If the name Starling Burgess is known today it’s most likely as a collaborator with Olin Stephens in the design of the magnificent J-class Ranger, winner of the 1937 America’s Cup. The popular scenari...
More than 10 years ago Dan Spurr wrote the definitive first book for those thinking about becoming sailors. It had perhaps the best sales of all his books . . . and Dan has written many. It’s no surpr...
One of my favorite cautionary sea stories comes from Marlin Bree’s Wake of the Green Storm. Author of five nonfiction books about sailing, Dead on the Wind is his first novel, a thriller set in ...
Conrad Cooper says, “You always hear people say ‘The journey is half the fun.’ I always thought that percentage was rather low.” Cooper definitely makes the journey through Own Less & Live More fu...
Sailors dream of that once-in-a-lifetime voyage where they quickly complete what is often a difficult passage and then spend months lingering in exotic islands and harbors. Christine (first mate, wife...
“I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it’s because in addition to the fact that the sea changes, and the light changes, and ships ...
by SANDRA CLAYTON (SANDRA CLAYTON, 2014; 244 PAGES, $13.95PAPERBACK, $4.99 DIGITAL) REVIEW BY SUSAN LYNN KINGSBURY Number four in Sandra Clayton’s Voyageur Series, Osprey Summer reads like a log...
Jack Tar and the Baboon Watch is quirky, informative and fun — a great reference for those who love the water and those who stay ashore. Subtitled A Guide to Curious Nautical Knowledge for Landlubbers...
Edmund A. “Ed” Cutts was an exceptionally single-minded individual. As a very young child, he watched boats off Long Island. He took his first boat ride when he was 8½ years old. When he w...
“Seventy percent of the earth’s surface is water; there’s no better way to see it than on a boat.” Marcie Connelly-Lynn. Marcie and David Lynn embarked upon a new life in 2000 ...
In this age of College Sports = Football = Big Business, it is hard to believe that crew — races between boats with two, four, or eight rowers—was one of the most popular collegiate sports in the 1930...
The place of humans in the world of nature is essential to David Barrie’s wonderfully descriptive story of the sextant. I always have been fascinated by the interdependent relationship of people and n...
In 2010 the sailing community was abuzz with the audacious and apparently wholly spontaneous competition of three young women vying for the world record as the youngest female circumnavigator. Austral...
Inspiring self-reliance marks this debut memoir by sailor, artist, marine mechanic-electrician and singlehander Rebecca Burg, who in the 1990s swapped life ashore in West Bend, Wisconsin, for the Key ...
Peter Bourke’s book, Sea Trials, is a beguiling read. Short chapters detail each of the 40 days he spent sailing the 2009 OSTAR, the Original (or Oldest) Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race. Not only do...
From the Introduction of Cruising Life: “It’s a collection of stories by “cruisers” — those free spirits traveling independently under sail.” Chosen from over 200 issues of Caribbean Compass magazine,...
Life Boat is a wonderful account of a sailing adventure founded on do-it-yourself ingenuity and a shoestring budget. I mean, imagine finding a one-hundred-year-old traditional ocean-lifesaving vessel ...
If you need a conversation starter aboard your boat or perhaps a thoughtful tidbit to share in the cockpit while waiting for the green flash, Stephen Brennan has put together a little book of sailing ...
NOT FOUND ON AMAZON PRODUCED BY BILL TRAVERS; 2014, 46 MINUTES, $15.00, CONTACT Larry Carpenter THROUGH FACEBOOK: REVIEW BY KAREN LARSON MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA The words of a song are spinning through...
In 2010, naval historian Sam Willis went to the British Library to do research for a book he was writing. One of the potential sources he wished to check had the innocuous catalog label “Add:232...
For anyone with an interest in the maritime history of the Northwest coast, this book will be a valuable addition to their library. The central focus is the mouth of the Columbia River. The Columbia R...
Prepare your nautical comfort zone for a jolt. In Sailing Down the Mountain, warm and fuzzy . . . and staid . . . conventional thoughts on sailing, construction and personal discovery are casually set...
NOT ON AMAZON (DOCUMENTARY FILM BY ERIC AND SUSAN HISCOCK PRODUCED IN 1963. RESTORED FROM 16MM PRINT BY THESAILINGCHANNEL TV. LENGTH: 91 MINUTES. RENT IT FOR $2.99 OR BUY IT FOR $12.99 FROM VIMEO, REV...
This is probably the most difficult book I’ve ever been asked to review — three hundred pages comprised of two hundred stunning photographs. What can one say, especially when I cannot show...
The normal Atlantic hurricane season does not start until August, but “Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.” In May 2007, two low-pressure centers spun together off Cape Hatt...
One of my favorite genres is historical fiction. Over the years I’ve read James A. Michener, Herman Wouk, C.S. Forrester, and many others, so when given the opportunity to review a work on the h...
“August 12th, 1983, was a day that Stewart Vogel had looked forward to with apprehensive anxiety.” So begins Paroled, by Charles Manion, the story of Vogel’s release after finishing ...
Vern Hobbs has done it again. In June 2010 we reported that Good Old Boat author Vern Hobbs had published his first book. While it was not exactly a sailing book, it was worth mentioning just the same...
When told by Herb McCormick, the lives of Lin and Larry Pardey have the makings of a good nautical soap opera. Herb is a storyteller of the first magnitude and Lin and Larry, who have led very dramati...
In the 1980s, the development of the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) launched a revolution in marine navigation. Following Magellan Navigation’s first commercial handheld GPS in 1989, ...
