BROOKLIN – If the idea of messing about in your own wooden boat has a certain appeal but you’ve been leery of trying to build your own, the editors at WoodenBoat Publications have just the thing for you.

They have included a 12-page supplement, “Getting Started in Boats,” in the latest edition of WoodenBoat magazine, now on the stands. The supplement includes plans and easy-to-follow instructions for building the Lumberyard Skiff, a small, seaworthy boat designed by regular WoodenBoat contributor Maynard Bray.

The idea of the supplement has been around WoodenBoat for a while, according to publisher Carl Cramer.

“It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Cramer said. “Better this year than a year from now.”

The supplement, he said, is an effort to encourage regular readers of WoodenBoat to share their enthusiasm for wooden boats with their neighbors and to create a new batch of boaters for the future, he said.

“Part of the goal of this is to get people already interested to take these plans and give them to their friends and neighbors,” Cramer said. “We want to try to bring new people into boat building. Once you’ve built your own boat, you’re going to be a boater for life.”

According to Cramer, all the materials suggested for the boat design are easily available in all regions, and the straightforward, step-by-step instructions are geared specifically for the amateur builder.

“The magazine already does a fine job of taking care of the intermediate and expert builders,” he said. “We don’t always do as good a job at addressing needs of the amateur builder.”

WoodenBoat also has created a new Web site, www.gettingstartedinboats.com, to support readers who decide to try their hands at boat building using the skiff plans. The Web site includes a dictionary of terms used in the instructions and a forum that already has generated a lively question-and-answer dialogue from readers keen on building their own boat.

“We’ve had a huge response so far,” Cramer said. “It’s very heartening.”

Most postings on the forum are enthusiastic and echo the writer who said that “Getting Started in Boats” might be just the thing to “get me off my duff” and build one.

There are a lot of simple boats that can be built, Cramer said, and future editions will include plans on how to build them. But the supplement also will deal with other boating issues such as painting, boat maintenance and boating safety.

The next edition of the supplement, set to be included with the November-December issue of WoodenBoat, will continue with instructions for the Lumberyard Skiff and will cover painting, building oars and splicing a bow line.

If the response continues to be positive, “Getting Started in Boats” supplements will become a regular feature and will be included in each WoodenBoat magazine edition during the coming year.