Plans 4 Boats Review

We just bought Plans 4 Boats and downloaded it off the internet and I’m going to tell you all about it.

Ordering Plans 4 Boats Online


The product was easy to purchase by clicking the “add to cart” button.  Actually, my husband bought it and during the purchase process Firefox froze on him which caused him displeasure.  He was very worried his purchase was going to get lost in cyberspace.  I had faith everything would work out.

There was no problem getting access to the product though.  He just checked his email and there was a link to the download page right in his email box!

Need A DVD Due To Slow Internet?

When we got to the download page there was an option to order a DVD copy for about $9.  This is a really good option if you have a slow internet connection because there is a lot of information in this package to download if you want to get it all.

Product Description

The download page is impressive.  If you thought you were just going to get a few boat plans, no way.  When Daniel Holden tells you there are 254 boat plans, he’s not kidding.  There are 254 classic boat plans or boat designs in this package, quite a collection, and it took a while to download.  Most of it is in PDF format and the images and scans are high quality.  I suggest making a special file on your computer and put it all in one place.

Even with fast download it took a while to get all the files on our computer.  And besides the 254 boat plans there is a lot of bonus material related to boat building and boat ownership and safety.

This package is a reflection of someone’s passion and obsession for classic boat plans.  It is a comprehensive collection of boat plans.  I think every possible boat plan available from about the late 1800 until about 1990 is included in this package.  The earliest date found is 1883.  How cool is that!

I saw one really cool little boat that folds flat and Mike found one that breaks into three sections.  There are sail boats, dories (a blunt ended row boat with a curved bottom) with lots of flair, an awesome party boat somewhat similar to today’s pontoon boats with the party decks. I see several canoe plans too, so many wooden boats.

One thing about the plans (because some of the material is very old) is that although there are material lists for most of the boat plans, the estimated costs are way off.  Kind of like when your grandpa says “back in the day I could buy a loaf of bread for 3 cents”. So back in the day you could build your own boat for about $18.  I’m sure today it would cost more like $100 or more.

Who Is This Product For?

This collection of classic boat plans would be great for anyone that appreciates boating history, hand crafted boats or a person that wanted to try building a boat them self.  Even though the sales letter claims anyone could build their own boat with these plans, you’d need to have access to some tools, a place to put your boat together and at a minimum, a willingness to learn how to work with the materials needed to make a boat.

These boats don’t build themselves, but a person that gets reward out of building something from scratch would probably really appreciate this collection of classic boat plans.  Once you built your classic boat, no matter which model you chose, you’d get a lot of attention on the shore and in the water because your boat, a classic, would be so obviously different and unique from all the new boat you see out on the water today.

If you are looking for high tech, this isn’t the correct product for you.  However, the boat software that he gives you access to is fairly technical and you could come up with something unique there.  If you want to design your own, personalized, completely unique boat, from the ground up, then a 3d Boat Design program might be more of what you’re looking for.

One other bonus about this package is that the scans are high quality. I’ve seen one or two of these plans offered for free on other websites.  The other offering are multiple page downloads of each page of the boat plan.  The scans were OK but had some wrinkling or the image.  Plans4Boats documents are very high quality and all in one file per boat design and nicely labeled.  It’s a huge time saver.

We are planning to review the 3D Boat Design Software next so  check back to see what that is all about.

Summary

To summarize, in Plans 4 Boats you get a vast collection of boat designs and plans from numerous resources compiled into one product.  Also provided is a good piece of information about choosing the correct wood and glue based on today’s standards for boat building.  Don’t skip this or your boat might sink.  You can also learn how to take the boat plans and make full size templates for each piece of wood you’ll need to cut.

If you are not exactly sure what kind of boat you want to build but wanted to know what was available then this package is great because it contains so many different boat designs.  It is also good if you are interested in boat history because it is such a large collection of related material.  It would take hundreds of hours to find all this information and put it together in one place.  The laborious work of finding everything has bees done for you.

This is for you if:

  • You want a huge variety of boat plans to choose from
  • You want quality documents that are readable
  • You want everything organized and each of the document’s pages in its own individual file
  • You don’t have hundreds of hours to surf the web hunting for every boat plan available
  • If you are really short on time or have a slow internet connection then order the DVD
  • You love classic wooden boats and unusual boat designs
  • You need information about boats for a history project

This is not for you if:

  • You love searching the web so much that you’d be willing to spend years hunting down all the details this boat plan collection provides
  • You are not interested in boat design or boat building and won’t be building a boat
  • You don’t need quality files
  • You only are interested in one kind of boat and you have already found it and everything else you need to start building it

For another viewpoint on Plans4Boats read Mike’s review.

Here are some images from the product – over 200 boat plans!

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