Sailing Boats
by Fox, Uffa
pub. by St Martins Press, NY, 1959 -   -  photos and line drawings/sketch plans   -       isbn none - LCCN = 59-14793     204 pages.
Uffa Fox was a noted small boat designer and sailor. Most of his designs were for small light weight racing craft. What he did not know about racing small craft probably does not need to be known. He sailed across the Atlantic at least 3 times. He lived long enough to be involved in both WWI and WWII. During WWII he designed a boat which could be released from the bottom of a rescuing aircraft to drop to downed air crews to assist in their rescue. He was a personal friend of royalty. He sailed with the Prince of Wales when that prince was quite young, also the Duke of Edinburgh and the late King Feisal of Iraq.
Fox was a keen follower of the Americas Cup races. The last chapter of the book follows the races and the boats of the races up through 1958 with in depth analysis.
This book is an examination of 17 individual designs plus the Americas Cup analysis. Not all designs discussed were his own designs. A few were well designed catamarans. One of these (the prout Shearwater) was the predecessor of the design my father and I built.
A very good read if you want to understand fast sailboats, particularly smaller fast boats.
~2013-05-11~

to Books index page.

-