The Lilibet Logs tells the story of a two-year restoration project on a classic wooden sailing boat. It talks about the history of the boat, the owner’s history with boats, the purchase of the boat, the process of restoration and the experience of learning to sail the boat. The book is enlivened with the writer’s unique observations about the process, and the people and the places involved.

Starting with a brief background check on Jack’s boating experience, continuing with the process of choosing and buying the boat, moving it across country, finding suitable work space, then, through the restoration work itself, this story of learning-while-doing, culminates in the reality that Jack has never actually sailed before. Launching Lilibet and learning to handle her on lake Minnetonka, where she is the biggest and oldest sailboat, closes the circle on the story of The Lilibet Logs.

If you are faced with a project any project of any kind that seems more difficult than you can handle, read Jack Becker’s The Lilibet Logs. He did what most of us in the same position, given the limited resources available, would see as undoable, and his description of how he pulled it off makes an inspiring read. Peter H. Spectre

190 pages. PB.