For many of us, a boat is one of the largest purchases we make. For some, the requirement is for a no compromise racer. Others are looking for a safe, comfortable performance cruiser. Many want a yacht that will successfully combine both roles. For the fortunate few, they become business assets in their own right, either doubling as a charter yacht or designed to combine persona! recreation with a mobile office, allowing busy executives the chance to take a break, or entertain in luxury, knowing always that the outside world is but a satellite phone or video link away. A small production cruiser like the Hallberg-Rassy 31 and a 250ft superyacht are at opposite ends of this spectrum, but providing the key aspects of their design meet each owner's requirements, both will share an equa! passion for what they own. To each of us, boats represent an escape from day to day !ife and more often than not, reflect our personalities. By choosing the right design, that all-important enjoyment factor will be just as intense whatever her size. This book was written unashamedly to fuel this passion; to show how dreams can be turned into reality and to maximise the enjoyment of owning a yacht. We talk chauvinistically about the owner, but designers like German Frers know that it is invariably the woman at his side that makes many of the key decisions. While we busy ourselves with performance predictions, prismatic coefficients, and length to weight ratios, it is the ladies who invariably give greatest thought to the practical aspects of accommodation and free deck space requirements that determine the overall length of a design. In the 1950s and 60's when the design skills of German Frers Snr, were at their zenith, good yacht design was very much down to individuai intuition, experience, and the way that the yacht builder interpreted a set of plans. Today, the traditional skills of balancing what outwardly look like conflicting requirements into an aesthetically pleasing package remain, but are mixed with such high technology that the development of successful boats, whether power or sail, now rely much more on the skills of a creative design team made up of structural analysts, aerodynamisists, computer wizards and hi-tech engineers. These developments transcend traditional thinking both in terms of performance and creature comforts provided. Now, as you will read, yachts like Dr Jim Clark's 155ft Hyperion can be trained quite literally to sai! themselves. Onboard, a satellite guidance system developed from Cruise missile technology, not only guides the yacht with pin-point accuracy but provides warnings against shallowing seabeds and proximity of other vessels, and when necessary, can take avoiding action. Hyperion 's onboard computers also train themselves to judge the optimum sail combinations and sheet settings for any given conditions, manage the interior environment, monitor ali the ship's systems and provide her owner via satellite connections, with the ability to view what is happening onboard in real time through her video monitors. In emergency, the system could conceivably allow him to oversee and manage the entire yacht from his office desk top. To many, this technology may seem like science fiction, but it will not be long before the cost of checking fuel and water loads, downloading a course and way-points for a week-end emise, as well as awaken on-board heaters, navigation systems and even the coffee pot ahead of your arrivai, ali via the Internet, will be down to pocket-book proportions. Combine this with the very real performance advances being gained through the computer programming and tank and wind tunnel testing from successive America's Cup design programmes, and one begins to realise that the 21st Century promises to be a golden era for ali forms of sailing. Our aim with this book has been to provide an insight into these exciting times and the creative skills now available to turn such dreams into reality. A magnificent limited edition, 4-colour deluxe coffee table book that provides an insight into the lives, designs and passions of one of the most prolific and successful line of yacht designers - all named Germán Frers. This is a book to delight all Frers yacht owners, those that have crewed on them, and all students of yacht design.