Small Craft Advisory: A Book About the Building of a Boat

by Louis D. Rubin Jr.

Small Craft Advisory is an enchanting book about Louis Rubin’s obsession with boats and his years of often hilarious boating adventures.

When Louis Rubin was thirteen, he built a leaky little boat and paddled it out to the edge of the ship channel in Charleston, South Carolina, where he felt the inexorable pull of the water. Fifty years and dozens of boats later—sailboats, powerboats, inboards and outboards—the pull is as strong as ever.

In the tradition established by Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad, and Herman Melville, distinguished author and scholar Louis Rubin explores man’s longtime passion for boats. He examines the compulsion that has prompted him and hundreds of thousands of other non-nautical persons to spend so much time, and no small portion of their incomes, on watercraft that they can use only infrequently.

As his new boat (a cabin cruiser made of wood on a workboat hull) is being built, Rubin tells of his past boats and numerous boating disasters and draws a poignant comparison between his two watercraft and the craft of writing.

Anyone who has ever bought and owned a boat—or wondered why people are obsessed by them—will love this amusing, evocative, beautifully crafted memoir by an inveterate boat-owner.

Genres: Nonfiction, Southern

394 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Louis Decimus Rubin Jr. was born into a Jewish family in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 19, 1923. He studied for two years at the College of Charleston, served in the Army during World War II (1939–1945), and earned a BA in history at the University of Richmond.

Louis D. Rubin is a writer, editor, publisher, educator, and literary critic, and perhaps the person most responsible for the emergence of southern literature as a field of scholarly inquiry. He served on the faculty of Hollins College (now Hollins University) in Roanoke, Virginia. He coedited Southern Renascence, an important compilation of southern studies; founded the journal Hollins Critic; established the Southern Literary Studies series at the Louisiana State University Press; cofounded the Southern Literary Journal; cofounded Algonquin Books, a literary press that showcases emerging southern writers; and promoted the early work of important southern writers, including Clyde Edgerton, John Barth, and Virginia writers Lee Smith and Annie Dillard.

Reviews

[Kenton Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

It was a good winters read for boaters and for spring interested in boating in the Carolinas and the Bank.

[John Lyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

Louis Rubin wrote an excellent book about his love of boats. It is worth reading even if you don't own a boat.

[Stephen S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept the book, which I rarely do due to storage space. But this book was extremely entertaining considering the number of boats we have piloted and the situations we have found ourselves. Reading was like being in the boat with him. What a riot. Frankly, I will probably read it again someday. Definately worth the time. Try it you'll love it, even if you are not a boater!

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is a fine writer, but he is way too verbose and this book is much longer than necessary. And it's not really about the building of a boat, more like an outlet for all his frustrations with engines in his prior vessels. Then, when he finally reaches a point to end the book, he drags it on for 75 more pages. It would have worked as a series of essays; not a book.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was from my Dad's book shelf. It was OK, but not one of the best books I have ever read. It was a bit uneven.