Seven years after it first appeared in print we find ourselves going back to this book. Invariably the need to cross reference a detail or check something on the design list (complete and concise!) gets side-channelled into a happy half hour of reading or re-reading about one or other of the beautiful yachts featured here. It’s not just the boats that captivate us – Martin Black’s biography of this great Scottish designer is full of the history of the times – photos of yacht crews from the late Victorian era, shipyards and Clydeside scenes… ladies in long dresses. Technically trained and with an innovative mind that could embrace new material technology, tank testing and a scientific approach to form, George Lennox Watson was leading the world during the Golden Age of Yacht Design. Yachts like Britannia, Meteor II, Thistle, Valkyrie (II and III), Shamrock II are names which still conjure up the magnificent racing of the period. But then he also designed smaller craft – 2½ and 5 tonners, plus schooners, sumptuous steam yachts and of course the famous Watson Class Life Boats; from 1887 he was the RNLI’s consulting Naval Architect. Of the 160 motor lifeboats he designed – the last built, The Robert, was in service in Beaumaris until 1991. The RNLI chapter makes this book all the more special.

Watson is described as working himself to death at the age of 53 – which makes his prodigious output all the more amazing. Today his designs are often forgotten but he had a huge effect on the British maritime outlook and this is a great book that charts his life and work during the period when the industrial conditions were allowing huge, fast and beautifully proportioned yachts to be built and raced in a way that captured the imagination of many.

It’s beautifully written, with anecdotes that add a savoury note to the scientific and engineering achievements. And you’ll probably find yourself dipping into it for years to come.

 

G.L. Watson – The Art and Science of Yacht Design – £79
Published 2011, Peggy Bawn Press, Hardcover, 496 pages, ISBN: 978-0-9571123-0-8,
Book Dimensions: 26 x 28.7 x 3.5 cm

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Peggy Bawn Press
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Email: books@peggybawnpress.com