Introduction

As indicated in the Table of Contents, this book is divided into three sections. The first section contains general information on sail boating. It was written for us by Gerald Taylor White. We were indeed fortunate in persuading Jerry White to produce this section because in boating knowledge and experience he has few peers. He was formerly editor of the magazines The Rudder and Motor Boat and at present is the director of both the Westlawn School of Yacht Design and Westlawn Associates, Naval Architects. In addition, he is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and is Chairman of the Board of the Society of Small Craft Designers. If you have had any boating experience at all, you will soon discover that Mr. White is a controversial writer. He says what he thinks and lets the chips fall where they may. You won't agree with every point he makes, but v/f think you'll find him a stimulating and provocative teacher.

To illustrate Mr. White's section of the book, we chose Walter Stein-hard of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Mr. Steinhard spent the winter in Florida on this assignment and from both the technical and the pictorial angle the results are superb. The numerous sketches accompanying Mr. White's text were prepared by Allen Beechel.

The second section of the book contains miscellaneous information, hints, and projects. All have been chosen with the amateur do-it-himself sailor in mind. There isn't as much material in this section as we would have liked, but we just couldn't get any more in and still-do justice to the first and last parts of the book.

The third section is devoted to active small one-design and development-class sailboats. Whenever possible, we have gotten a leader in each class to write it up. When this was impossible, we have at least managed to cover the salient points of each boat ourselves. As far as we know, this is the first time, at least in a number of years, that a comprehensive roundup of all of the leading small boats in the land has been attempted. Over 25 classes are described and you'll be hard put to discover an outstanding active boat that's been omitted.

If you are already the proud owner of a small sailboat, you'll enjoy reading about your own class, of course, and you'll also get a kick out of meeting the other classes. Some of the claims made may sound exaggerated to you. If so, just remember your enthusiasm for your own class and be charitable toward the equally enthusiastic sailors in other classes.

If you are not a boat owner as yet, but are forced to do your sailing in an armchair, here's the easy way to weigh one class against the others. Instead of having to travel about the country, visiting boatyards, attending races, and picking up isolated bits of information here and there, you can sit at home and let your mind roam with us as we go from class to class in the pages of this book.

Zook accurately heaved a barrage of mastodon-bone utensils at poor Moogly.

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