plans.

Some plans come with building instructions, while other plans are nothing but blueprints or drawings. They are meant for experienced builders. The designers who sell these expect that you have enough skill to read them, and to build directly from them. If you are not that good, yet, there are plenty of books available on wood-boat construction which will help you decipher the plans.

This is just a start, but hopefully it will give you a few days of studying. Good luck with your project.

PGJ