Product Description

Do you hear the siren song of the sea? Prepare for your dream voyage--by finding your perfect sailboat. It's not as hard as you think . . . when you have a master naval architect at your side.

In this one-of-a-kind book, leading boat designer Roger Marshall walks you through the process of choosing the perfect boat for your sailing lifestyle. Along the way, you will acquire a deep understanding of the many factors that go into a boat's performance, comfort, and seaworthiness, and learn how to choose among them to meet your requirements and preferences.

Marshall takes you step-by-step as he conceives and develops five prototype sailboats with widely varying design objectives: a Weekender, a Cruiser, a Voyager, a Single-Hander, and a Cruiser/Racer. The 200 illustrations "take you aboard," showing you clearly how the choices and compromises of boat design are made and what they mean to performance.

You'll learn about the features that make for a good cruising sailboat, from the basic choices (inshore or offshore), weekend or long-term cruising, occasional racing or nonracing) all the way to the finer points of hull shape and sail plan. And you'll gain a solid understanding of your sailboat-to-be: what it will do . . . what it won't do . . . and why. Seakindliness, performance, handling characteristics of different rigs, comfort on passages or weekends--it's all here, in clear language.

Beyond the basics, you will learn how to judge any sailboat, new or used, including

• How to pick the best keel shape for your sailing area
• What the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of comfort are
• What makes a cockpit pleasant and functional
• When a pilothouse makes sense, and when it doesn't
• How to estimate the total cost of buying a boat (not the cost the salesperson gives you)
• Why some boats sail better under almost all conditions than other boats, and why that may not be important

Plus, you'll learn how to determine in advance how much blood, toil, tears, and sweat your dream boat will cost you in maintenance (so small thing).

Best of all, you'll find Marshall's 12-page comparison table of production sailboats from all over the world, packed with information about 130 boats--length, beam, draft, displacement, ballast, sail area, fuel and water capacities, performance ratios, capsize and comfort ratios, and more, all tabulated for convenient and revealing comparisons.

With this book's help, you will board your own "ideal" vessel, satisfied that you're familiar with your boat from the masthead down and certain that it will bring you years of sailing pleasure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199139 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 214 pages

From the Back Cover

Are you searching for a sailboat? Follow master yacht designer Roger Marshall's advice and find the one that's right for you!

The right sailboat is a job, but the wrong sailboat can be a source of unmitigated grief. The acid test of any boat is how it behaves underway--and whether it's the right boat for how you sail and how you live on board.

In this illustrated guide to cruising sailboat design, Roger Marshall shares the benefit of his designing and seagoing expertise to help you understand your options and make the right selection. Find out how to judge . . .

• The effect of hull shape on performance
• Seaworthiness, comfort, and ease of handling
• Deck design and interior layout
• Ease of handling the rig and sail plan
• Ease of maintenance

Marshall even includes a 12-page table rating 130 popular production sailboats for speed, seaworthiness, comfort, and other attributes.

The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat will provide you with a thorough understanding of how cruising sailboats are shaped by their intended uses. Its clear, expert guidance will help you choose a boat that fulfills your sailor's dreams.

About the Author
Roger Marshall is the technical editor for Soundings. After designing for the renowned firm of Sparkman & Stephens, he established his own design company, where he has designed sailboats and powerboats from 15 to 65 feet. He has cruised the oceans of the world and sailed at all competitive levels: Admiral's Cup, Bermuda and Fastnet races, and various world and national championships. He has written extensively for Motor Boating & Sailing, Yachting, SAIL, the New York Times, the Daily Telegraph (UK), Australian Sailing, and Kazi (Japan) and has written nine yachting book. He recently won first-place awards at the annual Boating Writers International marine-journalism contest.

Customer Reviews

well written, easily understood.
This book is more than just choosing a cruising sailboat. It covers the whole spectrum of foils, hull shapes, deck layouts, sails, interiors, etc. anyone who is looking to buy a boat period, i recommend this book. Even if you are not planning to buy but just want to learn more, this is a must.

Excellent details of what makes yachts work
This is a great book. I'm reasonably new to sailing but very interested. I see so many boats around and the geeky side of me wants to know why they are like that, what the impact of the different styles and configurations are, etc. For this, this book is perfect. It goes into great details of boat design and impact of that design on how the boat sails. The focus is on assisting you in your choice of boat based on how you intend to use it. It's not just about "Cruising" boats, it covers all boat design.

The downsides? It's an American author to examples and dimensions are aimed at a US market but this is easy enough to cope with. The pictures used are ok but at times could be better - it has the feel of an old text book at time. More colour images and better quality graphics would make it feel fresher. This doesn't take away from the content though, so I'd highly recommend this if you want to understand what makes yachts work, which in my view will help your sailing.

Thinking of Living the Dream - Buying a Boat - Get this book 1st
My long-term plan is to sell up and sail away, but I realised while looking at all the sailing yachts for sale that I couldn't really tell one boat from another.

This book is quite frankly the best book I have read that allows a novice to understand why a boat can only go at a maximum speed. Why the Rudder is where it is on different boats, different hull types, keel types, mast/sail layouts, stern of boats, how the cockpit is laid out ...etc

The book starts by asking you what you want to do with the sailing boat and then walks you through the Pros and Cons of each type and layout, length, beam and draft (novice, I sound like an old salty sea dog, Oh arr mee Hearties:)

I can't really do an explanation of this book to do it justice. Suffice to say I loaned it to another person who is doing her RYA Day skipper and she said it was some of the technical and practical stuff even she hadn't considered (she kept it for 3 months)

Well worth the price for the Hard Back, get it before you go and spend your money on your dream and end up picking the wrong boat for the wrong reasons.

All the Best.