Description
Subtitled "The Flowering of Genius"
This second volume is once again a lush production, beautifully designed and printed. Includes several fold-out drawings, so designs are shown at a legible scale.
L. FRANCIS HERRESHOFF (1890-1972) was the most remarkable yacht designer of his time. Beginning his career in the shadow of his famous father, Nathanael G. Herreshoff, he emerged to become a designer who approached the perfection of form in yacht design. Volume 2 covers the second half of his life (1931-1972) and many of his most beautiful and influential designs.
It's also a charming read. From page 518:
On one overnight run Down Set to Tenants Harbor, Maine, from Marblehead, Brendze found himself, during the long night watch, among a pod of whales. Luckily, he didn't bump into any. When he related the experience to Skipper, Francis said if it happened again, he should warn the leviathans of his presence by lifting a floorboard and tapping on a keel bolt with a penny. Common sense.
Brendze often felt Skipper's presence on board his Rozinante. When the boat drew admiring attention, Brendze found it hard to say thank you, because he didn't really feel it was his boat. Skipper said, "Oh, you have my permission."
With 230 plans and 146 illustrations, this volume features the notable 1931 ocean racer Landfall, the supremely beautiful Tioga, the magnificent Tioga II/Ticonderoga, and the distinctive 12-Metre Mitena; his popular How-To-Build series that introduced readers to the H-28; his thoughtful articles published as The Common Sense of Yacht Design and The Compleat Cruiser; his innovative shallow-draft coastal cruisers; his love of powerboats, good motors, and fine engineering; and his final years in the Castle, his unique home overlooking Marblehead Harbor. His was a genius that still resonates with those who admire the artistry and engineering of fine yachts.
Table of Contents
by Roger C. Taylor
644 pp, hardcover
ROGER C. TAYLOR has admired and appreciated sailing the designs of L. Francis Herreshoff since meeting him in the late 1940s. In a career that took him from Harvard University to the US Navy as a deck officer, to a leadership position at the US Naval Institute, to founder and director of International Marine Publishing Company, to licensed captain of sailing vessels, Roger Taylor has compiled a "life list" of several hundred boats sailed, including fourteen designed by L. Francis Herreshoff. This is his ninth book on boats and boating.