No one with an interest in the yacht designs of the great Jack Laurent Giles, and in the Vertue Class in particular, would ignore the incredible amount of work put in to the subject in the 1970’s by David Jackson-Smith and Peter Woolass. The latter’s ‘Blue Book’, called ‘Vertue’, and the later Lee and Philpotts gem on ‘Laurent Giles and His Yacht Designs’, are the starting point for hard facts on those boats built up until 1973. Since then a number of articles have appeared in British and American sailing magazines, and there are half a dozen books about voyages sailed aboard Vertues. We will be providing references to all of these but also we are hoping that, with the help of current and past owners, we can update these lists and make them available to a worldwide audience.
We are compiling as comprehensive a Bibliography of books and articles as possible and would welcome any suggestions for inclusion.
Eventually we intend to write a brief history of the class for inclusion in the website or perhaps as an homage to Peter Woolas’ ‘Blue Book’.
But meanwhile please look back through the regular website Newsletters for information about the development of the design of the Vertue Class and also for what I like to call the ‘Design Dynasty’ into which this development fitted over the six decades following the conception of the Class.