|
Books:
Here over the months to come I'll be posting a list of books that I've
found of to be valuable on my book shelf. Many are current.
Some are not but they offer a wide range of information on the topics at
hand. For those
you you who have been paying attention take a gold red star out of petty
cash.
Promises aside, I really do want to implement this function and will
attempt to do so over the next few months. Unfortunately up till now all
I can show you is more verbosity.
|
|
How
do you learn more about this stuff?
It's not that easy....
Nothing would make me happier than to being able to point you to
one or two great texts capable of answering most of the design questions
that pop up for both amateurs and professionals alike. You know, that
well rounded volume that could shepherd you through evaluations of
powering, structures, stability, accommodations and more. Unfortunately
I've been looking for that one or two great texts for all of my
professional career. It has been an source of irritation that really no
text book level book exists on the subject of yacht or commercial
design.
There are books of this caliber available for large ship Naval
Architecture and while the principals are the same (or generally the
same) the analysis they provide is often at a much more rigorous level
than suitable for an arm chair read. Even when you put that issue aside,
much of the analysis is much more labor intensive than is practical for
small craft work. Also often the analysis they provide relies on
coefficients, tables, or rules that may be largely inappropriate for
vessels less than hundreds of feet long.
As a result the average designer's book shelf is more likely to contain
dozens if not hundreds of volumes acquired over the years, each with it's own kernels
of wisdom. Some of the best are unfortunately no longer in print, but
occasionally available from used bookstores.
Since I cannot give you one or two volumes, I will instead give you a
more lengthy bibliography of books on my shelves. I will not pretend
that they are books I've read cover to cover. As such I'm not going to
pretend to review them for you. I will, however, do my best to provide
you with some sense of why the book is on my shelf, and which ones that
have been most useful to me over the years.
I've included big ship texts as well as more yacht oriented volumes.
Generally the books have a powerboat focus, though a few sailboat books
creep in just because. I will be interested in comments as to the
usefulness of list.
Chuck |
