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Price: $37.99 Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.830974145
EAN: 9780385488129
Edition: 1st ed
ISBN: 0385488122
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: March 16, 1999
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: March 16, 1999
Studio: Doubleday
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
E.B. White and his son Joel both had a respect for beauty, simplicity, and practicality when it came to their work. For E.B., it was writing. He talks about these qualities in The Elements of Style, the classic guide to English-language usage, and he demonstrates them in works like Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. For Joel, it was building and designing boats that are "simple of line yet sound in engineering, traditional above water and modern below." A Unit of Water, a Unit of Time is a touching, engaging look at the life, work, and influence of Joel White and the craft of boat making.
Whynott spent a year (June 1996 to July 1997) at White's boat yard in Brooklin, Maine. At the time, White was battling cancer, nearing the end of his life, and designing what would be his last boat, the W-76, a wooden racing yacht with "sublime lines and exquisite rigging." A Unit of Water, the result of that experience, traces White's life from his birth in 1930 to his childhood spent in New York and Maine, his naval architecture studies at MIT, and his eventual move to Brooklin, where he began working at the small boat yard that eventually became his own. In the early '80s, White and his crew stopped making fiberglass boats in favor of wooden ones; Brooklin, headquarters for WoodenBoat magazine and the WoodenBoat School, became the center of the wooden-boat revival and White something of a boat-building guru. The book looks closely at the art of boat making--shaping deck beams, making bronze chocks, boring holes through sternposts--and the many characters in the Brooklin boat-building community. It's very interesting stuff, and Whynott tells the story simply and thoughtfully, emulating White's philosophies. He also describes White's health battles with respect and poignancy and without getting overly sentimental.
Joel White was a man of few words who tended to downplay his accomplishments, but they shine through in A Unit of Water. One Brooklin boat builder, describing the "soul" of boats, could have been describing White: "Boats are live. They talk. The more poorly made boats talk more. The best-made boats don't talk as much. They're quiet--quiet soldiers, they call them." --Andy Boynton
Product Description:
In a time when racing boats are mass-produced from synthetic materials, a dying breed of craftsman continues to build wooden sailboats of astonishing beauty. Boatbuilding is an ancient art, and Joel White was a master. Son of the legendary writer E.B. White, he was raised around boats and his designs were as sublime and graceful as his father's prose. At a boatyard in Maine, White and his closely knit team of builders brought scores of his creations from blueprints into the ocean.
In June 1996, six months after being diagnosed with cancer, Joel White began designing the W-76, an exquisite racing yacht. It was his final masterpiece. Douglas Whynott spent a year at Brooklin Boat Yard, observing as this design took shape, first in sketches and then during the painstaking building of the wooden craft.
The result is the poignant tale of both a genius at work and the people devoted to his art. Evoking E.B. White's New England and its salty residents, A Unit of Water, a Unit of Time is a classic portrait of dignity, charm, and humble magnificence-and of a maritime community that keeps a vanishing world alive.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Reading this books just makes me want to quit my day job, move to Maine and build wooden boats. I have spent some time in my youth working in a Maine boatyard, and this book perfectly captures the character of that experience. But for now I guess I'll just need to be transported through the writing in this wonderful book. I've been a fan of Joel White's designs for years this book has built my appreciation for the man as well.
Rating: -
As someone who has spent time scraping and painting the bottom of a large sailing boat, this book brought back all the sights and sounds of a boatyard. I could smell the dust and paint fumes, feel the smoothness of varnished rails, and sense the excitment when each boat was hoisted into the water. This book should interest all aspiring boat builders, and prepare them for the painstaking work of boat design, construction and restoration.
Wynott does a superb job describing the interpersonal dynamics of a boatyard's personnel and the importance of good management. Though I found myself irritated at Steve, Joel White's son, for spending his winter in the Carribean during his father's last year, Steve's management style is instructive for leading a group of talented artisans, be they boat builders, scientific researchers, or writers.
I savored every page of this short book, sometimes reading each section twice as not to miss the rich details. It made me laugh, such as the passage about novice sailors who they ended being towed into port and decided to buy a boat anyway, and cry -- Joel's death. I recommend it highly for all who find satisfaction in "messin' around with boats." This book squarely dispells what every boat owner already knows: Boating only looks romantic!
Rating: -
I read this book while I was vacationing in Maine. It made me have an understanding and appreciation of what goes on in those boat yards along the coast. It also made me wish I knew Joel White and some of the other boatbuilders. I found the end of this book very touching. The author portrays White's illness, but doesn't make it seem maudlin or sentimental. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in boats or the people who live in Maine.
Rating: -
I read this book while I was vacationing in Maine. It made me have an understanding and appreciation of what goes on in those boat yards along the coast. It also made me wish I knew Joel White and some of the other boatbuilders. I found the end of this book very touching. The author portrays White's illness, but doesn't make it seem maudlin or sentimental. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in boats or the people who live in Maine.
Rating:  -
I agree with the reviewer who suggested that this book really needs some illustrations. Whynott's word-pictures just aren't sufficient for those whose knowledge of sailing boats is limited.
As a non-reader of Wooden Boats magazine,the source of much of the info here, I'd love to have seen photos or sketches of the boats mentioned, as well as the boatyard crew.
And for the ocean-loving landlubbers among us, a good glossary would be a godsend. For example, what's deadwood? or a spoon-shaped bow?
It's also a bit of a stretch to say that Whynott wrote this book. Take out the extensive -- and wonderful -- citations from the writings of E.B. White and his son, Joel that Whynott lovingly included, and not much of the writing came from the pen/typewriter/PC of Whynott. What did is quite well written, sometimes really well written, however.
What this book really did is send me searching for my copy of E.B. White's "One Man's Meat." I'm not surprised to see this title in the "others who bought this book" section here on amazon.com.
I'm also gonna check out "The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Works," by Michael S. Sanders. The Boston Globe review of this book is what interested me in Whynott's book -- which the reviewer liked a lot.
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