wood, water & light

This book is both a celebration and an appreciation of wooden boats. It is a collaboration between a photographer with a passion for boats and a keen eye for light and shadow and a writer with the same passion combined with a deep understanding of form, function and structure. Within these pages are sections on two dozen boats and yachts. Accompanying each is a lovely profile drawing revealing the underwater character of the craft and an arrangement rendering of the interior layouts or structures. Here are wonderful examples of wooden boat building, from the dainty sailing canoe “Twilite” to the rugged schooner “Heritage” and the aircraft-engine-powered 70-knot cruiser “Thunderbird”. There are classic cruising yachts from the functional simplicity of the little yawl “Annie” to the old-world elegance of the power yacht “Canim” with her carved moldings and marble fireplace. There are classic racers, like the vintage 12-meter “Gleam”, the 50-foot P-class sloop “Chips”, the still-active fleet of Dark Harbor 208 and the extraordinary Gold Cup racer “Baby Bootlegger”. There are acharming smaller craft, such as the Herreshoff 12 1/2s, one of the most beautiful small boat classes ever created, and the Beetle Cats, the oldest wooden one-designs in continuous production today. The traditional Maine Peapods, which served the inshore fishermen so well and so long, were among the most versatile and functional open boats ever devised. And there are classic working boats: the sardine carriers, the “Unity B”, designed, built and worked under sail by her owner, who carries her cargo to market at Nassau, and the lobster boats, once designed and built in great but subtle variety along the New England coast. It is a book to be savored again and again, a celebration of the uniqueness of the wooden boat.

Edition: 1988