The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat [Hardcover]

Roger Marshall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1999

Do you hear the siren song of the sea? Prepare for your dream voyage--by finding your perfect sailboat. It's not as hard as you think . . . when you have a master naval architect at your side.

In this one-of-a-kind book, leading boat designer Roger Marshall walks you through the process of choosing the perfect boat for your sailing lifestyle. Along the way, you will acquire a deep understanding of the many factors that go into a boat's performance, comfort, and seaworthiness, and learn how to choose among them to meet your requirements and preferences.

Marshall takes you step-by-step as he conceives and develops five prototype sailboats with widely varying design objectives: a Weekender, a Cruiser, a Voyager, a Single-Hander, and a Cruiser/Racer. The 200 illustrations "take you aboard," showing you clearly how the choices and compromises of boat design are made and what they mean to performance.

You'll learn about the features that make for a good cruising sailboat, from the basic choices (inshore or offshore), weekend or long-term cruising, occasional racing or nonracing) all the way to the finer points of hull shape and sail plan. And you'll gain a solid understanding of your sailboat-to-be: what it will do . . . what it won't do . . . and why. Seakindliness, performance, handling characteristics of different rigs, comfort on passages or weekends--it's all here, in clear language.

Beyond the basics, you will learn how to judge any sailboat, new or used, including

• How to pick the best keel shape for your sailing area
• What the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of comfort are
• What makes a cockpit pleasant and functional
• When a pilothouse makes sense, and when it doesn't
• How to estimate the total cost of buying a boat (not the cost the salesperson gives you)
• Why some boats sail better under almost all conditions than other boats, and why that may not be important

Plus, you'll learn how to determine in advance how much blood, toil, tears, and sweat your dream boat will cost you in maintenance (so small thing).

Best of all, you'll find Marshall's 12-page comparison table of production sailboats from all over the world, packed with information about 130 boats--length, beam, draft, displacement, ballast, sail area, fuel and water capacities, performance ratios, capsize and comfort ratios, and more, all tabulated for convenient and revealing comparisons.

With this book's help, you will board your own "ideal" vessel, satisfied that you're familiar with your boat from the masthead down and certain that it will bring you years of sailing pleasure.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Are you searching for a sailboat? Follow master yacht designer Roger Marshall's advice and find the one that's right for you!

The right sailboat is a job, but the wrong sailboat can be a source of unmitigated grief. The acid test of any boat is how it behaves underway--and whether it's the right boat for how you sail and how you live on board.

In this illustrated guide to cruising sailboat design, Roger Marshall shares the benefit of his designing and seagoing expertise to help you understand your options and make the right selection. Find out how to judge . . .

• The effect of hull shape on performance
• Seaworthiness, comfort, and ease of handling
• Deck design and interior layout
• Ease of handling the rig and sail plan
• Ease of maintenance

Marshall even includes a 12-page table rating 130 popular production sailboats for speed, seaworthiness, comfort, and other attributes.

The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat will provide you with a thorough understanding of how cruising sailboats are shaped by their intended uses. Its clear, expert guidance will help you choose a boat that fulfills your sailor's dreams.

About the Author

Roger Marshall is the technical editor for Soundings. After designing for the renowned firm of Sparkman & Stephens, he established his own design company, where he has designed sailboats and powerboats from 15 to 65 feet. He has cruised the oceans of the world and sailed at all competitive levels: Admiral's Cup, Bermuda and Fastnet races, and various world and national championships. He has written extensively for Motor Boating & Sailing, Yachting, SAIL, the New York Times, the Daily Telegraph (UK), Australian Sailing, and Kazi (Japan) and has written nine yachting book. He recently won first-place awards at the annual Boating Writers International marine-journalism contest.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (April 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070419981
• ISBN-13: 978-0070419988
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #551,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roger Marshall

Roger Marshall's work has appeared in magazines worldwide as well as the New York Times, The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Providence Journal, Sports Illustrated, Sail, Yachting World, Australian Sailing, Seahorse (UK), Kazi (Japan)and many other newspapers and magazines. He has appeared on Boating Today TV as host and commentator and is now the editor of Hobby Greenhouse magazine and contributor to several boating magazines. He has been a editor and contributor to many other magazines and has written more than 700 magazine articles. Marshall is the author of fifteen books, two of which were translated into Italian and Spanish. He has also won a number of prizes for his writing. His latest novel Soliton is available on Amazon's Kindle.
Marshall's day job a designer of sailing and powerboats. After completing a program in small craft design at Southampton College in England, Marshall moved to the United States to take a position at Sparkman & Stephens, Inc. in New York. He was a designer there for over 5 years and then left to establish his own yacht design studio. He was project manager for the Courageous Challenge for the 1987 America's Cup campaign in Australia. Before going with the Courageous group he lectured a six-semester program leading to a minor in small craft design at Roger Williams University. In 1999 one of his designs was selected for inclusion in Ocean Cruising magazine's American Yacht Review. The Avid 24, a production bass boat is currently under construction.
Marshall has extensive sailing and boating experience. He has sailed at all levels including with the British Admiral's Cup team on Quailo III and aboard Prime Minister Heath's Morning Cloud and once with the Japanese team. He has also sailed in many world and national championships, 11 Bermuda races (twice with the British Onion Patch team), and 5 Fastnet races (twice with the British Admiral's Cup team), and the 1997 Atlantic Challenge from New York, to Falmouth, England, placing third. He has cruised on both power and sailboats in many parts of the world, especially the European, Mediterranean, and North American coastlines.
He is past President of Boating Writers International, former chair of the Innovation Awards committee, is also a member of the jury for the prestigious DAME Awards held at the METS show in Holland. He a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Garden Writers Association.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missed the boat... Or at least a chunk of it!, December 5, 2002

By 

Marshall Linnander (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat (Hardcover)

I eagerly dove into this book when it arrived, but... While Roger Marshall's book has some good general information about choosing a cruising sailboat, even that information is better addressed in Nigel Calder's "Cruising Handbook," or for serious interest in offshore cruising, John Vigor's "The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat." Marshall's book will be a dissapointing read for anyone that aspires to acquire a cruising sailboat with reasonable offshore capabilities at a cost that's affordable. Of course if you're wealthy, you don't need this book either, just hire Roger to design the perfect sailboat for you.

Marshall develops concept boats for five categories. The first boat is a "Weekender" of 20 to 26 feet with "sail in the bay" kinds of systems. The second category is the "Cruiser" that is 34 to 36 feet long that doesn't range beyond 30 miles from the coast. The third boat Marshall talks about is the"Voyager" that's a very comfortable 45 to 47 feet long (Are we beginning to sense the missing bits?). Then we encounter the "Single Hander," a 45 to 50 foot boat that seems specifially designed for the Around Alone racing crowd. And finally, the "Racer/Cruiser" with a design of 32 to 36 feet and seems to be a reasonable assessment of the kind of boat that will be appreciated by those that want to race with the yacht club and still enjoy some coastal journeys.

The missing chunk relates to blue water cruising or offshore sailboats of less that 45 feet. It's a disappointing omission. Especially if you consider that the average size of a sailboat that cruises away from the coast is getting larger, but only from about the 35 or 36 feet range to about 38 or 39 feet. If you are looking for a cruising sailboat that has offshore and passage capabilities and can't afford the 45' or larger "Voyager" category, you'll have to do a lot of interpolating between Marshall's design categories to glean the knowledge you're hoping to find.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well written, easily understood., May 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat (Hardcover)

This book is more than just choosing a cruising sailboat. It covers the whole spectrum of foils, hull shapes, deck layouts, sails, interiors, etc. anyone who is looking to buy a boat period, i recommend this book. Even if you are not planning to buy but just want to learn more, this is a must.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Or how to BUILD a Cruising Sailboat?, January 19, 2005

By 

Valiant S. Vetter (Winnsboro, Republic of Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Choosing a Cruising Sailboat (Hardcover)

I eagerly added this book to my wish list based on it's title and found that what was inside the book was less about selecting your ideal cruising sailboat than it was about selecting a custom design, or perhaps directing the construction of your custom dream boat.

Those who have owned sailboats in the past would be less likely to choose this book than people like me, just getting started and looking for some informed help. Unfortunately, those needing this help most - people with the least experience - will be the ones least helped by it.

What was missing from this book (in my humble opinion) is a review of existing cruising sailboats, blurbs written by people who own and sail them, pros and cons about their design, sailing characteristics, and recommended modifications to make them fit various sailor's needs.

In all fairmess, I did learn about hull shapes and the like, but there was no "joining" of hull design factors to existing boats that possess these designs, making all the technical information in the book rather useless.

I'm sure many very experienced sailors will find this book fascinating and perhaps even incorporate some of the author's ideas into designs for their custom boats. Unfortunately, for the sailor looking to choose a cruising sailboat, this book falls short and is a dissapointment.