Book excerpt: A favorite volume from best-selling nautical author Ferenc Máté, now with an updated kit boat list. Lovingly written and beautifully photographed, Best Boats is an evaluation of the most elegantly designed and best-built sailboats in stages—from a bare hull to a finished yacht. In addition to evaluating overall design, performance and layout, this book, like no other, analyses how and how well the boats are built. Ranging from the ageless Herreshoff day-sailer to the ultra-light Santa Cruz flyers, the book features some of the finest works of designers such as German Frers, Chuck Paine, Bill Crealock, Doug Peterson, Lyle Hess, and others. Even more importantly, it contains interviews with legendary builders such as Tom Morris, the Cherubinis, Cecil Lange, and Tom Dreyfus. Using the surveyed boats as examples, Máté; shows what to look for when contemplating the purchase of any sailboat. For the boatbuilder, it points out the weaknesses and strengths of all aspects of construction, using hundreds of photographs and illustrations to clarify.