Posted by Mike F. on July 03, 2001 at 14:10:03 from 203.26.98.4:
In Reply to: good boats posted by John Pazereskis on July 03, 2001 at 03:21:21:
That's an interesting point, John. I have little doubt that if The Books were being written now they wouldn't feature clinker dinghies. On the other hand, I myself was reading the stories avidly in my early teens, and for me the boat that I got, whenever it was to be, had no alternative but to be both timber and clinker. So the fact that I didn't actually get it until I was an adult is really irrelevant. Whether that applies to other people, of course, I don't know.
I think, though, that even if AR were writing The Books in the 21st Century, the boats would still be timber (although possibly ply.) I think that AR would agree with me in thinking that plastic simply has no soul. And Swallow, Amazon, Scarab, and the rest certainly don't lack soul.
What's more, don't forget that the type of boats he describes were not new in the 1930s by any means -- all were already well-and-truly "traditional" designs by then (the dinghies even more so than most of the cruisers.) So maybe if he were writing now Swallow would be a Heron and Amazon a Cadet, perhaps.....