The Rudder Treasury: A Companion for Lovers of Small Craft

By Tom Davin

Book Overview

Featuring contributions from some of the most famous and diverse figures in the history of yachting and sailing, from Thomas Fleming Day and C. Andrade Jr. to John Alden and L. Francis Herreshoff, The Rudder Treasury is a timeless record of decades' worth of accumulated experience.

This volume encompasses some of the best articles ever to appear in the legendary Rudder magazine, the premier nautical publication from the first half of the twentieth century. It contains a treasure trove of influential writings on a varied and exhaustive array of topics. The four sections contain WInter Reading (all sorts of cruising adventures), The Dream Ships (plans and descriptions of various boats by well-known designers), the Care and Feeding of Yachtsmen, and The Hurrah's Nest, a bilgeful of dogmatic advice, arbitrary opinions, and clever devices and methods. This anthology is an invaluable resource, representing a wealth of wisdom unavailable for the past fifty years.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574091603
• ISBN13: 9781574091601
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Sheridan House, Incorporated
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Treasury, Indeed

Rudder was a great magazine and here are some highlights from it's pages. Many are still relevant today, and you can certainly get a tiny bit saltier just reading this. Even the items that have passed their usefulness are quite entertaining and give you a great sense of history. A very entertaining and informative read.

Notes from the Old School, or rather, the Experienced School

Each chapter of this book is an old article from the good years of Rudder Magazine (1893 - ~1950). I now see why the magaize has such an excellent reputation. The book is full of very interesting, practical and relevant information from real experts about both sailing a power boating. Also the authors are often very opinionated, and I find that extremely entertaining and useful. Today's magazines are largely of forum for advertisers, and the editors often write what pleases the advertisers (their primary source of $ is advertising, not subscription fees). I have more confidence in the advice of experts who have nothing to gain (this book), than the happy go lucky stories and product reviews of today's magazines. If you don't like all of the ridiculusly positive reviews, shiny products, and promotion of excessive reliance on systems, then skip today's magazines. If instead you believe sailing and cruising is about depending on your own competence with basic skills, knowlege and experience, then this should be excellent and informative reading. The information here is very relevant today: Boats still float, the wind still blows, and the sails still fill, good seamanship has not changed. I would take one issue of Rudder Magazine over a year long subscribtion of today's magazines (Sail Mag., Cruising World...)