Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Wide but Shallow

Boat Strength covers just about every common building method for boats, from fiberglass to copper-nickel (copper-nickel?). It is quite easy to read for those with a slight technical bent. The many graphs and formulas allow easy determination of the proper scantlings for any particular boat, BUT... it covers only one system of scantlings (as Mr. Gerr points out in his introduction). If you enjoy reading authors like Howard Chapelle or John Gardner (the boat builder, not the author of thrillers) you will be left scratching your head. When they describe the construction of a particular boat you might wonder how the scantlings they used can be calculated from Mr. Gerr's rules. A hint-they cannot. The other disappointment is in a total lack of discussion of the theory behind the rules. Still, it is fun reading and very informative.