Monday, September 19, 2005

RABID RIG RANTING

Anyone who knows me knows that I have pretty strong (my wife uses the word "rabid") opinions on various rigs and the whole yacht evolution/design as distorted by Yacht racing rules. So, just thought that I should pass along a couple of books that make interesting reading for those who really want to know how a lot of the boats got to be the way they are. Ready About by Gary Hoyt (the man who is responsible for the Freedom design) is a great book by a man who apparently does not suffer fools gladly....

Aero-Hydrodynamics of Sailing by Czeslaw A. Marchaj is THE BOOK to read if you want to know how sails really work and how 90% of what everyone accepts as fact is not really... Its pretty dense reading and not a good read in the Clive Cussler sense, but the information is awesome.... He also wrote another excellent book, Seaworthiness : The Forgotten Factor