Tranona
Well-known member
You need to take these preferences in context. Having been around when the book was first published, I can see that she was actually right up to date with most of her choices. Interestingly her recent writings and choice of boats suggest she has not moved on much!Good book but starting to show its age now. I find some of her ideas a bit odd- I'd hate to disagree with her. E.g. she extols the virtue of teak decks, which we all know are an absolute money pit. She is generally very risk averse and avoids any post 1950s technology where possible, but prefers a saildrive to a shaft, which I find very odd. Developments in solar, battery, and LED technology have completely changed life aboard and her preference of candles and paraffin lamps is now no longer the sensible choice, let alone the cheapest. But much of the core thinking is still valid.
The preference for saildrive needs a bit of explanation. Her boat was a flat bottomed Dory and a conventional shaft drive would not be possible. The "normal" auxiliary was an outboard in a well. so the saildrive she chose was a good solution - easy to fit, self contained and above all cheap as it was a blend of Honda outboard head grafted onto a Volvo saildrive. That was developed at the same time as we were playing with a similar concept at Seagull. It was not a commercial success, primarily because boats for which it was suitable were declining in popularity. Probably a few still around in boats like the Leisure 23, but guess most have died by now.
Similarly with the teak deck - it was a good choice at the time as the reclaimed teak they used was cheap, it was laid straight on adhesive (no screws) and I expect lasted very well. If I remember rightly they also used solid teak for the galley work surfaces! The bad reputation of teak stems from the original attachment methods used of screwing down onto a less than satisfactory substrate in swept "yacht" fashion and then putting deck fittings through the teak and deck. I read recently an account of replacing the deck on a 38' from a well respected UK yard (after only 25 years) where there were 96 fastening holes going through the teak and in one area where a chain plate was fastened down the ply pad in the sandwich deck was in the wrong place so water leaking from the fastenings had destroyed the balsa core. Hundreds of boats from that era (up to early 2000s), mostly from premium builders have such ticking timebombs, but equally many more recent boats from volume builders with bonded panels are unlikely to suffer from the same problems. Pity many of the badly built boats are also some of the most desirable designs for long term cruisers.
Different times.