The World's Best Sailboats: A Survey [Hardcover]

Ferenc Máté (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 19, 1995

A guided tour of the world's best sailboats with an entertaining expert at your side.

The World's Best Sailboats has become the most cherished and respected illustrated sailing book of all time. Its unique format includes over 400 spectacular color photographs by the world's leading nautical photographers coupled with astutely presented technical information on the best and most beautiful sailboats manufactured. Máté's insistence on uncompromising quality and his always engaging, entertaining style make this a timeless work and must-reading for anyone interested in sailboats. Its encyclopedic scope covering all aspects of sailboat design and construction, gleaned from personal visits to the world's best boatyards and interviews with the leading builders and designers, gives us not only a feast for the eyes and the stuff of dreams but also a thorough education. Máté visited the world's best boat builders from Finland to Italy, from Maine to California, and in his book evaluates and describes the sailboats of the nineteen best yards. The text is full of technical information on design and construction of available boats, while the magnificent color photos celebrate the beauty of sailboats and fine craftsmanship. His writing, as always is both informative and entertaining. 400+ color photographs

Editorial Reviews

Review

A complete boat show between covers. -- John Rousmaniere, author of The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

Don't buy a boat without it. -- Canadian Yachting

Possibly the most beautiful sailing book ever published. -- Yachting Magazine

From the Back Cover

A survey of the world's best sailboat builders and sixty of their boats

Able
Alden
Baltic
Beneteau
Cambria
Camper & Nicholsons
Cherubini
Dickerson
Freedom
Hallberg-Rassy
Hinckley
Little Harbor
Morris
Pacific Seacraft
Sam Morse
Shannon
Swan
Sweden Yachts
Vindo

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: Albatross; 1 edition (April 19, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0920256112
• ISBN-13: 978-0920256114
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #753,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ferenc Máté was born in Hungary and escaped after the revolution at the age of eleven. He grew up in Vancouver, and has lived in California, Paris, the Bahamas and New York. He had worked on a railroad extra-gang and as a boatbuilder, photographer, deckhand and book editor. His many books include the nautical bestsellers "From a Bare Hull," "Shipshape," and "The World's Best Sailboats," as well as the acclaimed "Autumn," "A New England Autumn," "A Reasonable Life," "The Hills of Tuscany," "The Wisdom of Tuscany," and the Dugger/Nello series of high seas adventures. He and his family run their vineyards and winery in Montalcino, Tuscany.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful pictures, but short on insights, October 24, 1998

By 

Robert S. Newman (Grapevine, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World's Best Sailboats: A Survey (Hardcover)

This is book of beautiful pictures and great interviews with designers of some of the most respected sailboat builders in the world. I enjoyed the read and I very much liked the emphasis on overall quality that comes through loud and clear. Mate's book, however, is like a tour guide to the world of the "rich and famous", not a practical guide to functional sailboats. If you have $800K to buy an Alden or a Hinkley, then be my guest, but understand that while these boats are built to the highest quality standards, some of the design compromises they incorporate do not produce the safest, most appropriate, or the most durable boats in the world.

Mate' is clearly a knowledgeable sailor and no lightweight when it comes to boat design issues, but he seems to have missed the point with this book. I had almost bought into his philosophy that a beautiful boat with lovely teak decks and interiors is the same a "great" sailboat when I saw a write-up on Steve Dashew's new "Beowulf" series of boats and how they were designed and developed(covered in "The Encyclopedia of Cruising"). Dashew's thoughts are worlds apart from the design philosophies of the manufacturers of high-end production boats like the ones covered in Mate's book. If the purpose of this book is to provide a useful guide to the market for new production sailboats, to my mind, the author has missed the mark. A potential sailboat buyer will benefit far more by taking a look at some of Dashew's design comments than he or she might by reviewing any of the boats mentioned in this book.

What bothered me most about this book was the boat builders that Mate' excluded as well as some that made his "A" list. No production boat mentioned in this book is built out of aluminum which is far superior to GRP in almost every respect. On the other side of the coin, some of the boats included had me scratching my head. Hallberg-Rassy and Beneteau were both reviewed even though both have serious weaknesses as far as blue water sailing in rough weather is concerned. Hallberg-Rassy still uses the chopped glass lay-up method for its hulls which is far weaker and less stiff way of building hulls than woven GRP. Beneteaus, which are marvelous boats for the price, lack stiffness because of the use of a plastic shell liners rather than integral beams and other stiffeners used in most better boats. You would not want to spend much time in the Southern Ocean in either of these production boats.

All in all, I loved the photographs, enjoyed the comments of the designers, but ultimately found the book lacking in useful insights. As a tour of what's available at the high-end of the production market, the book may have some merits, but viewed as an aid to selecting a safe and suitable boat it falls short.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious eye candy, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World's Best Sailboats: A Survey (Hardcover)

The photography is stunning, the interviews thought-provoking. If you want to see beautiful boats in all their glory, this is the book for you.

Selection is a bit arbitrary; the high technology side of the industry is pretty much ignored. But that's not what this book is about. It's about beauty. It's about style. It's about craftsmanship.

Those are great things, in any era, for any reason. But I do join with the previous reviewer: This is an appreciation, not a buyers' guide. By all means buy the Dashews' Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia and educate yourself technically before spending $ 500,000 plus on a boat.

Buy this book and let your imagination soar, into a world where you have the funds and the energy to maintain a sixty-five foot teak-laden palace. True beauty is yours.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book would be cheap at twice the price!, June 3, 2000

By 

Joseph H Pierre "Joe Pierre" (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World's Best Sailboats: A Survey (Hardcover)

This is an absolutely gorgeous book. The photography is awesome! It is a "dreambook." You would not look through it in order to choose a boat. Most of them would only be available as used boats in any case. You buy this book for your coffee table, because you love fine, beautiful yachts!

Ferenc Mate has done a remarkable job, bringing together some of the finest sailing yachts, designed by the world's best naval architects and built by some of the best yards. The boats are described in the text, and the building techniques and history discussed, and line drawings presented of the plans, buttock lines, sailplans and accommodations. But, the most striking feature of the book is the exquisite photographs, many of which were made by Mate himself (photographic credits are listed on page 281.)

One does not need to be a yacht owner to love such vessels, or to love this book. However, I have been a yacht owner. I built my own, in my back yard: a ketch-rigged (two-masted) trimaran, the Wild Goose, document number 516550 Net 11. She was a 36' beauty, with a 20' beam that took me four years to build and all the money in the world. We sailed her and lived on her for a couple of years in the Pacific.

Anyone who has ever longed for their own boat will want this fine book to dream over. Such dreams can and do come true. Take my word for it, they do!

Joseph Pierre,
Author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity