Heart of Glass: Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them [Hardcover]

Daniel Spurr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 1999

The fascinating story of fiberglass boats and the mavericks who dreamed them. Nine out of ten sailors today own sturdy, often beautiful fiberglass craft. Fiberglass brought boating to the non-rich, but the history of that revolution has never been told. Daniel Spurr rectifies this omission with his highly readable and affectionate account of the fiberglass boat, from its earliest incarnation in World War II to the present day. In the early days, when shoestring genius was unfettered by industrial efficiency, there were boats with tailfins, boats baked in ovens, and boats designed to be dropped from planes. The voyage from those first ugly ducklings to the graceful boats of the 1990s makes a riveting adventure of triumph and ruin. Along the way, Spurr profiles landmark designs that now set the standards in the used-boat market, and he portrays the revolution in human terms, introducing us to the vivid personalities who invented--often in their garages and rarely at a profit--the world of boating we know today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Spurr's new volume serves as a narrative and a unique scrapbook of the growth of boating in the second half of the 20th century. But the most exciting aspect of his book is the collection of rare photographs and brief narratives of some of the most successful boats built during recent decades. Heart of Glass is a good book to have on your library shelf. (The San Diego Log )

Daniel Spurr is a professional boating writer, and this lavishly-illustrated and surprisingly interesting book is somewhat tilted in favor of sail over power. (Greenwich Time )

From the Inside Flap

The worlds oceans, lakes, and waterways abound with plastic-hulled craft of every description, and most of us take for granted that nearly anyone who can afford to buy a car can also own a boat. But just fifty years ago, affordable boating was an oxymoron. In those days, virtually all pleasure craft were painstakingly fashioned from wood, and yachting was the exclusive domain of the rich. Then, in 1942, maverick inventor Ray Greene rolled out his first crude fiberglass-reinforced polyester (FRP) dinghy, thus firing the opening shot in a revolution that, over the next two decades, would transform boating from an elitist pastime into a democratic institution enjoyed by hundreds of thousands.

The story of the fiberglass boat, from the first ugly ducklings of the 1940s to the elegant sloops and sportfishermen of today, is a rich one, peopled with a colorful array of pioneers, visionaries, and entrepreneurs. It is a tale of triumph and ruin, scientific serendipity and engineering genius, a love of the art and a relentless quest for the next hot boat. And few authors are as qualified to tell the story as boating journalist and author Daniel Spurr. Spurr introduces us to the great fiberglass boat designers and builders, many of whose first-hand accounts appear throughout the book. We learn how men such as Charlie Morgan, Everett Pearson, Dick Bertram, Hobie Alter, and Rod Johnson, working on a shoestring, often out of their garages, gave birth to the vessels that revolutionized boating. Most got by, but some went bankrupt. Few found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

And of course, there are the boats themselves, the landmark designs. We get the complete inside stories of the Pearson Triton, the Boston Whaler, the Bermuda 40, the Cal's, the Hobie Cat, the Morgan Out Island 41, the Bertram 31, the Magnum 27, the Grand Banks trawlers, the J/24, and the other enduring classics that built an industry and remain the most popular used boats to this day.

Illustrated with 220 rare photographs, many never before published, Heart of Glass is a must-read -- a fascinating story of fiberglass boats and the mavericks who dreamed them.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (December 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071579834
• ISBN-13: 978-0071579834
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,203,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read for anyone interested in business management, February 1, 2002

By 

Bryan Pfaffenberger "B. Pfaffenberger" (Chartlottesville, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heart of Glass: Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them (Hardcover)

This readable, well-researched, and often hilarious book will delight the dickens out of any boater, power or sail (great gift!!!). More broadly, anyone interested in business management -- what works, what doesn't work, and where technology fits in -- will find much to ponder in this book. Spurr chronicles the demise of dozens of failed boating companies; an all-too-frequent theme is the destruction that follows on a company's acquisition by a large corporation seeking to "diversify," which seems, inevitably, to result in bankruptcy. Of equal interest are the few stories of genuine and lasting success, typified by Catalina Yachts, founded by Frank Butler. Mr. Butler independently arrived at the conclusions reached, belatedly, by legions of high-priced consultants and business school professors: innovate to create new markets, build quality in, treat your employees as if they were part of your family, speak personally to customers, resist acquisition, and -- if possible -- remain privately held. There's also much to ponder for economists and business historians. Imagine what the automobile industry would be like if cars lasted for 50 years -- well within the lifespan of a properly maintained, well-built fiberglass yacht. Spurr remarks that the industry's greatest mistake, viewed cynically, was its failure to build obsolescence into its products. But another factor in the industry's overall decline is the recalcitrant character of fiberglass boat-building technology, which is notoriously resistant to assembly line methods; were you to visit the Beneteau, Catalina, or Hunter factories, you'd see labor-intensive, one-at-a-time boat building techniques that do not fundamentally differ from those of 50 years ago. Unable to lower production costs, companies have instead turned to volume as a way to force down supplier prices -- that's why you get three big, dominant manufacturers in this market -- but the result, overall, is that most new fiberglass yachts of reasonable length (30' and up) are too expensive for middle-class buyers. Fiberglass boats were invented by dreamers who wanted to bring boating to Everyman; Spurr suggests, soberingly, that the dream seems destined to die.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for those who love taking "dock walks", September 15, 2004

By 

Richard D. Wright (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heart of Glass : Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them (Paperback)

What a super book! It has everything the average sailor could want to know about fiberglass. I have no idea how Bob Perry (one of the editorial reviewers) could read this in one evening. It's just packed with information about most of the American (and some international) sailboat builders, their boats, and in most cases their demise. A lot of "experts" at my marina proudly profess knowledge about the histories of the different boats but, after reading this book, I've discovered that many of their stories are not accurate. I you love sailboats and wonder who built them, where they were built, how they were built, and when; then you should get this book. You'll certainly have a better understanding of boat brochures touting the virtues of features like S-glass, Airex cores, and the Scrimp process. And your next marina dock walk to check out other boats will be so much more interesting.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book marred by incorrect historical facts, August 15, 2007

By 

Matthew Canfield (Seatac, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Heart of Glass : Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them (Paperback)

I was excited when I found a book devoted to the recent history of fiberglass boats. My enthusiasm was diminished by some of the incorrect historical information conveyed in the first hand accounts the author relies on. For example, on page 9 of the hard bound addition he quotes John Wills, "About 1942 . . . I was chief engineer and janitor for Western Plastics . . . That same year a small group from Cal Tech (headed by Dr. Wernher Von Braun, the rocketeer) called me to look at a jet assist take off device".

In 1942 Dr. Wernher Von Braun was in Peenemuende Germany testing V-2 rockets for use against the Allied forces. He wasn't heading up any groups at "Cal Tech".

Such an obvious mistake should have been caught by the author, or at least his publisher's proofreader and never have made it into the published edition.