Reviews

The loss of the schooner Fantome, in which 31 people died, is a tragedy that has become painted with passion and prejudice. It is hard to imagine that a book could be written that would not fall into ...

The dory fishing schooner, Adventure, was well named, for she had many. The book begins with the description of one that was a bit too scary. The “Old Lady,” in her 22nd year, was 50 miles...

I clearly recall the occasion that triggered my love of wooden boats. It was 1967, a time before locks and “No Admittance” signs. I was 13 years old, and the place was Seth Persson’s...

Steve Sleight, previously involved in creating another sailing manual, Bob Bond’s Handbook of Sailing, has now created his own version of a sailor’s how-to guide with his Complete Sailing ...

Several years ago I circumnavigated Vancouver Island. An experienced friend urged me to cancel the trip: “Stay inside, behind the island,” he admonished. “Inside, you might lose your...

Not until a year ago did I see the manuscript, yellowed and frayed, that had been forgotten in Dick Langford’s office for 30 years. I cried when I read it then and cried again recently when I tu...

When Creative Ropecraft was first published in 1975, there was limited written material on the subject. During the next 25 years, an awareness of the possibilities for intricate, but functional, ropew...

There used to be a bumper sticker, popular in marinas, that said “Old Sailors Never Die, They Just Go a Little Dinghy.” The premise of this book is that they should go cruising offshore. T...

Theresa Fort, a homeschooling mother, and her children, Amy and Alex, the “homeschoolees,” have assembled a delightful boating-activity book for families who enjoy being together on the wa...

Olin Stephens is a brilliant and largely self-educated designer who nevertheless became one of the past century’s most distinguished and revered naval architects. In 1927, at the age of 19, with...

Chesapeake Bay, known to locals as “the land of pleasant living,” has been a major yachting center for well over a century. Its yachting history, which is actually a record of the Bay&#821...

I was introduced to celestial navigation, in part, by Hewitt Schlereth’s earlier book Commonsense Celestial Navigation, now out of print. I was, therefore, eager but somewhat intimidated by the ...

Never spend more than 30 seconds fighting a fire. If the fire can’t be extinguished, get everyone off the boat.” This tip from the new book, The Best Tips from Women Aboard, hit me like a ...

Attitude is the only difference between an ordeal and an adventure. That’s the adage Bob Bitchin lives by as he ventures across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in his 1981 Formosa 56, the Lost S...

There are two types of knot people: those who use knots and those who hate to. I’ve been a user for 44 years because I’ve been sailing for 44 years. I’ve become very comfortable with...

I love skinny little books. They are usually thought-provoking and insightful, with the basic premise not lost and buried under a barge-load of non-informative words. Happily, this one is no exception...

She was the sinking ship of all sinking ships: born sinking; the only sailing sieve on this or any other coast; a romantic but impossible craft.” The Boat That Wouldn’t Sink chronicles the...

This book is not just about maintaining a boat. To quote the author, “This book departs from the limited scope of similar books in that the author’s definition of boat maintenance includes...

Force 10: Wind speed 48 to 55 knots. Very high waves with long overhanging crests. The resulting foam in great patches is blown in dense white streaks along the direction of the wind. The whole surfac...

In the 7,000 years or so since humankind first discovered the joys of “messing about in boats” (in that immortal phrase from The Wind in the Willows), many lessons have been learned to inc...

As sailors to whom the thought of living on a boat is about as appealing as living in a dark and musty cave, we were wary of this latest guide to living aboard, assuming it would be yet another book t...

On a sunny Fourth of July, six high-school students and their instructor join author Randall Peffer aboard the schooner Sarah Abbott for the first of three cruises on Buzzards Bay. The students are pa...

Ever reach for a chart only to realize you left it at the pier? Had to go back to get it, which made you late and ruined your whole day? Captain Clay Kelley has checklists to keep that kind of thing f...

Cruising is often defined as “doing boat maintenance in exotic places.” If you’re planning to sail to Spanish-speaking countries in South America and the Caribbean, there is a new bo...

Time, speed and distance. Much of navigation starts with these basics, and Captain Jack starts with them, too. This book (really two, or maybe three, books in one) presents navigation in an easy-to-re...

Red sky at night, sailors’ delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. This little ditty is pretty useful, and the author of Marine Weather Forecasting knows it also; it’s short...

When we go to sea in good old boats, we go to enjoy the romance of sailing. In the preface to The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, John Rousmaniere says that to enjoy the romance fully, we must have &#82...