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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.822
EAN: 9780071343282
ISBN: 0071343288
Label: Intl Marine Pub
Manufacturer: Intl Marine Pub
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 232
Publication Date: September 01, 1999
Publisher: Intl Marine Pub
Studio: Intl Marine Pub
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Editorial Review:
Book Description:
Most owners of cruising sailboats wonder whether their boats are suitable for an offshore passage, be it across the Gulf of Maine or the Pacific Ocean, and if not, whether they can be made suitable. This preoccupation arises partly from a latent spirit of adventure and partly from the desire for a seaworthy boat. We all want to believe that our boats can go anywhere and stand more of a beating from wind and waves than we can. Who knows when we might get caught out in the open by bad weather? It's enough to worry about our own responses without also having to suspect that the boat is fundamentally unsafe. Similarly, every potential buyer of a cruising sailboat is told that the boat is capable of sailing around the world. It's very difficult to get good advice and trustworthy facts, and that's where this book comes in. Focusing on production fiberglass cruising sailboats, the book explains, feature by feature, what makes a seaworthy boat. The book leads with an interactive questionnaire that tells the reader whether his/her boat possesses enough of the fundamental design/construction attributes of seaworthiness to make it a worthy candidate for offshore sailing. Having established whether the goal is achievable, Vigor then tells the reader how to get there, covering structural modifications and reinforcements as well as rigging, fittings, engine, systems, and gear. The final chapter outlines techniques for handling a boat at sea in adverse conditions, including heavy weather. This book will interest every owner and potential buyer of a cruising sailboat.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Although ostensibly about identifying the many the features neccesary to have in a blue water capable sailboat (which it does very comprehensively), this book is as much about the techniques and finer points of ocean sailing. The book is very well written and illustrated and would be invaluable to anyone who is thinking about buying a fully seaworthy yacht or making a trans oceanic cruise.
Rating:  -
This isn't a Bad book; it's just that it's not a good one either. It's typical of the sort of thing that yachting journalists crank out to make money. The information in it probably won't get you killed, but some of the content is either wrong or contradictory. Vigor might be more convincing if he didn't confuse "soft tucks" (which used to be called garboards) with "soft bilges." He calls the former the latter. (Or is it really the deadrise angle he's talking about? Hard to tell.) It's the sort of mistake a beginner in yacht design might make because the area of the bilge in the interior of a boat might logically be thought to be called that on the exterior of a boat. But, in fact, the bilge curve (in contrast to "the bilge"), which may be descibed as soft or hard, is the area of a hull in cross section where the bottom curves or, in a chine-built boat, angles into the topsides. One might say of the error, "Hey, it's just a sematics problem," and be correct, except that it implies a lack of the expertise that Vigor claims at least tactitly through his authoritative prose. There are also other problems of "fact" in the book, e.g., his equating straight angled house fronts with seaworthiness or strength or something, when, in fact, such design elements require extra special strenghtening if they are to be strong.
Like so many, Vigor quotes Tony Marchaj as an authority on off shore yachts when, in fact, much of Marchaj's actual experience was in sailing dinghies at which he was an expert. L. Francis Herreshoff might have said of him (as he did of Manfred Curry in a similar context)that most of
his offshore sailing experience was in the realm of the imagination. But Vigor makes the mistake of taking all that theorizing for gospel. Again, it's a common mistake.
I could go on, but perhaps I've made my point.
People buy books like this as a substitute for their own experience. It's better when the writer knows more ... Read More
Rating: -
With a bookshelf of excellent books on cruising, this became my primary source while shopping for a bluewater boat. (I had already digested his Twenty Small Boats . . . , even though I was looking for a larger boat.) Vigor's writing is clear and easy to understand. Plus he interjects just the right amount of humor. The books provides enough detail to truly educate me, without going into unnecessary detail.
Rating: -
This book is well written and covers everything you need to know for an off shore voyager. I believe it is a must read for before a first time offshore journey.
Rating: -
Even if you do not plan to sail shorthanded thousands of miles offshore it's a very good idea to understand in detail what makes your boat seaworthy in difficult circumstances and to make it so.
This book is a very thorough and very readable treatment of the subject of everything you need to know about a sailboat (except how to sail; that part is assumed). These sorts of things distinguish good sailors from the mass of recreational sailors and I, for one, have an ambition to become the former. If you do, too, then this is a great book to read several times.
The Black Box theory of why some people are lucky and others aren't relates to preparedness and if only once in your life you need it, then it's worth it to you and your companions to have taken the trouble.
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