Customer Reviews

The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails: A How-to Handbook for Builders and Owners

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

 

 

I like this book for its enoyable writing style and practical information on the rigging of traditional small wooden boats. The various sails documented are the lovely and functional products of centuries of European and American boating tradition, and what is good in life should stay that way, and the author assists this process with his contribution to the subject. Indeed, what better way to insure the continued tradition of lug sails and etc, than to discuss them in an inexpensive and focused book such as this? If you were to own just one book on small traditional sails, and were not interested a lot of ancillary and craftmanslike detail, this might be the book, although a variety of other books are also available and go into greater depth on this or that issue. Of course, you can't have too many books about traditional boats, so you ought to own and read them all! Start with this one, and if you enjoy it, start buying the others, is what I'd advise.

The photographs are clear and useful, but if I have one complaint, it is the basic visual format of the book: the type size and page layout could be slightly more compressed and compactly designed, providing the same information in a more handy (less amateurish looking) package. A small complaint, but there you have it. If I didn't complain about something, you might not believe the good things I had to say. --wt

The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails: A How-to Handbook for Builders and Owners
Excellent book, clear and concise with good pictures and diagrams. Very good intro and subject background with logical progression through various types of sails and their rigging.
I enjoyed reading and have come back to reread various chapters as I study different boat designs prior to selection and building a traditional small sailboat.

Traditional small boats come in several flavors and some of the rigs were included in this book. It does have some usefull information on basic rig types like the gunter and sprit however it lacks scope. I would very much like to see more rigging examples, pictures, and detailed descriptions of the lines, ropes, sheets, etc., where they go and what they do. I was looking for where to mount fittings and of what type. Where on/in or through the mast am I going to run the lines, where do they go and how should they be tied off. What are the traditional types of fittings, what materials are considered traditional? How is the boom to be fixed to the mast, what keeps the boom from flying about and how do you manage the lines. If your going to rig your boat this book does not include the information you would need to get a loft to produce a sail for you, nor would you come away with an idea of what other parts and pieces you would need to complete your rig. I would like to have seen some example sail plans of the various types. If Nichols were to add less than 2000 more words and several more examples of each type, sailing characteristics, pictures, drawings, photographs and details he would have a real winner that could be a must have book. Mabe a revision is in order.

Thought I knew all I needed to know about small boat sails of the traditional type. As usual, I was wrong. Much excellent knowledge in this book; it is also a good introductory one for the newcomer to the subject.

This short handbook is among the most useful books in my sailing library. It is short. It is a handbook. It will help you see the possibilities. It will not work out the details of a particular design for you. Gary Blankenship's review of the book in Duckworks magazine is fair and accurate. Have a look:

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I enjoyed this book as a nice little introduction to traditional sails and rigs. However, I found the authors style of writing difficult at times. You may not. He is not overly technical and does not use archaic nautical terms but at times is just a little unclear. It is a nice primer to traditional sails.

A good book if you're looking for a discussion of various simble rigs. Add sailmakers apprentice if you're really interested in sails.

got for my father, an avid sailor, and boat builder. he found it enjoyable and informative.

I feel the title oversells the book which then disappoints. If the author substituted "The Working Guide..." for "An Introductory Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails", I would have no major complaints and would have rated far better. The subtitle "A How-to Handbook..." I also find misleading.

The book touches lightly on a number of rig and sail related subjects but goes into no real detail on any of them. For a complete novice it may be a reasonable primer, but it is a book I read once and cannot see myself returning to, except to lend to someone asking a lot of questions.

I read through expecting to find substance somewhere, but the slightly untidy style never went into any depth. I was expecting to find a basic introduction to sail design, cutting or making, as well as repair techniques. Perhaps I expected too much from the cover of a book calling itself a How-to Handbook.

this guy is a kindasorta wannabe late comer and his plans, while somewhat interesting, are over priced...look at his canoe plans at over a hundred bucks, then go to, say, Harry Bryan's selection and find his 'Fiddlehead' at half the price. Mr. Nichols photos show sloppy work when compared with his contemporaries, and his version of 'lapstrake' is clunky rather than fine.

I'd suggest Iain Oughtred's 'Clinker Plywood Boatbuilding', Tom Hill's 'Ultralight Boatbuilding', Burns and Hill's 'How to Build Glued Lapstrake Wooden Boats' or Greg Roessel's 'the Boatbuilder's Apprentice'. These are superior books by lifetime practicioners of the trade.