20 Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere – Book Review

/ Ben Starling

Links below at bottom of post
Book the Captain just finished snoozing on:   
20 Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere, by John Vigor   
 
 
Is it possible to find small boats that can sail around the world? What does ocean ‘seaworthiness’ really mean?
Loved this book. Loved it! Could have happily snoozed on it all week. But it’s short enough that I powernapped through it in a single day.
John Vigor, former managing editor of Sea magazine, evaluates and compares the seaworthiness of 20 of the most tried, tested and beloved small yacht designs available. The boats range from 20 to 32 feet in length. 
Any one of these designs would be a solid choice to cross an ocean in. John lays out his analyses and evaluations clearly. Each design is compared to the ideal of seaworthy and also compared to (ranked against) each other.
Vigor points out aspects of seaworthiness as he describes each boat and evaluates them. However, I would have liked a clear introduction defining ‘seaworthy’ independently at the start of the book.
Fortunately, the Can Opener and I also invested in The Seaworthy Offshore Boat, by John Vigor. He defines here seaworthy in the first chapter on pages 2 and 3.
Seaworthy

Ocean crossing boat designs should have:

  • sturdier construction
  • stronger spars and rigging
  • more storage
  • less need for weather helm
  • seakindliness
  • ability to manoeuvre
  • habiltability

and

  • ability to right itself  quickly from a 180 knockdown.

Some bias 
  • There’s a bias in his group ranking scheme towards the larger boats which John readily admits to. It’s for good reason – a longer waterline means it takes a bigger wave to roll the boat. 
  • There also seems to be a bias towards North American designed boats. I expected a few Scandinavian (and possibly French) yacht designs to be included in the group. The closest were US-designed yachts that were ‘descendants’ of the Folkboat, for example.
Conclusion 
  • We’re going to add in the Nicolson 31 and the Southern Cross 31 to our long list ofboat designs to consider for ourselves. 
  • This book was a good investment. The criteria for seaworthiness were clearly illustrated and analysed as he considered each design. 
–Captain Cat 
(transcribed by the Can Opener) 
Book Reviews 

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