Customer Reviews

How to Choose the Right Yacht (Sailmate S.)

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The numerous diagrams and illustrations one finds when leafing through this little volume makes it seem like a promising attempt at explaining hydrodynamics of yachts to the layman owner/buyer. Unfortunately, the English translation (and perhaps the German original) is plagued with linguistic problems which considerably detract from its usefulness. Dimensional adjectives such as "tall" and "wide" are used inconsistently, sometimes referring to the vertical and sometimes to the horizontal axis; the important distinction between "keel" and "hull" is not always observed when vital to a point being discussed. The author is also in the habit of finishing discussions without summarizing the consequence or drawing a conclusion, leaving the reader wondering what it all meant. The author clearly knows his technical stuff, however badly it is conveyed, but his stern Teutonic opinions on comfort (accomodation on all yachts should consist of fold-down cots stacked in the center of the cabin; quarterberths and extra heads are frivolities!) won't win him many points with the intended audience of the book. It reminds me of the attitude German car companies had toward cup holders in automobiles until they discovered they were losing sales of $50,000 cars over that one amenity.
I don't think the potential buyer of a yacht will find much enlightenment in this too-difficult book except to have their eyes opened to the number of factors involved in yacht design.