Boat Crazy - by Stan Grayson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This collection of twenty articles from the pages of WoodenBoat magazine represents a wide-ranging and important account of American yachting history. In newly written behind-the-scenes introductions, award-winning author and historian Grayson discusses why he found each topic...

Book Synopsis

Since 2004, award-winning author and historian Stan Grayson has regularly contributed stories to WoodenBoat 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 WoodenBoat presents a wide-ranging and insightful account of American yachting history and some of its fascinating characters.

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, Boat Crazy 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.

Key to Grayson's work are the primary source materials on which his writing is based. Each piece found in Boat Crazy 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.

Review Quotes

Grayson's meticulous research, combined with his love for language, paints vivid portraits of characters and events that transport readers through time, offering glimpses of technology, personalities, and the enduring spirit of American yachting. Whether you're a seasoned sailor or simply curious about maritime history, this book is a must-read.

Great stuff! These twenty stories, written over the course of years, hang together as if they were planned as a book all along. Often the same people and boats turn up in different contexts--you will soon find them old friends, even if they were not familiar before beginning the book. The history of yachting and boat design are important subjects rarely given enough attention by historians. And a historian with a significant lifetime of experience in boating is not as common as you might think. Thank you, Stan Grayson, for pulling this all together!

Those familiar with New England nautical history and folklore are also familiar with the work of Stan Grayson, else there's a gap in their educations. In this engaging collection of backstories on all manner of vessels, from cup racers to catboats, Grayson writes with the authority of a historian, the keen eye of an archivist, yet the congenial ease of a dockside storyteller whose aim is also to entertain.

About the Author

Stan Grayson is an award-winning writer widely known for his books and articles about American yachting, small-craft history, and the American automobile and marine engine industries. After receiving a master's degree in English from Pennsylvania State University, followed by Army service in Vietnam, Stan pursued a career that has included stints as a newspaper reporter, photographer, and automotive industry consultant, but most of all as a writer specializing in yachting history. His work has appeared in Nautical Quarterly, Yankee, WoodenBoat, and Automobile Quarterly, among other publications.

His best-known books include Ferrari, the Man, the Machines, Cape Cod Catboats, The Wianno Senior Story: A Century on Nantucket Sound, A Genius at His Trade: C. Raymond Hunt and His Remarkable Boats, and A Man for All Oceans, a John Lyman Book Awards Honorable Mention and about which author Nathaniel Philbrick noted: "Grayson casts a revelatory light not only on Slocum but the times in which he lived and sailed."

Grayson is also a recipient of the Golden Cassette Award from the American Television Association and the Edgar B. Caffrey Award from the Salem Antique & Classic Boat Festival. The Caffrey Award recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to the recognition and preservation of New England's maritime heritage.

Grayson lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Matthew P. Murphy is editor of WoodenBoat magazine.