Jim Young: Designer, Boatbuilder, Sailor - Paperback

by Jim Young (Author)

A comprehensive history of yacht design in New Zealand as seen by one of the country's leading designers. 298 pages in full colour with plans and drawings. This book covers a unique period in the history of yachting and boating in New Zealand that happened to coincide with Jim Young's life as a boatbuilder/ designer/ yachtsman. It was an era that saw dramatic advances in design and construction technology from what was an ancient craft, steeped in tradition, unchanged for centuries, to a time when boat builders have had to relearn the trade completely as wood has been steadily replaced by synthetics. This book lays out Jim Young's boat building career from his boyhood canoe made of roofing iron and tar to some of the most successful boat designs in New Zealand maritime history.

Author Biography

Jim Young began his boatbuilding apprenticeship in 1940 at the age of 15, having an obsession with boats and everything that made them tick. Starting out making cups of tea for the other workers, he progressed to helping to build the first naval vessel in New Zealand, the HMS Hinau. Before long he opened his own boatyard on Northcote Point and designed some of the most successful yachts in the world. "Everybody had to build their own boats, right down to the cleats and the pulley blocks and that's what made New Zealanders such great sailors." He claims to have built the first boat in the world with a canting keel, now used by all of the Volvo Ocean Race yachts. In 2012 he earned a place on the New Year honours list as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to yachting.