The Sailors Book of Small Cruising Sailboats: Reviews and Comparisons of 360 Boats Under 26 Feet (In

The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats: Reviews and Comparisons of 360 Boats Under 26 Feet

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This covers the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom for grade levels from early childhood through grade seven and helps families to recognize expectations in their land-bound schools. His year experience as a cruiser in nearly a dozen different designs CCA through modern racing designs is enlightening. While Peter has formed strong opinions about many features, he does not recommend one design type over another.

He knows, perhaps better than most, that every sailboat is a compromise and that priorities and budgets will vary from sailor to sailor. What he offers is a series of observations and a logical review of onboard systems that will help any prospective offshore cruiser consider the pros and cons of each system, feature, and sailboat type. In the end, the reader of Outfitting the Offshore Cruising Sailboat will be able to determine which features are personally important and which have a lower priority.

Peter starts his discussion of good used boats by ranking the most expensive systems: As these are the most expensive items to replace, he gives each system a thorough and thoughtful critique based on his experiences as a cruiser. There are many nuggets here for every would-be cruiser. In particular, he includes good tips about good and bad construction features in the rig, bearing in mind intended use for coastal vs.

This section clearly spells out features to look for if you will be cruising offshore. Over all, Peter offers great advice about buying a good old cruising sailboat and how to refit it for several more decades of offshore cruising adventures.

Like the rest of us, Peter has conflicts about the best possible cruising sailboat. After saying that larger is always better, that system redundancy is critically important, and that you should replace practically everything before going offshore, Peter admits that his first cruiser was probably his favorite. But Peter offers great advice that may help each reader rank his own list of priorities and consider some systems and construction methods that he may not have thought about.

Then go get the boat, get to work on the refit, and get going. As a kid I was kind of a klutz. When I was a Boy Scout we had to learn some basic knots, and that same lack of hand-eye coordination haunted me there too. I managed to learn a few and I was amazed to find that, after many years, I could still tie a bowline and whip the end of a rope. Reeds Knot Handbook is a pocket-size, easy-to-use, color-coded guide to tying almost 60 different knots. The book is divided into six categories of knots: If more than one rope is involved, each one is a different color to help the reader keep them separate.

Having a resource liked Reeds Knot Handbook is certainly handy, but the only way to learn a new skill is to simply do it. With that in mind, I grabbed an old length of clothesline, opened the book to page 50, and attempted a bowline on a bight. The next thing I knew it was abracadabra, zippity-do-dah, yadda-yadda-yadda, and I had done it. The Limbus of the Moon is a novel in the mold of a Dan Brown thriller, or at least it tries to be. Viator venenatus is a sea urchin, very rare, incredibly valuable, and possibly the source of life-saving drugs. A mysterious eccentric thinks he can breed them in captivity.

Recruited into this expedition are Robert McLaren, researcher, teacher, mentor, and man of action: There are also glamorous island residents, pirates, and operatives for different organizations who may or may not be on the same side as the explorers. Nobody is quite who they first appear to be. The story runs to several exotic locales, such as mysterious islands and the reefs of the East coast of the Caribbean. There is a climactic pursuit that ends at a well-known nautical landmark, followed by a series of coincidences as the author wraps up all the plotlines.

The book needs better descriptions of the people and locations, and more excitement in the plotting. Mego has a wonderful ear for dialogue, but the book is like sailing a big catamaran on calm seas — pleasant enough, but not as exciting as tearing along on your beam ends. Crisis Management and Emergency Repairs at Sea , by Ed Mapes, is another in a long list of books that deal with on-the-water emergencies. His easy-to-read style makes this a very user-friendly book.

There are 14 chapters that cover subjects ranging from communications, helicopter evacuation, abandoning ship, fires, running aground, towing, and many others. This past summer, while out for a daysail, I was caught by a storm about two miles offshore. I knew Tortuga , my foot Westerly Centaur, could handle the conditions, but there was a small fishing boat with two adults and two small kids that had run out of gas and was in dire straits. Having never towed anyone with my boat, I felt uncomfortable taking on the task at that point so I flagged down a powerboat and they towed in the unfortunate party.

Everyone involved survived, none the worse for wear. I was asked to review Safer Offshore shortly after the experience, and the first thing I did was read the section on towing.

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Safer Offshore; Crisis Management and Emergency Repairs at Sea would be a valuable tool to keep on your boat or on your bookshelf for review in the off-season. A place with lots of amenities, skilled staff, and great service? Bastard Cove, they wondered? A last-minute addition is Sean Homes, a punk teenager in perpetual trouble. Soon after setting out, the group of sailors is beset by weather, mysterious cell-phone calls, the Russian mob, the Ukrainian mob — then things get really weird. I do not want give away too much of this great story, but the sailors end up far away from their cruising ground in both distance and time.

The biggest drawback of the book is that too much is going on, most of it at the same time, and it gets difficult to follow.

Good Old Boat - Book Reviews From

But there is a lot of sailing in the story, and the descriptions of handling the small boats, including navigation, sail handling, and heavy weather, is dead on. The characters of the FOGs are a pretty accurate description of older sailors. The to foot sailboats belonging to the members of the group are characters in themselves. The action sequences, ashore or afloat, are exciting. And the wrap-up is, within the context of this unbelievable story, believable.

In the mids the world changed forever as we, the general public, were made aware of just how fragile our way of life is during the first oil shortage. Those of us who are old enough can remember when lines formed at gas stations around the country, and although we had never heard of OPEC, it soon became a household name.

Reviews From 2012

It was against this backdrop that Justin Scott wrote The Shipkiller, which has just been put back into print in a 35th anniversary edition. The story takes us sailing from the North Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, with a few side trips into political intrigue, military corruption, and a little romance, though not enough of the latter to diminish the story. The story has some built-in credibility. When The Shipkiller was written in , economically transporting huge volumes of crude oil halfway around the world led to the development of the ULCC and many people wondered how big these things were going to get.

Although an 1,foot ship has never materialized, in , shortly after The Shipkiller , the Seawise Giant was launched. She was sold several times and spent her final years as the Knock Nevi s, a permanently moored storage tanker, before being scrapped in To scratch that itch, I read everything I could get my hands on that had to do with sailing and I remember The Shipkiller as one of my favorites.

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What if a very large meteor struck the Earth, say, in Antarctica? What if that very large impact caused shifting of the fragile tectonic plates in the Pacific Rim? What if those shifts resulted in heavy volcanic activity, earthquakes, and tsunamis? What if the Antarctic ice melted as a result and the seas rose, not a few feet, but hundreds of feet?

What would life on Earth be like then? Rob focuses on a few Lake Ontario sailors — people on the dock only minimally acquainted with each other — who, to greater or lesser degrees, become fearful of the impending crisis and escape together in a flotilla of eight sailboats as the waters rise, the volcanic dust causes a new ice age, and survival becomes difficult. This small group eventually melds into a fairly efficient community living isolated somewhere in the Canadian Maritime Provinces. The adventures of their escape as the world collapses around them create the first book, while a look at the community they have created during five years in exile provides subject material aplenty for the second as the Earth begins to warm and heal once more.

There are bad guys, of course, and good guys. There are love stories, too, as the members of the community learn to respect and appreciate people they never would have selected in the world of the past and yet form bonds perhaps more meaningful than marriage. And there is quite a bit of sailing in this book as the sailors make their way from Lake Ontario and out the St. Lawrence Seaway toward their new lives. As the protagonist, Shrader Marks discovers in himself a few skills that come in handy. He has the gift of the shaman and, as such, is able to communicate with some animals, primarily killer whales.

Obviously a sailor, Rob Smith shares his enthusiasm for our favorite activity in his books. With at least eight books to his credit, Rob is not a new author. His Shrader Marks books are good examples of the depth of his creativity and insight into a future not one of us hopes to experience. His books are available on Amazon. His other fictional series, featuring a protagonist named McGowan, might also be a fun discovery. Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Destinations is a valuable in-depth reference book written by an extremely knowledgeable and passionate sailor.

Intent on providing readers the most pertinent information available, he succeeds in delivering a multitude of data in an organized volume, making it easy for cruisers, and those planning or even dreaming of sailing to the world's cruising destinations, to plan their cruise, choose a destination, and begin preparing for the adventure. Twelve main sections cover all the countries or groups of islands visited by cruisers, no matter what the frequency of those visits. Using charts, maps, beautiful color photos, and detailed documentation, Jimmy covers:.

Most readers will find it beneficial to first read the section titled "About This Book. As readers turn from one location section to another, they will find all the information is formatted in the same manner, which simplifies navigating this page book and makes comparisons between countries and regions an uncomplicated task. Readers will find information on diseases and vaccinations, the sun strength and sunburn risk , and how to find out more up-to-date health information on the Internet.

1 830,14 RUB

An extensive listing of cruising guides available for most areas is included as well. This isn't a surprise as Jimmy Cornell seems to think of everything in this well-written and compiled World Cruising Destinations guide, in which he covers every location from A to Z, and everything in between.

He's the guy who went twice around in a modified Pearson Triton and now makes wonderful modifications to other people's boats from a home base in Brunswick, Georgia. When we're lucky, he writes about those refits for the readers of Good Old Boat. How did a something with a mechanical aptitude and very limited funds decide to go off on a major voyage on a Triton? In Across Islands and Oceans, his new book written 25 years after the fact, James reflects on his early upbringing and the steps that led to the adventure of a lifetime, one that was soon followed by a second circumnavigation that may very well be the subject of a second book.

In looking back at his logs and photos, James brings the wisdom of maturity and the knowledge of how it all turned out in the end to the telling of a tale about the robust energy and spontaneity of his youth. It's a very useful perspective and gives the book a special kind of depth.

Every so often he drops in a pithy philosophical nugget, one of those quotable quotes that will endure. James was no ordinary young guy. Are those who venture forth ever ordinary? Or is it their adventure itself that raises them from the ordinary? Now, in retrospect, he ponders briefy about what motivated him and concludes that the sailor with the greatest influence might have been Jean Gau and his book To Challenge a Distant Sea.

From that entry point, however, James' voyage diverged from that of Jean Gau. As he went along, James discovered a side of himself he had not yet known. He realized early that he should try to meet the people who inhabited the islands he visited, rather than socializing exclusively with fellow cruisers. That led him to walking around an island and meeting many local people along the way.

Soon he began climbing each island's highest mountain and really getting to know members of inland tribes and isolated communities. He occasionally was invited to stay with local families, often ate with them, and sometimes they cured him of illnesses beyond his own abilities to mend. His first circumnavigation took only two years, primarily because James realized that, for a sailor with no money, life on land was too expensive in customs duties, occasional marina bills, and shopping sprees. So he crossed the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic in great long leaps, which unfortunately left much out.

It can be said that, due to financial constraints, James did not take time to smell the roses on this voyage. However, it can also be argued that each time he did make a stop, he explored the area more extensively and met more local people than most cruisers do. His tales of the hikes and the people are as fascinating as the stories of his voyages and times at sea.

This book is a wonderful addition to anyone's cruising bookshelf and likely to become a classic someday. We liked it so much that it's on our list to be produced as an audiobook. So if you're not a reader, there's hope. We'll soon read it to you! I hope James will have enough success with this first book to decide to write the next.

Mike Link and Kate Crowley took a 1, mile walk two years ago. As close to the shore as possible the entire way. To explore, to meet people, to gather environmental information, and to call attention to the needs of, and the concerns for, the lake. In their book, as was the case in the interviews and presentations they gave throughout their walk, their message about fresh water and Lake Superior, their concern for the future, is delivered in the context of a story, the story of a walk around a lake.

A big part of the story is the sharing of the stories of people they met. Link was retiring after nearly 40 years with the Audubon Center of the North Woods. To learn, to teach, to research, to observe, and to record. For one thing, it holds 10 percent of all the fresh water on the surface of the earth and preserving that heritage is crucial to them as naturalists. Along the way, the authors set an example for their grandchildren and generations to come — an important intention for them.

They also surveyed people, monitored their dietary and health status, and videotaped folks sharing their feelings and concerns about the Big Lake. They took point samples, one roughly every 3 miles of shoreline, gathering GPS waypoints, taking photographs in the four cardinal directions, and writing field notes to compile data they shared with a number of academic institutions. Photographs abound in this engaging story that is part personal journal, part investigative journalism.

The website for Full Circle can be found at: Hull uses his knowledge of the island, San Francisco, and the surrounding waters to create a vivid and believable backdrop for his tale. Travis Blake lives aboard Lolita, his foot motorsailer, in Sausalito, California. He enjoys a rather simple life, spending his days sailing the San Francisco Bay area.

On a pleasant fall evening in , Travis arrives at the Island and, while looking for a mooring, sights a trawler flying a German Navy battle flag. These types of flags are usually only seen flying on battleships, not yachts. So what is going on? He greets the man aboard, who is less than friendly, and later watches as the man takes his dog to shore in his dingy, and then heads up onto the island. He thinks it is strange that the man continues up onto the island in the dark, as visitors are not permitted there at night, but shakes off his worries — until he is awakened the next morning by the siren of a sheriff's boat.

While watching the scene, he sees a dead body on a stretcher being loaded for transport from the island. The shape of the body favors that of the man on the trawler. And the man's dog is following the procession frantically. Travis knows it has to be the same man who was aboard the trawler the night before, the one with the German Navy battle flag. Suspicious, Travis decides to snoop around on the island.

The newspaper story he read said that the corpse was found near the old barracks, so he heads off to see what he can find. He is in Ayala Cove when he sees another boat flying the German Navy Flag, located off the same area where the body was found. On a whim, he goes ashore in the dark, without a flashlight, and has to abort his mission, but Travis is certain there is something more going on.

He sets off to first convince and then to enlist his friend and sailing partner, Carol Whitely, to help him find out just what it is. Carol and Travis discover what they believe to be evidence of espionage on the island. Travis is sure there is a plot to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge but no one will believe his farfetched theory. So the two of them go about conducting their own investigation, not knowing until it is too late that they will be in danger and fighting for their lives in the process. The author's style causes readers to believe the tale is real. The action continues to build up to the end, with its plot twists and surprises making it both a must read and hard to put down.

Every so often, when reading fiction accounts of the Age of Fighting Sail in the late s and early s, you'll come across the name of Sir Edward Pellew. He was a contemporary of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson and — as author Stephen Taylor has convinced me —an equally important British naval officer, albeit one who never achieved the same star status.

If the British revere this sailor as they should, I'm not aware of it. Surely today's Americans don't know much about him. Those who are passionate about the Patrick O'Brian series of nautical fiction, however, may already feel they know Edward Pellew, because this man and his exploits were clearly the inspiration for O'Brian's famous Jack Aubrey. Captain Jack was a fictional character whose own naval career and trajectory through the politics of the times differed from those of Pellew, the real naval officer.

But as you read Pellew's biography, you can't avoid the "aha moments" when recognizing the fictional activities of Aubrey. Pellew, for example, was one of few sailors who could swim and, as the result, dove off the ship several times to save sailors or to perform other activities to save or free the ship. He was a big, athletic man who enjoyed climbing to the tops even when he was an admiral. He came from humble beginnings. He was not from the privileged class and therefore destined to become a naval officer.

He began his career before the mast rather than as a midshipman and earned each promotion due to his seamanship, courage, and ability to think a few steps ahead of the enemy. Not having a sponsor in the Admiralty to ensure that his career advanced appropriately and not having the proper British upper-crust foundation, diction, and connections was a problem for Pellew all his life, as there were always naysayers who put him down for not being properly refined. Yet this man succeeded so well on the quarterdeck, that his rise could not be ignored.

Unlike Jack Aubrey, Pellew was luckier with prize earnings and in his dealings on land. Over time, he became a wealthy man with a large family and an intelligent and supportive wife who ran the household. Pellew was away from home for more than 36 of his 46 years in the British Navy. He does, however, remind the reader of the parallel career of Nelson and the contrast between Nelson's career and that of Pellew.

While he doesn't say that Pellew was more heroic and deserving, he leads the reader to draw this conclusion. While working as an engineer and business planner he helped start SAILOR magazine in , and has been writing about sailing ever since. He is the author of two other books for the International Marine imprint. Publication Data Place of Publication. Show more Show less. No ratings or reviews yet. Be the first to write a review. Best-selling in Non-Fiction Books See all. Rich Dad Poor Dad: Ottolenghi Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi Save on Non-Fiction Books Trending price is based on prices over last 90 days.

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