About this ebook
The
Golden Age of Sail is long past, sadly, and much of its lore is nearly
extinct. Sailboats now almost uniformly use the Bermudan sloop rig—a
triangular jib and a triangular mainsail. But that rig evolved mainly to
meet esoteric yacht-racing measurement rules. It is not necessarily the
most efficient or effective rig. This book lets sailors rediscover the
practical advantages—and the aesthetic delights—of such configurations
as the sprit sail, the gaff sail, the lug sail, and the gunter rig. It
also includes valuable information on marlinspike work like
rope-whipping and eye-splicing; and tips on converting your modern
sailboat to a traditional rig.
______________________
Some reviews:
“This will become the classic book on traditional rigs for
small boats. . . . A concise and thorough compendium on using low-cost and
efficient traditional rigs, the kind that not only look better but work better
on small boats than their modern counterparts.”
—Gary Blankenship,
Duckworks Magazine
“The ‘traditional’ rigs here are the kind you’ll find on the
clinker plywood designs of Iain Oughtred and the like; rigs with polyester
sails and running rigging. Tufnol blocks and stainless steel shackles. ‘Modern
traditional boats’, if you’ll forgive the phrase. Similarly, there’s a nice mix
of old and new the manner the material is presented: old in the cleanliness of
the page design; new in the extensive use of colour close-up photographs to
illustrate details of the rigs. Highly recommended.”
—Water Craft
Magazine
"Mr. Nichols does an excellent job of explaining the
fundamentals in terms that are useful to old salts looking to tweak their rigs,
builders trying to figure out what's next, and admirers of traditional design."
—Good Old Boat
About the author
David L. Nichols has been building
boats and making sails for approximately fifteen years. When he isn’t
designing sails or building boats you’ll find him in the boats he’s
designed and built. He feels that the only way to truly understand boats
and sails is to use them. A graduate of the University of Texas at
Austin, he has written for boating magazines like WoodenBoat and Boatbuilder, as well as writing and producing boat building videos. His designs may be viewed at www.arrowheadboats.com.
