Recommended books

[gauntlet]

We are currently refurbishing a 14 ton Gauntlet. Our first wooden boat, more used to gaff-rigged steel...She is a 1938 design built in 1947, designed as a racer, no longer in class, we are restoring some cruising adaptations (like replacing most of the 8' cut off the boom!) but not trying to create a museum piece as we want to cruise safely and comfortable ourselves.

Steep learning curve and lots of good contacts here on the Suffolk coast, but there is still so much to learn and some questions where everyone has a different answer. So...anyone like to recommend some good books on the construction, repair and design of vintage wooden boats? Both general repair and in particular anything about deisgn & rigging & sailing in them days...is there a 1940s bermudan equivalent of Hand Reef & Steer, Rigger's apprentice etc.? At the moment we are pondering new reefing system...

Ame

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[Peterduck]

I could recommend "Yacht Construction" by Ken Jurd. Ken was Chief Draughtsman for Campers when he wrote it in the sixties, before fibreglass took over. As it's been out of print for ages, it may be difficult to find. Obviously secondhand bookshops around the coast would be the place to look. The copy that I read was from a municipal library; that may be another good place to start.
Peter.

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[Mirelle]

Agree with that one; last reprint 1973 by Adlard Coles.

Basically, you need to look in secondhand bookshops.

If you don't already have a copy, the "Bible" for the 1950's yachtsman was Eric Hiscock's "Cruising Under Sail". Get the 1950's edition; the later one is bowdlerised and truncated. This fat and comprehensive book replaced Graham and Tew's "Manual for Small Yachts" (much thinner book but very good, quite widely available) which replaced Claud Worth's "Yacht Cruising", the 1911 -1930's "Bible". For repairs, look for books by Michael Verney.

An excellent source for this period are the numerous "annuals" put out by Yachting World, The Yachtsman, etc.



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[SilverBreeze]

126 copies of "Cruising Under Sail" available at abebooks.com, a brilliant source of second-hand books. I use this resource regularly with never a problem.

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