No matter that I’ve been living on, and working on, boats for over a quarter century, I still run into novel mechanical problems that I’ve never seen before. Or worse, it’s a problem that I have seen, diagnosed, and solved 15 years ago, but I can’t remember all the details anymore. In these circumstances, my first inclination is always to get expert advice—it used to be that I would turn to a proficient dockmate or local boatyard guru. But that was before Nigel Calder.
Make no mistake, Nigel Calder’s textbook for boat keepers is just that—a textbook with not a trace of fluff. Like Joe Friday, it just gives you the facts, generally complete with tables, graphs, pictures, diagrams, and exploded views. Of the 16 chapters, a full six are devoted to electrical systems and a seventh is on electronics. The last nine chapters give all the deep, dark secrets of engines, transmissions, pumps and toilets, refrigeration, steering, stoves, spars, rigging, and more.
Calder’s style could best be described as terse. He is one of those people who, when asked for the time, offers a dissertation on how a watch is constructed. But in the case of a mechanical manual, this is exactly the treatment that is wanted. Anybody that would own this book for pleasure reading would also peruse the dictionary for fun. No, the second edition of the Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual belongs on every sailor’s bookshelf as a reference—the pages were intended to be turned down, littered with notes in the margins, and covered with greasy thumbprints. I can generally tell which items on board Sojourner have performed most poorly by the pages that are most soiled.
In fact, if Santa would bring me another copy of Calder’s bible this year, I’d keep one on the boat where it belongs and another at home where I often drag the carcasses of dead or dying marine mechanical systems for a more leisurely autopsy. Sometimes these lay around the garage with entrails hanging out of oily cardboard boxes until I forget which boat they came from or what they were. Calder’s diagrams often helps my memory.
There are bonuses—an appendix with conversion tables (where else can you convert foot/pounds to Newton meters) and an index so complete that it takes nearly 36 column/pages to get from A to Z. This 592-page hardbound book is no lightweight by any benchmark you might wish to measure it, except for the price—at about $35 it’s cheap if priced by the bit of information.
Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual, Second Edition
Nigel Calder
International Marine, Camden, ME
Linear Mode
