Boat Crazy

<P>Since 2004 award-winning author and historian Stan Grayson has regularly contributed stories to <I>WoodenBoat</I> magazine about the many yachts small craft designers boat builders and sailors who have captured his imagination. This collection of twenty articles from Grayson and the pages of <I>WoodenBoat</I> presents a wide-ranging and insightful account of American yachting history and some of its fascinating characters.</P><P>Readers will voyage back to the early days of the famous Herreshoff Manufacturing Company; experience the fascinating 1895 America’s Cup race; share a morning’s scalloping on Martha’s Vineyard with the last of America’s catboat fishermen; meet the innovative C. Raymond Hunt who conceived the revolutionary deep-V powerboat; and gain an insightful look at Captain Jousha Slocum the first man to sail alone around the world. In these and other pieces <I>Boat Crazy</I> offers a delightful kaleidoscope of engaging stories that give readers a sense of time place technology and personality. In newly written behind-the-scenes introductions for each piece Grayson discusses why he found the topic important and shares interesting research tidbits and reader reactions.</P><P>Key to Grayson’s work are the primary source materials on which his writing is based. Each piece found in <I>Boat Crazy</I> combines Grayson’s painstaking original research with the patient step-by-step work of an experienced history detective a journalist’s curiosity and a writer’s love of language. Readers will emerge from this book with a deeper appreciation for both America’s yachting past and those who are working today to preserve and interpret it.</P>