The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 214 pages
• Published by: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Edition: 1st Edition April 30, 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0070419981
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0070419988
• Book Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

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 will not 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.

Back Cover Copy


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.

Reader Reviews
I eagerly dove into this book when it arrived, but... While Roger Marshall's book has some good general information about choosing a cruising sailboat, even that information is better addressed in Nigel Calder's "Cruising Handbook," or for serious interest in offshore cruising, John Vigor's "The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat." Marshall's book will be a dissapointing read for anyone that aspires to acquire a cruising sailboat with reasonable offshore capabilities at a cost that's affordable. Of course if you're wealthy, you don't need this book either, just hire Roger to design the perfect sailboat for you. Marshall develops concept boats for five categories. The first boat is a "Weekender" of twenty to 26 feet with "sail in the bay" kinds of systems. The second category is the "Cruiser" that is 34 to 36 feet long that doesn't range beyond thirty miles from the coast. The third boat Marshall talks about is the"Voyager" that's a very comfortable 45 to 47 feet long (Are we beginning to sense the missing bits?). Then we encounter the "Single Hander," a 45 to 50 foot boat that seems specifially designed for the Around Alone racing crowd. And finally, the "Racer/Cruiser" with a design of 32 to 36 feet and seems to be a reasonable assessment of the kind of boat that will be appreciated by those that want to race with the yacht club and still enjoy some coastal journeys. The missing chunk relates to blue water cruising or offshore sailboats of less that 45 feet. It's a disappointing omission. Especially if you consider that the average size of a sailboat that cruises away from the coast is getting larger, but only from about the 35 or 36 feet range to about 38 or 39 feet. If you are looking for a cruising sailboat that has offshore and passage capabilities and can't afford the 45' or larger "Voyager" category, you'll have to do a lot of interpolating between Marshall's design categories to glean the knowledge you're hoping to find.