Customer Reviews

Principles of Yacht Design

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book focuses almost exclusively on modern, fin keel, canoe body, racing/cruising sailing yachts, with sloop rigs. There is little to interest those whose tastes run more to traditional designs or rigs, multihulls, or anything out of the ordinary. Much space is devoted to the hydrodynamics of fin keels and rudders, and as presented it is reasonably accessable/understandable to the average reader. All the mathmatics in the book is left out of the main text, and presented instead in separate boxes, a very nice arrangement. The index is poor, to the point of atrocious. I never seemed to be able to easily find what I was looking for.

Larsson and Eliasson present - in detail - the engineering and naval architecture processes that a yacht designer should use in designing a seaworthy yacht. The book presents, as an example, the design -from scratch- of a 40 ft. cruising sloop. Every aspect of yacht design is covered: hull shape, speed, friction, displacement, stability, dynamic stability, rigging, construction, interior design ergonomics, deck design, scantlings, standards, etc.
Typical of an engineering book, the style is factual and dry. Some people may find it lacks the poetry of other books.

Specially attractive is the presentation of formulas in separate boxes. Be prepared, however, to get acquainted with metric units, and engineering terms and formulas.
This is probably the most serious book on the subject of the yacht design. The only possible deficiencies are that motor yacht design is not specifically covered, and that emphasis is placed in the design of safe cruising sailboats rather than high performance racing boats. Despite these omissions, there is no doubt this book is a MUST for anyone really interested in the subject of designing a boat, specially if it is a sailboat.

This publication can be summed up as a reasonable introduction into conventional "modern" yacht design. However, it seems to be tailored towards amateur boat builders or even the keen sailor. A lot of ground is covered, but it only scratches the surface on many subjects. But perhaps this is all one should expect from a publication that only claims to cover the "principles" of yacht design. In my opinion as a naval architect, the book seems to lack depth and scientific data that could make it an interesting read or reference work for the professional.

This is a worthwhile text on yacht design and is fairly comprehensive. It's the best replacement to date for the venerable but dated "Elements of Yacht Design" by Norman Skene. One word of caution though-if you take the time to actually follow through all the formulas and design methodologies, you'll find that the calculations are often incomplete or simply incorrect! If the publishers or authors would take the time to properly edit this book, they'd really have something.

The second edition of this book is an excellent step by step guide to both power and sail design. The book is written by a professor and professional yacht designer, that provide both excellent science and practical experience.

Yacht design is not a simple topic and cannot be made into childs play. THere are complex trades among stability, speed, displacement, length to beam ratios and much more. Most any boat will float if some effort is made to be sure its materials do not out weigh the hull shape displacement, but making a vessel that is safe in a seaway, speedy and efficient is another matter.

I highly recommend this book after 20+ years in yacht design software development and strongly encourage the seriously interested boat designer to carefully read and try the examples for him (her) self.

As a formerly trained naval architect, this book answers the questions about yacht design practice that were not covered in my education. In simple language, it supplies the basic knowledge of current yacht design principles in a way which most sailors will understand, yet it gives enough technical background that an engineer can put the information to use. Very good reference (I have no connection with the authors or publishers).

This is one of the best modern references on the topic of sailing yacht design. Highly recommended for anyone planing to design a sail boat. I personally would put more emphasis on optimizing the prismatic coefficient as a function of design speed. I would also make the book larger and include more information on power boats, various piping systems and electrical systems.

good book but I was suprised when I had to pay 18.50 euros customs charges? bringing the total to nearly 60 euros?
Being as I ordered the book on amazon.co.uk I would have expected it to be already in the european zone?,

If you want to learn about how yachts are designed, what considerations are necessary, or what sort of forces, force balances or approximations are involved, this book will explain it in a very easy to read and comprehend manner, but without skimping on the technical details. This was the textbook for a course in yacht design for Naval Architecture students at the University of Michigan, but is quite honestly the most comprehensive and relevant book about modern yacht design available.

I have designed and built a 26 foot sloop starting 23 years ago as an amateur and helped others to complete their boats after.Right now I`m building a sailing dinghy by my own design. All this years I have compiled informations about yacht design and building technics and their evolution through the time. It`s a hobby for me but many times I felt to much uncertainty about some aspects in designing sailboats. This book is excellent to relieve you of many uncertainties by brief an well informed discussion of various aspects of yact design. The computational part is more than helpful.You won`t find informations about wing masts ,wide beam aft tendencies, but classical features are well and thouroughly discussed.