Recommended Reading

[sailaway21]

I've recently enjoyed reading C.A. Marchaj's books "Seaworthiness" and "Sail Performance". Both are quite good and are suitable for the amateur with no naval architecture background, although there'll be some work involved if that's the case.

"Seaworthiness" is a bit dated but is a good treatment of the benefits and deficiencies of modern hull design for offshore work. If you're wedded to the idea of your modern keel with bulb and broad beam you might be less than comfortable with some of his conclusions. IOR boats take a drubbing, rightfully so.

"Sail Performance" is perhaps a better, and more up to date, book on the evolution of yacht design with a focus on sails. I'd recommend it's reading first over "Seaworthiness". Both are good antidotes to the "you can have it all" salesmanship offered by boatbuilders.

[bob chaisson]

Originally Posted by sailaway21

Universally known as "Bowditch" after it's original author. The bible of marine navigation, but not nearly as weighty to read as it's name would suggest. Volume 1 discusses all aspects of marine navigation as well as history of same, weather, oceanography, and about a million fun facts to know and tell. It's worth the price of admission just for the biography of Bowditch and the section on hurricanes. Vol. 2, formerly Bowditch tables, is the vol. to carry coasting and offshore. It has all the tables needed for piloting as well as numerous articles explaining their use. No electronics-no problem, this volume acqaints one with bow and beam bearings, etc... If you can't use that sextant on stars vol. 2 will tell you how to use it to measure your distance offshore from that radio tower. All good stuff for winter reading.

If you do a search on the web, you can find and download this publication in its entirety free of charge. I did, can't remember from where though.

[bob chaisson]

Understanding Rigs and Rigging by Richard Henderson - out of print but can be had used for 3-5 times its original cost on Amazon. excellent book on Rigging

Sail Trim: Theory and Pratice by Peter Hahne very informative soup to nuts book on sail trim and much related info.

For you O'Brian/Aubrey fans; Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander by David Cordingly. Cochrane is just as facinating as Aubrey only REAL. A must read, a true rebel in the Queens Navy. Had a pair so big he didn't need a boat to go sailing. I read it in 2 days (had to nap, was getting cross eyed).
The finely Fitted Yacht by Ferenc Mate for those that just can't stop tweaking thier boat (over 200 projects - hows that for a to do list).

Knots and Ropework by Eric C Fry for when your mate is feeling kinky. I'll have more once I check the library on the boat.

[equaregis]

If I could keep only one book on-board, it would be the "Mechanical and Electrical Manual" by Nigel Calder.
Technical, practical AND easy reading...

[sailingdog]

BTW, a good source for books is Alibris.com. Much lower prices than amazon, and has a lot of older, out of print books. I recently got Henderson's book on rigging for a lot less than Amazon.

[bobmcgov]

Recent used-book store find: Sail Power: The complete guide to sails and sail handling, by Wallace Ross. Always suspect a book describing itself as 'complete,' but 450 pages of design, construction, theory, and trim practice certainly beat the bounds pretty well. Good graphics and logical organization. It helps that its technical level is precisely where I need it to be. Written in 1974 -- when good Dacron was standard but laminates just coming online, so it may be dated for the bleeding edge crowd.

[Sapperwhite]

Originally Posted by bob chaisson

If you do a search on the web, you can find and download this publication in its entirety free of charge. I did, can't remember from where though.

Bowditch can be downloaded from the National Gespatial Intelligence Agency in pdf format. Also, you can get chart no.1, USCG light List, World Port Index, Sight Reduction Tables (both air and marine), and a few other Pubs. I had posted the links awhile back to almost zero fan fare (I even got a complaint, go figure). The complaint was that you have to download each chapter THIS IS NOT TRUE. You can download the complete Bowditch, 35MB.


From this link choose the Pub you desire in the "Menu Options" drop down list . Bowditch is American Practical Navigator. You will then come to the "Download Publication" selection. You can choose to download the complete pub, or individual chapters. Enjoy

Nautical Publications

[Catsailor07]

Most of these may be out of print;

Catamarans for Cruising, Jim Andrews
Multihull Semanship, Michael McMullen
Catamarans in Close Up, Patric Boyd
Catamarans Offshore, Rudy Choy, 1970, really good read.

Polar Passage, Jeff MacInnis, Crazy Canucks & a Hobie

and my current read 1/2 way

Cruising The Georgian Bay, Kenneth Wells (Antigue book 1958)

John

[Wings33]

I highly recommend: First You Have to Row a Little Boat: Reflections on Life & Living by Richard Bode...I also loved Life of Pi by Canadian author Yann Martel...Enjoy!

[DePlano]

I thought Maiden Voyage was painful to read. I am not a young woman coming of age and don't need to live that with her. There was also something I did not like about the fact she went on the trip intending to write a book about it.

Blown Away I thought was a great read

The others I have read that I would recommend have all already been seconded or thirded. (I did like Fatal Storm a little better than A Race For Madmen, but both were well worth reading.)