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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.8231
EAN: 9780393047097
Edition: 1st ed
ISBN: 0393047091
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: March 01, 1999
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Editorial Review:
Book Description:
At last, safe, comfortable, ocean-going power cruisers that don't cost a fortune to own and operate. When boat designer George Buehler realized that he no longer wanted to cruise the world's oceans under sail, he decided to create a line of powerboats that sailors could love and anyone could afford. For inspiration, he turned to the light, lithe salmon trollers of the Pacific Northwest, among the most efficient, seaworthy, and beautiful powerboats ever built. With plans for troller yachts from 38 to 70 feet and detailed information about everything from design theory, building, and outfitting to converting commercial boats, this book is essential reading for anyone thinking about ocean cruising who refuses to spend $500,000 on a boat and $500 a day on fuel.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is a great book for the armchair cruiser, the person who dreams about maybe someday getting a boat and cruising the world. It will add solid substance to those dreams, and make you much better prepared to read the for-sale ads and brochures of yacht brokers.
Buehler adopts a folksy, contrarian, informal style that is a delight to read: we're just sittin' around the port bar with crusty ol' cap'n Buehler, swappin' yarns. Buehler delights in being a contrarian, sniping at all modern trends and current assumptions in yacht marketing. For example: mild steel is almost always better than stainless steel for fittings; deck railings should be welded up from plain steel piping at a fraction the cost of custom stainless; *all* electrical systems *will* fail after enough time around salt water -- like the ubiquitous electric anchor-winch, which *will* fail and leave you stuck. So do without most of them (he advocates hydraulic-powered winches driven from the engine) and design in fall-backs for the ones you can't do without (like the engine starter).
Many of his opinions he justifies with anecdotes from long experience of "messing about in boats" on salt water. Some of the most important are backed by numbers. Most striking is the repeated tables of analyses showing how remarkably efficient a displacement hull is, when driven at its hull speed; and how amazingly fast the horsepower requirements go up, and the effective cruising range falls, as you increase speed even slightly above it.
Along the way he pokes holes in many pretentions and careless assumptions of the modern yacht market, which helps prepare you to read the magazines and brochures with a properly skeptical eye. A fun read and a dose of consumer wariness combined, a good thing. I would happily give this 5 stars except it is a bit dated. Ten years have passed and his cost estimates ought to be updated. Also, he could give a lot more info on good, reliable interior fitting ... Read More
Rating:  -
Although technically correct the author has a 'problem' with the modern thinking in this field. This theme is recurrent thoughout his book.
Rating:  -
This is my favorite design book so far for around the world passagemaker type vessels. Buehler sort of takes up where Beebe leaves off, and gives an excellent working man's view of the problem. In his opinion, the vessel should be built more thin and streamlined so as to burn less fuel. Trawler yachts like the Nordhaven, are essentially fat, heavy, big-motored trawling vessels, such as scrape the bottom of the ocean bare with enormous lead weighted trawler nets.
His idea, the *troller* yacht, is more along the lines of line fisher vessels. Longer with less beam (width), and stouter, and made of working-class materials like wood or steel, rather than the "easy maintenence" fiberglass hulls favored by modern yacht buyers. He also disdains complicated electrical or mechanical systems, pointing out that such stuff breaks, it is hard to maintain and expensive to have others repair. He gives a number of outlines for vessels he has designed which have ranges of up to 9000 miles on 600 gallons of diesel fuel. He points out that modern workboats are much like his: economical powerboats. Sailboats are too expensive for working joes to go fishing in. They require big crews, and the gear itself is quite expensive. He once compares a modest sailing rig to the equivalent in diesel range: the diesel fuel will get you many times farther, and he points out that in most sailboats, the diesel motor is used half the time anyway because there is no wind. If you have an idea of sailing 'round the world, you might revisit your idea with some of the ideas in this book. I certainly think differently about the problem after having read this. This isn't for Larry Ellison; this is for people who have to worry about money and efficiency. Which means, I suppose, this book is for the type of person who has to buy a book to learn this sort of thing; otherwise you could just buy someone to tell you what kind of boat to get.
Rating: -
I was pawing through a Port Townsend bookstore the other day and saw the title and more importantly the sub-title of this book. And I instantly had one of those epiphany moments where a major element of the rest of my life fell into place. I've wanted to have the means to explore the world by ocean for a very long time but haven't had any good ideas on how to make progress. I bought Mr. Buehler's book and now I do.
I may not end up building to any of Mr. Buehler's plans (although the 48' Diesel Duck looks awfully appealing) but I'm certainly going to put together a boat based on these ideas or die trying. No doubt what got me started down this line of thinking was reading the Patrick O'Brian novels a couple times.
If you relate to my perspective at all then I'll expand on this for a moment. The book opens up, extensively, a frame of mind that answers the extended set of questions sitting in my land-lubber's brain. Here are the summary questions and answers, unabashed advertising for TTYB.
How big does a boat need to be to safely cross an ocean? (Answer: about 40 feet does it. 50 feet seems a nice compromise between 'more is better' and 'more is too much'.)
Should one move about on the ocean by sailing? (Answer: No! But a mast ought to be built into a power boat so sails can be used at sea in the event of engine failure.)
Do big boats need commensurately big engines? (Answer: No! Not if you travel in displacement hulls at modest speed. This means you can travel along under tens of horsepower burning a gallon or two of diesel per hour; what a concept!)
What sort of range can one get on the ocean on a single tank of gas? (Answer: A narrow hull and a small engine get you a quarter of the way around the planet on 800 gallons of fuel.)
And to reiterate/summarize: What is the basic idea for ocean-crossing adventures on a middle-class income? ((To be fair Mr. Buehler phrases this question ... Read More
Rating:  -
This book is primarily for folks who are thinking of buying, building, or having built a trawler and to take it on long cruises. This is not a book for those who already own a trawler and are trying to find ways to improve them and preparing them for cruising.
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