Marine Books & Reference

Books

An invaluable resource for marine books and reference is The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) Ship’s Store, Here you will find books, ABYC Compliance Guidelines, downloadable ABYC Standards, downloadable ISO Documents, and Study Guides for ABYC certification courses. ABYC literally writes the standards for safe boats. Members get substantial discounts on books and ABYC courses. If you’re not a member, sign up now!

 

If you don’t find what you’re looking for at ABYC, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble have excellent selections of yacht-design and boat-design books. Bluewater Books & Charts (formerly, The Armchair Sailor), one of North America's leading maritime bookstores, has a database that includes more than 35,000 marine books, videos, software programs and charts covering 140 defined subject areas. Between 300 and 500 new titles are added monthly.

 

Reviews

Note: These reviews are informational only. Good sources for books are Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bluewater Books & Charts www.bluewaterweb.com. (Search under "Yacht Design" or "Boat Design".) Your local bookstore can also order books for you by providing them with the ISBN number.

 

The Elements of Boat Strength

 by: Dave Gerr

 Hard Cover, 368 pages, richly illustrated with examples, formulas, tables, charts, drawings, and photos Publisher: International Marine Publishing Company, Division of McGraw-Hill Companies (www.internationalmarine.com) Publication Date: 1999 ISBN: 0-07-023159-1 Cover Price: $34.95 US/ $50.95 CAN

 

Westlawn graduate and acclaimed author Dave Gerr has written a comprehensive handbook for calculating scantlings for boats and yachts. “The Elements of Boat Strength” presents scantling rules developed by the author for calculating the structure of monohull vessels of between 10 and 120 feet LOA, both power and sail, displacement or planing, and making speeds up to 45 knots. The rules apply to boats built by conventional methods of fiberglass, wood, wood-epoxy composite, steel, and aluminum.

 

An excellent discussion of each material precedes the section on calculating the scantlings for that material. This should equip the reader with the necessary background to be able to apply the scantlings intelligently. The scantlings themselves are so inclusive that they cover virtually every structure. And there is more good news. They are so easy to calculate that anyone who can handle ordinary arithmetic and find exponents using an inexpensive scientific calculator will have no trouble working any of the formulas. In addition, the author provides a worked example for each formula to show the reader exactly what to do. The “Elements of Boat Strength” has all of the formulas, tables, illustrations, and examples that you need to calculate the scantlings according to the rule.

 

Even if you use classical engineering methods for calculating structure you should seriously consider making this book part of your reference library. Engineering methods depend on accurate determination of loads. This is not always easy to do and in some cases accuracy is questionable. Scantling rules based on long experience with boat structures at sea can fill this gap.

 

Until now, manual calculations of boat structure were, at best, tedious. Dave Gerr’s new book changes this, making this complicated subject easy to understand and apply.

 

Recommendation: Intermediate and Advanced students

 

 

MARINE COMPOSITES by Eric Greene AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD

Eric Green's comprehensive reference "Marine Composites" is available for at www.marinecomposites.com. It reviews the technologies needed to engineer structures in composites for large and small boats. If you click on the link for each chapter, you can download the contents of the book in PDF format, at no cost.

 

The Cogito Project:

Design and Development of an International C-Class Catamaran

by: Duncan T. Maclane

Article, Marine Technology & SNAME News, Vol. 37, No. 4, October 2000

SNAME, 601 Pavonia Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306

 

Transverse Dynamic Stability of Planing Craft

by Edward M. Lewandowski

Article, Marine Technology & SNAME News, Vol. 34, No. 2, April 1997

SNAME, 601 Pavonia Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306

 

Ten Year Index of SNAME Publications (1986-1995)

A comprehensive list of technical papers etc.

SNAME, 601 Pavonia Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07306

 

Resistance Prediction of Planing Hulls

by Bryant S. Almeter

(Article) Marine Technology & SNAME News, Vol. 30, N0. 4, October 1993

Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers

601 Pavonia Ave. Jersey City, NJ 07306

 

PowerBoat Guide 1996 Brokers Edition

Reviews 1000 current & out of production models from 25' to 83'

American Marine Publishing, Inc., PO Box 3057, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33420,

Phone 407 624 8100

 

Guide for Building and Classing Offshore Racing Yachts

Ref. #37, Book, 1994

American Bureau of Shipping

 

Guide for Building and Classing Motor Pleasure Yachts

Ref. #62, Book, 1990

American Bureau of Shipping

 

Guide for Building and Classing High Speed Craft

Ref. #61, Book, 1990

American Bureau of Shipping

 

Hydrodynamics of High-Speed Small Craft

Publication # 292, Jan. 1985 / Book

by Lawrence J. Doctors

Dept. of Naval Architecture, University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 

Sailing Ship Intact Stability

by Chris Cleary et.al

Article, Marine Technology & SNAME News, Vol. 33, No. 3, July 1996

SNAME, 601 Pavonia Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306

 

An International Consortium on High Speed Propulsion

by Spyros A. Kinnas

Article, Marine Technology & SNAME News, Vol. 33, No. 3, July 1996

 

Weight Estimates and Stability Tests

by Eric W Sponberg

Article, Professional Boatbuilder #42, Aug./Sept.1996

 

1996 International Measurement System (IMS) Rules

Book, US Sailing, P.O. Box 1260. Portsmouth, RI 02871