Classic books/texts

[duffyM]

anyone heard of a book called pssst. it''s about sailing on a tight budget east coast to florida

[bmcald]

Must add my all time favorites:

The Coast of Summer, by Anthony Bailey--New Yorker writer takes you along for his 30th annual cruise in Long Island Sound/Peconic Bay/Block Island with beautiful detail of the characters and places he and his wife visit

The Compleat Cruiser, by L Francis Herreshoff--practical cruising advise narrated in a dated format but fun for all that

The Magic of the Swatchways, by Maurice Griffiths--wonderful tales of impetuous, marvelous seamanship in shoal draft boats in the Channel and its estuaries by the editor of Yachting Monthly

The Shadow in the Sand, by Sam Llewellyn--worthy sequel to Childers'' Riddle in the Sand with a terrific opening scene of a yacht race with the Kaiser of Germany. Llewellyn has written other fiction with nautical themes and they are all very good reads, a Dick Francis of the high seas.

The Celtic Ring, by Bjorn Larsson--if mystery and intrigue and sailing are your cup of tea, this classic is a must.

The Boat Who Wouldn''t Float, by Farley Mowat--A must for first-time boat buyers and all those obsessed with buying and cruising under sail; here''s the anodyne of laughter for all that can go wrong.

NOTE: Many of the classic sailing narratives that have been out of print are being reissued, with forwards by Jonathan Raban ("Passage to Juneau") in a series called The Sailor''s Classics. This is how I got my hands on Cimba.

[mvicsail]

Good topic thanks EricS, and thanks to all for the great recommendations.

For a story of an incredible adventure that includes an amazing sailing feat try "Endurance : Shackleton''s Incredible Voyage"
by Alfred Lansing (if you enjoy it also get Schackleton''s forgotten men, not about sailing though)

Informative and simple overview of what makes a good offshore boat "Desirable and Undesirable characteristics of Offshore Yachts" by the Technical Committee of the Cruising Club of America

Good and rigorous book on navigation "Primer of navigation" by George Mixter

Also on navigation, "Coastal and Offshore navigation" by Tom Cunliffe

"Fastnet Force 10" by John Rousmaniere, informative and instructive look at the disastrous 1979 Fastnet

"Fatal Storm" by Rob Mundle about the 1998 Sydney- Hobart disaster.

Good book for skippers (or skippers to be) "The complete yachtmaster" by Tom Cunliffe

"Maiden voyage" by Tania Abei non fiction about a young lady(18) who sailed around the world on a small boat(26ft) rather than going to college.

Some large area Admiralty charts for help in dreaming, planning, and practicing route plotting. "World Cruising Routes" by Jimmy Cornell is also useful in this regard.

A nice/useful addition to such a library would also be a subscription to Ocean Navigator

Anyone have any of the books from the setsail site by the Dashews? In particular does anyone have a review of their book about weather? What about their software as a tool for learning about weather? Anyone have any experience with the starpath training software?

I also find that the reviews of books on amazon can be helpful. I usually end up saving allot of money by buying books used (usually in like new condition) from Ebay.

[aasault]

Adlard Coles'' "Heavy Weather Sailing".

Chapter 1 on yacht design and stability, by Olin Stephens II, was a great learning experience for this rookie sailor.

Art

[BigRed56]

Ahoy , Eric Sail Power by Wallace Ross 1975 Knoff publishing. His use of wind tunnel smoke test photos proves the old addage a picture is worth a thousand words. The book is easy to read and dosen''t bother with trivial aspects of sailing. Pure text, lots of photos and diagrams. Any book writen by anyone who sailed anywhere. I don''t prefer the older classics because technology has out stripped some of the privations suffered by the authors hence they don''t transfer well to modern sailing. Very few generic how to books contain all the info you have questions about and you may decide to buy a book for one bit of info that the others you have don''t cover. Such is my extensive libary I just wish paper was more durable on the boat. Happy reading, Big Red56

[DARE-Oriental]

No mention of the Hiscocks, Pardeys, or Tristan Jones ?? I enjoyed them, but I''m a slow reader.

[bmcald]

Best small guide on sailing: Halsey Herreshoff''s The Sailor''s Handbook

Best big guide on sailing: John Rousmaniere''s Annapolis Book on Seamanship

Best annual book: Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book

Best guide on traditional sailing rigs: John Leather''s The Gaff Rig

Best weather guide: still haven''t found it, I''m still an idiot when it comes to weather, but I may be hopeless. Easiest reads I''ve found so far: Alan Watts'' Instant Weather Guide (mostly photos), and Jeff Markel''s The Sailor''s Weather Guide

Best cruising narrative: No such thing, every cruise is different. The oldies still have insights and important, basic lessons as well as wonder: Tristan Jones, Eric Hiscock, Bernard Moitessier, Hal Roth, Joshua Slocum, Miles Smeeton...lots of good reads here and many more, some by one-book authors that are real treasures, like John Guzzwell''s Trekka Round the World and Richard Maury''s The Saga of Cimba.

[waltzingmatilda]

Most of those mentioned I''d agree with. A few more include Peter Nichols''s "A voyage for madmen" which includes the stories of Crowhurst, Moitessier, and Knox-Johnston which were mentioned already, and how about Hal Roth and his books which include "Two on a big ocean", "Always a distant anchorage", and "Two against Cape Horn". If you want a good "how in the hell did they do that?" book, try "An ocean to cross" which is about two paraplegics, a husband and wife team, who build their boat in Rhodesia, transport it to South Africa, and then sail across the Atlantic to Florida. There are more good books out there than you can read in a lifetime, and I''d certainly argue that reading fiction is far from a waste of time. Most of us can learn a lot from reading good works of fiction -- life''s too short already without taking away one of my joys. If you''re a slow reader, try some books on tape. I''ve found Joshua Slocum''s book as well as many of Patrick O''Brian''s as books on tape, and others as well. Your taxes presumably go towards paying for your local public library, and I''d bet that you''ll find many excellent sailing books, fiction and non-fiction there. Good reading, good luck, and good sailing.

[sroehr]

Okay, I''m currently reading two books and enjoying them both for different reasons. The first is "A Viking Voyage" by W. Hodding Carter, and I''m liking it because it is so completely unbelievable. I wish I had the audacity to try something like that.

The second book I''m reading is "The Water In Between" by Kevin Patterson (the beautiful blue cover caught my eye). The Patterson book got mixed reviews on amazon.com, but I''m quite liking it. It''s not an adventure story by any means. It''s a little lethargic (he ends up spending a lot of time in the doldrums--literally and figuratively), but I think it''s supposed to be. I like it a lot better than Raban''s "Passage to Juneau," although they seem similar in form to me.

Jr

[EricS.]

Thanks to all who have responded. Your insight is most appreciated by this recycled newbie.

Fair winds to you all.

EricS