NONFICTION - Nov. 15, 1992

THE BOOK OF WOODEN BOATS photographs by Benjamin Mendlowitz, text by Maynard Bray (Norton: $50; 191 pp.) . Resting peacefully at her moorings with her masts and rigging framing the sunset like a stained-glass window, or straining to her limits in wind and waves, the classic wooden boat is a powerful symbol of human excellence and grace in harmony with the natural world. That is why this book will bring pleasure to a wide audience, not only those already bitten by the fierce wooden-boat bug.

More than 200 photographs include boats from Maine to San Francisco, from the Bahamas to Scotland; catboats, ketches, yawls, schooners, power boats and canoes, built from the 1880s to the 1980s. Marine photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz has a passion for his subject, acquired over a lifetime, and the technical and aesthetic skills to truly reveal a boat’s “soul.”

The text by marine historian Maynard Bray is lively and helpful. About the boat “Limbas,” he writes, “On a fine day, it’s great to be in almost any boat in almost any place. But aboard a beautiful wooden boat, with a brisk northwest wind, and wild and aromatic Maine islands all around, life becomes about as good as it can ever get.”

In a world grown comfortable with something far short of excellence, it is exciting to come across a book like this, nearly as well made as its subjects. The printing of the photographs, supervised by the photographer, is exceptional. Best of all is what the book may do to encourage the imperiled art of wooden-boat building. The vicarious pleasure we receive from climbing aboard here is well worth the price of the voyage.