Now in its second edition, completely revised and updated, Spurr's Boatbook remains the best single source for understanding and improving your boat. You need not live with a dark or dank cabin, insufficient space for stowage or chartwork, or sheet winches, halyards, and reefing arrangements so inconvenient that you often find yourself motoring when you'd rather be sailing. Somewhere beneath your boat's crazed gelcoat, untamed rig, patchwork electrical system, and stubborn steering lies the boat of your dreams. This book will enable you to envision that boat in detail--how its deck hardware is laid out, what the rig looks like, where its hull and decks are reinforced, and how its cabin arrangements are altered to fit your needs. 
And the book will help you translate that vision into reality by showing you what work should be done and in what order, which projects you can do yourself and which you should probably hire out, and how much time or money might be involved. Along the way, Dan Spurr gives step-by-step instructions, supported by Bruce Bingham's beautifully clear drawings, for many useful projects any do-it-yourselfer can tackle, including autopilot installation, deck hardware modifications, and electrical system upgrades. 
The gear, equipment, design, and construction standards cited in this book--often in very specific detail with brand-name recommendations--are as useful for evaluating a new boat as they are for buying a used boat or improving the boat you already own.

Spurr's Boatbook: Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat

Sports & Outdoors

Spurr, Daniel

Water Sports

International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press

Here is a book as useful to boatowners as it is beautiful. Yacht Style provides a wealth of innovative solutions to questions of light, space, color, materials, access, and stowage in boats from small cruisers to megayachts, both power and sail. 
One of today's most gifted nautical writers, Dan Spurr roams freely above and below decks, missing nothing, sometimes applauding, sometimes shaking his head. His lively and opinionated text is further enhanced by interviews with such luminaries as powerboat designer Tom Fexas, cruising sailboat designer Robert Perry, and yacht interior designer Blanche Bloomfield. 
Carefully designed and crafted, Yacht Style is a book worthy of its subject--the boatowner's ultimate idea book.

Yacht Style: Design and Decor Ideas for Your Boat

In a book that is sure to become a classic, internationally respected boatbuilder, yacht manager, and delivery skipper Bill Seifert shares his hard-won solutions to a host of boat design, construction, and equipment issues and seamanship dilemmas. Unlike other books on the subject, Offshore Sailing doesn’t just tell readers what to do for safe and comfortable passage making; it shows them how to do it with clear, step-by-step instructions and nearly 200 detailed drawings and photographs.

Offshore Sailing: 200 Essential Passagemaking Tips

Seifert, William G.

The Comprehensive Sailing Start-Up Resource 
<ul>
<li>Can a keelboat tip over? </li>
<li>Can I take a centerboard boat onto open water? </li>
<li>How can I determine what boat I want? </li>
<li>Once I do, what’s a fair price to pay for it? </li>
<li>Should I buy it new or used? </li>
<li>How can I tell the difference between a used boat and one that’s used up? </li>
<li>Now that I have it, how can I start sailing quickly and safely? </li>
</ul>
Your First Sailboat is the first book to answer all your questions about selecting, buying, maintaining, and using your first boat. This user-friendly guide covers issues that other books ignore, including how to choose between a trailer sailer, daysailer, raceboat, cruiser, or multihull; what hull material is best for your first boat; whether to buy new or used; where to shop; how to judge quality and condition; where to keep your new boat; and what to do about gear, loans, insurance, and annual maintenance. Special features of this all-in-one handbook include: 
<ul>
<li>A descriptive buying guide to 75 recommended sailboats of all types and sizes, from daysailers to racers, cruisers, and multihulls </li>
<li>A decision tree to guide you to your ideal starter boat </li>
<li>Complete instructions on how to care for and sail your boat as well as how to acquire it </li>
</ul>
Straightforward and fun, Your First Sailboat gives you just what you need to stop asking questions and start sailing. Everything else is optional. Save time. Save money. This book omits everything you don’t need to know.

Your First Sailboat : How to Find and Sail the Right Boat for You

Nine out of ten sailors today own sturdy, often beautiful, fiberglass craft. Fiberglass brought boating to the non-rich, but the history of that revolution has never been told. Daniel Spurr rectifies this omission with his affectionate account of the fiberglass boat, from its earliest incarnation in World War II to the present. Spurr profiles landmark designs that set the standards in the used-boat market and introduces the vivid personalities who invented the world of boating we know today.

Heart of Glass : Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them

Business & Money

Biography & History

Is your boat ready to go cruising? 
Just about every sailboat―used and new―can make a good cruiser, but only if the hull-deck structure, rig, and systems meet certain standards. Spurr’s Guide to Upgrading Your Cruising Sailboat tells you what those standards are, and gives you all the help you need to refurbish and upgrade every structure, surface, fitting, and system on your boat―stem to stern, project by project. 
This all-in-one guide leads you step by step to a seaworthy, crew-friendly boat with top-notch cruising performance. Not only will you learn what to look for when you buy a new or used boat, you'll also learn how to reinforce your boat’s hull and structural components, redesign and replace rigging, upgrade electrical systems, and much more. Special features include: 
<ul>
<li>A detailed survey of 70 used and new fiberglass sailboats best suited to offshore sailing </li>
<li>Gear and equipment recommendations by brand name </li>
<li>Construction details and other essential features of a strong, safe cruising boat </li>
<li>How to make critical repairs to the deck, hull, bulkheads, blisters, and portlights </li>
</ul>

Spurr's Guide to Upgrading Your Cruising Sailboat

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

The fascinating story of fiberglass boats and the mavericks who dreamed them. Nine out of ten sailors today own sturdy, often beautiful fiberglass craft. Fiberglass brought boating to the non-rich, but the history of that revolution has never been told. Daniel Spurr rectifies this omission with his highly readable and affectionate account of the fiberglass boat, from its earliest incarnation in World War II to the present day. In the early days, when shoestring genius was unfettered by industrial efficiency, there were boats with tailfins, boats baked in ovens, and boats designed to be dropped from planes. The voyage from those first ugly ducklings to the graceful boats of the 1990s makes a riveting adventure of triumph and ruin. Along the way, Spurr profiles landmark designs that now set the standards in the used-boat market, and he portrays the revolution in human terms, introducing us to the vivid personalities who invented--often in their garages and rarely at a profit--the world of boating we know today.

Heart of Glass: Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them

History

Americas

Praise for Your First Sailboat "Here's a book for first-time sailboat buyers that offers practical information they can really use to ease the transition to boat ownership. The buying guide to 84 of the more popular used sailboats will be particularly helpful when making the rounds at the boatyard." -- Cruising World "Spurr strikes just the right balance in this book of logic, education, and humor, without ever talking down to the reader." -- Latitude 38 "Have fun. Save time. Save money. This book omits everything you don’t need to know." -- Great Lakes Boating <ul>
<li>Can a keelboat tip over? </li>
<li>How can I determine what boat I want? </li>
<li>Once I do, what's a fair price to pay for it? </li>
<li>Should I buy it new or used? </li>
<li>How can I tell the difference between a used boat and one that's used up? </li>
<li>Now that I have it, how can I start sailing quickly and safely?</li>
</ul>
Your First Sailboat has answers to all your questions about selecting, buying, maintaining, and using your first boat. This user-friendly guide covers issues that other books ignore, including how to choose between a trailer sailer, daysailer, raceboat, cruiser, or multihull; what hull material is best for your first boat; whether to buy new or used; where to shop; how to judge quality and condition; where to keep your new boat; and what to do about gear, loans, insurance, and annual maintenance. Special features of this second edition include:
<ul>
<li>An up-to-date descriptive buying guide to 84 recommended sailboats of all types and sizes, from daysailers to racers, cruisers, and multihulls </li>
<li>
How-Do-I? sections that cover boat handling, maintenance, and navigation </li>
<li>
What-If? segments that cover a variety of worst-case scenarios that you may worry about--from getting lost, to sinking, and when to look for the next sailboat!</li>
</ul>
Straightforward and fun, Your First Sailboat gives you just what you need to stop asking questions and start sailing.

Your First Sailboat, Second Edition

Upgrading the Cruising Sailboat

Seven Seas Press

The author recounts his experiences sailing south to Florida along the Atlantic coast with his family

Steered by the Falling Stars: A Fathers Journey

Self-Help

Death & Grief

Henry Holt Co.

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Books by Spurr, Daniel