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C.A. "Tony" Marchaj is a very rare combination. He is a highly trained
aerodynamics expert, a highly trained hydrodynamicist, an expert sailor, and a glider
pilot. There may well be no other single person in the world today whose studies of
sailing yachts have been as thorough, scientific, and broadly based as Mr. Marchaj's. This massive volume contains a very large amount of very valuable information that cannot be found in any other single source. One of the best things about it is that it contains both well written descriptions of how sailing vessels work and the underlying mathematics that describes their behavior. Thus the non-mathematically inclined can feel comfortably educated without having to actually do the calculations and the mathematically inclined or skeptical can avoid the frustration of "easy read" books which make large assertions but do not offer any proof. Mr. Marchaj is famous for writing books that take "what everyone knows" and carefully leading us through the reasoning that proves that, as usual, much of what "everyone knows" is just rationalization applied to fashion, fad, and supposition. The more you read Marchaj and the deeper you go into the studies he introduces, the more you will agree with him. While you may be a serious student of design and not read this book, I recommend that every professional or serious amateur designer have this book in their library. (tm) |