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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 623
EAN: 9781888671230
Edition: Rev Exp
ISBN: 1888671238
Label: Tiller Publishing
Manufacturer: Tiller Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 328
Publication Date: June 01, 1999
Publisher: Tiller Publishing
Studio: Tiller Publishing
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Yacht Designs is the classic collection of boat designs by noted naval architect William Garden. Completely revised and updated, it includes many additional designs, from a cradle boat to light pocket cruisers to classic power launches to luxury yachts to seaworthy motorsailers.
Any number of people can design boats; only a handful of those are great designers. Any number of people can write; only a handful are great writers. Only a very, very few are both great boat designers and writers. Bill Garden is one of that rare breed. His career as both a yacht designer and builder spans six decades and hundreds of boats. Such a variety of boats! Sailing canoes, salmon trollers, tugboats, cruising ketches, gaff-rigged cutters with plumb stems, easily-built pocket cruisers, racers, luxury yachts, trading schooners, pulling boats, classic power launches, production fiberglass cruisers and patrol boats.
Garden's writing style is just as far-ranging and eclectic as his boats, whimsical and informative, lighthearted yet solidly grounded, serious, thought-provoking and thoroughly engaging. In short, as good as his drawings.
The original edition of Yacht Designs was produced over twenty years ago and, after several printings, had gone completely out of print. Now retired (more or less), Bill Garden had time to write more of the essays on his own designs that made him a popular feature of The Rudder magazine. He has revised and expanded the essays from the original edition and added over 30 more boats, many never before published, and even a few dream ships that were never built. The chapters accompanying each design have been compiled as time allowed, so there has been no particular attempt at continuity other than to select boats that might be of interest to the cruising boatman. The text centers more on the background of each boat rather on a technical study; illustrations and generalities prevail. Each essay is as different as the boat it describes, sometimes explaining the building process or a particular aspect of it in detail, or the events that led to a design, or the individuals involved, or the evolution of a yacht type, or Bill's own unique outlook on life and the boats he loves.
Once upon a time, before the term "exponential growth" was coined and before the miracle of the production of fiberglass yachts was made practical by our runaway market for luxuries, there weren't so many small afloat and, of those on the waters, all seemed to be of varied form and rig. This was probably the result of nearly total confusion regarding optimum proportions for efficiency in going up wind of down, but the boats then seemed much more interesting than today's vast fleets of triangular me-toos.
The boats in this book have more of a connection with tradition, or perhaps have more boat-like qualities, which are qualities that satisfy the interests of those sailors who not only enjoy a boat that will sail well but also lean toward boats of a more interesting, timeless form. Several of the boats outlined in our pages are of this more traditional shape or theme and some are more contemporary . . . . every type has its following and the more we know about each, the broader our general understanding and outlook becomes.
Whether they are sail or power, we must remember that our yachts are toy boats - all yachts are the glint on a lovely brief bubble of time, a time of leisure and affluence for the middle class. A boat's importance as an escape from reality, as a change of pace, as a theme for reflection, and as an art form gives ti worth or value. In forming a small yacht, we achieve an entity that is almost completely within the imagination, manual dexterity and technical ability of one man. One man can select and cut the timber, form the model, set up the molds, frame, plank, work up the spars, and finally slide her into the sea and set sail.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
Bill Garden is funny, informative, with a great history of boat design. His "clams Eye View" and line drawings are fantastic!!! I am lucky to own a 45' Bill Garden Yawl, he created some excellant boats and this book is just a few of them
Rating: -
The content of the text and the lovely boats shown in the line drawings make this book worth having. As stated by another reviewer, however, the quality of the print is poor. The abundant lettering and handwritten numbers on the lines drawings, and on the construction drawings, are for the most part unreadable. This makes studying these drawings rather frustrating.
Rating: -
I would have given this book 5 stars if not for the barely acceptable print quality. This book displays some of William Gardens finest published design work (IMHO) , so I was expecting that this revised and expanded edition would equal its predecessor (Yacht Designs) in print quality. If you like to study his drawings in detail like I do, you will know what I mean. Oh well, at least I now have a copy, and can throw away my photocopies from the old Yacht Designs library book. The first book is still ... Read More
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