The Elements of Boat Strength: For Builders, Designers, and Owners

This book is a great book that helps us amateurs in boat building to understand some key things in boat design. Gerr has been a very readable author in many publications over the years, and his articles in the former Small Boat Journal were always a highlight for me and this book is in similar fashion--easy for the layman to understand and apply. (And, what should be left to real engineers.) Having been rather bewildered over the years at how scantlings in boat design were determined, Gerr gives a good explanation of how these are calculated in primarily two different ways. One, a traditional strength formulation according to materials and their use that have proven to be good over the long haul. The other is by engineering the whole structure piece by piece and how it all works together. This book aims at the former, as the latter is the work of engineers on specific applications and designs. I was hoping for some good help on traditional ply construction and got it, albeit brief. Gerr wastes no words, and what I needed took some searching--Gerr put it in one sentence! If you are leaning towards aluminum boat construction you will find lots of support in this book. If you are looking for a lot of info on stitch and glue engineering, you may be disappointed. However, the explanations of what goes into boat strength is worth the price of the book. Some of the pictures could be better, but what is there serves the purpose. All in all, a good book. It has been said, "An educator takes something simple and makes it complicated. A teacher takes something complicated, and makes it simple." Gerr is in the latter category.

Just finishing chapter 4 and already love how easy this book is to ready and understand. Anyone wanting to build and or design should read this book first. Even if you built your own boat before this is great way to dive deeper into a better build and design.

Very useful book.

Great book! This book was just what I needed, while making boat repairs and contemplating my next purchase (or perhaps build). With an undergraduate degree in Ocean Engineering with a couple of naval architecture courses under my belt, I really needed a professional's common sense, savvy discussion of boat design. With each page read I visualized the different construction details seen at boat shows and on friend's boats, I can trace failures observed back to the discussions. The author's writing style really livens up the reading! I have read many books on the subject, this and "The Nature of Boats" are my favorites to date. My only criticism is that the scantlings were noted to be appropriate for speeds up to 45 knots, I would have liked to book to include higher speed designs as that is my current interest, still looking.... Otherwise, five stars!

As with most of his books, which are packed with way more informaiton than most of us will ever need but this one I think is for the designer. From his vast experience he shares proven ideas, thoughts and practical examples of what makes a boat able to withstand forces that we can only emagine. A good investment for the designer/builder. Maxey....It's Only Metal (I.O.M.)

If you had ever wondered how you go about working out if a boat is strong enough, then this is the book for you. Goes into detail about how scantling numbers are created. For me I just loved reading how all the maths is determined, as it sated my curiosity. For those serious about desiging their own boat, this is a superb book, Well written, well laid out, simple easy to follow logic. Thoroughly recommend it for those interested in the subject. David Gerr is a very good writer and a very smart person and it shows.

Great book for builders , technical but understandable, tons of bits of knowledge even for nonbuilders , even if ur just restoring and need to upgrade,

the fundemental study is very well presented. However the theory does not give displacement enough consideration allowing transverse strength to take greater emphasis thus losing potential for weight savings

Wie alle Bücher von Dave Gerr sehr präzise. Diesem Buch fehlt aber etwas der rote Faden, oder er ist mir als Nicht-Profi abhanden gekommen. Ich habe noch 2 weitere Bücher von ihm (Nature of Boats und Boat mechanical System Handbook), die ich verschlungen habe. Dieses werde ich nur abschnittweise lesen.

Ottimo testo

Was a good purchase price and packaged well posted in time also

I'm very happy with this book. It's the best overview on scantlings and structural design that I've been able to find. Highly technical (obviously) but easily understandable by meer mortals. Depending on what you're planning/building you will likely only need portions of the information, but I found for myself reading it through gave me a much better understanding of a number of considerations I hadn't spent enough time on. If you simply want to know 'how thick should my hull be', it's in there, but it will take you a while to extract the info and you'll learn a ton in the process. The book is a little cagey on the subject of high tensile composites, but this is understandable given the breadth of the subject and the lack of consistent application over time in order to produce reliable, proven scantlings. It does however provide some guidance with a lot of (appropriate) warnings. There's some info for small craft, but it's most useful and aimed at larger craft >6m. Don't count on it to be particularly helpful for composite canoes (my side project).

A great, concise reference book, with all the tech details and calculations for boat strength if your're building or repairing a boat!