Showing posts with label navigation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label navigation. Show all posts

The International Marine Book of Sailing Review

The International Marine Book of Sailing
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The International Marine Book of Sailing ReviewFor thirty years I sailed as a licensed Captain, teaching students to sail, and I wish I had had Robby Robinson's new book. I looked high and low to find a book that would be useful for the beginners aboard GERONIMO but was never satisfied, so I taught without a text.
The great advantage to Robby's book is that he makes you want to step on board a boat - any boat - and go sailing; and he keeps it simple. "Begin at the beginning. Go sailing. Experience is the best teacher, and it makes the best sailors." When I was a boy my friends and I got into small boats and went sailing anytime anyone would let us. Adults may be more hesitant to take up a new activity, but I have known great sailors who had never seen the ocean until they were full grown.
Robby invites the reader to go sailing, then he tells how to sail in clear, reassuring prose. The illustrations in the book are excellent, but if you only read the text you will understand. Robby tells you how to choose a boat and how to step on board and follow the routine that all sailors use to get underway. The way the book is set up, the beginner can go in stages. He can go sailing, fumble around, go back to the book to clear up his confusion, and then go back out on the water. Every chapter of the book is written to build confidence. Those of us with more experience can use the book as a reference. Sailing instructors can use the book as a lesson plan and have their novice sailors read the book at night.
Once the beginner learns to get underway, enjoy a sail, and return home safely, the sailing can stay reasonably simple or it can get very complicated. Yet as the activity grows in complexity, there is no reason for the novice to get discouraged. As the book proceeds to instruction on safety, navigation, and racing the new sailor is right there and never confused - walk, jog, then run. Robby has the chapters in the right order - learn to sail, learn seamanship and navigation, learn to race, and then go to sea. If you want to maximize the pleasure of sailing, you have to race and hone your skills in competition, and the chapter on racing is excellent. The final chapters are about cruising offshore. Racing offshore is left for more advanced books. Maybe Robby will write one.
The International Marine Book of Sailing Overview
Here's the book that can get you sailing in an afternoon and keep you sailing better through a lifetime on the water

This is the first sailing book that follows a sailor's ideal learning curve. Rather than tell you all about sail trim or anchoring in a single chapter, Robby Robinson tells you what you need to know when you want to know it. From the absolute basics to the most advanced techniques, the International Marine Book of Sailing is highly accessible--and informative--at every level.

More than 500 pages and 1,000 color photos and illustrations.
Covers everything from high-performance and Olympic-class sailing dinghies to coastal and offshore cruising sailboats. No matter your age or the kind of sailing you'd most like to do, this book will work for you.
The easy-flowing instructional text is augmented by sidebar features giving alternative approaches, definitions of terms, and boat-to-boat variations--a uniquely effective how-to combination.
Includes contributions from Nigel Calder (Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual), Beth Leonard (The Voyager's Handbook), Robert Perry (Yacht Design According to Perry), Bob Sweet (The Weekend Navigator), Charlie Wing (How Boat Things Work), and other top sailing writers.
Renders sailing and seamanship more transparent and accessible than ever before.
The ideal book for self-teaching.


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Seamanship Secrets: 185 Tips & Techniques for Better Navigation, Cruise Planning, and Boat Handling Under Power or Sail Review

Seamanship Secrets: 185 Tips and Techniques for Better Navigation, Cruise Planning, and Boat Handling Under Power or Sail
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Seamanship Secrets: 185 Tips & Techniques for Better Navigation, Cruise Planning, and Boat Handling Under Power or Sail ReviewIn his book, "Seamanship Secrets", John Jamieson offers invaluable advice and information that will make the reader a better skipper, regardless of their current skill level. The author draws on his impressive resume of experience to successfully share his knowledge in this easy-to-read guide. The book is heavily illustrated with charts, tables and diagrams that enhance the text.
I especially enjoyed the "Your Call, Skippper" section at the end of each chapter. The reader is presented with 5 situations, and asked to decide what action to take. This reinforces the message of the chapter, and gives you the opportunity to test your knowledge.
The time you spend going through this book will be a wise investment. "Seamanship Secrets" is a must-read for every boat owner, and it is a book that you will refer to often for years to come.
Seamanship Secrets: 185 Tips & Techniques for Better Navigation, Cruise Planning, and Boat Handling Under Power or Sail Overview
"Secrets' is the modern Bowditch, written so clearly that navigation and seamanship will be comprehensible to anyone . . ."--Dave and Jaja Martin,circumnavigators and authors of Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey

"It's a great book. The prose is simple and clear . . ."--John Vigor, author of The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat

"The nautical tips and techniques presented are encyclopedic, yet the clear explanations demystify the topics . . ."--Don Launer, contributing editor for Good Old Boat magazine

"It is a fine piece of work and should be read by anyone contemplating coastal cruising or blue water voyages. It definitely deserves a place in the offshore yacht's library . . ."--Ted Brewer, yacht designer, author, and offshore racing and cruising sailor

Be a Better Skipper

In the night, wind, rain, fog, big seas, strong currents, or congested waters, when there's no time for textbook seamanship solutions, what you need are shortcuts and techniques that work quickly and reliably every time.

Distilled from the vast accumulated lore of seamanship and navigation, here are the absolute essentials--185 techniques that work without fail in the pilothouse or the exposed cockpit or flying bridge of a shorthanded sail- or powerboat. John Jamieson shows you how to:

Set up a clipboard chart table for cockpit use
Avoid hazards with danger bearings or a GPS grid highway
Estimate current speeds with the 50-90-100 rule
Track other boats in poor visibility using radar plots and bearing drift
Sail home without a rudder or get your twin-screw boat home on one working engine
Dock or anchor under any conditions
And much, much more

Even in this age of electronic navigation you need to know how to eyeball your boat through any situation. Each of the techniques in this cut-to-the-chase book has shown itself to be absolutely repeatable. It will work this time, the next time,and the time aer that, in conditions fair or foul.


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Heavy Weather Sailing Review

Heavy Weather Sailing
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Heavy Weather Sailing ReviewThis is my favorite sailing book. It is not only an excellent manual for coping with heavy weather, but also an entertaining drama for armchair sailors. This book includes descriptions of actual experiences and technical supporting material and research, covering everything from boat design to weather to foul weather gear. Every sailor should read this boat before setting out offshore.Heavy Weather Sailing OverviewHeavy Weather Sailing has long reigned as the ultimate international authority on surviving storms at sea aboard sailing and motor vessels. The book brings together a wealth of expert advice from many of the great sailors of the present, including fresh accounts of yachts overtaken by extreme weather, from Ewan Southby Tailyour, Alex Whitworth, Peter Cook, and Larry and Lin Pardey. Techniques for coping with heavy seas are explored, and new chapters have been added, giving advice on the use of storm sails, taking shelter in heavy weather, handling multihulls in storms and one on handling RIBs in high seas. Seasickness remedies are proposed, and a detailed analysis is given of the meteorological conditions leading up to a storm.This is the definitive book for crews of any size contemplating voyages out of sight of land anywhere in the world, whether racing or cruising. It gives a clear message regarding the preparations required, and the tactics to consider when it comes on to blow.'If you buy no other book for your voyage, buy this one' Pete Goss (renowned yachtsman and rescuer of Raphael Dinelli during the 1996/97 Vendee Globe) 'This book is an institution' Practical Boat Owner 'The ultimate survival handbook' Yachting World

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Weather for the Mariner Review

Weather for the Mariner
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Weather for the Mariner ReviewThe date on this book - over twenty years ago - on a technical subject immediately suggests that it probably is dated and has been superseded by better books. I took a chance and bought it anyway. It still is in print from the Naval Institute Press and that Press didn't seem to have anything comparable in print. Am I ever glad that I did. There are many books on understanding weather at sea but none as informative as this one.
The discussions of clouds, low and high pressure systems, convection, wind shear, and even hurricanes are as thorough as you will find. Pressure differences and Coriolis force - force due to the earth's spinning on its axis - are fundamental building blocks for the book's explanation of weather.
If you want to understand the weather and will be using that knowledge at sea, this is a great book. This book provides explanations of why weather develops, why the trade winds blow the way that they do and what to look for in weather developments.
For example, Kotsch explains why daily showers happen over land during the day in areas such as Atlanta and why similar showers happen at night in areas such as the Virgin Islands. While not exactly earth shattering, I had noticed this big difference and wondered why it was different. Kotsch explains why you can use ocean swells to see where low pressure systems are, why wind direction changes over the course of the year in low-latitude areas such as the Virgin Islands and much more.
The book was written as a textbook for use at the Naval Academy. You might be concerned that the book presupposes that the reader knows physics, but it does not. I unfortunately have forgotten the physics that I learned in high school, so I would have noticed if Kotsch took a lot of physics for granted.
A major hole that I noticed because of the book's age is the discussion of how information about weather is acquired. Satellites are of course more important than in the 1980s and the system of bouys used to track the weather is much more extensive than in the 1980s. These deficiencies are not in terms of the understanding of weather though and are not a large part of the book.
Perhaps the major deficiency for understanding the weather is the tentative discussion of hurricanes - they are much better understood now. No doubt a meteorologist could find more deficiencies, but I have not noticed errors that affect my practical understanding of the weather.
As you can tell, I recommend this book very highly. It may not be the book for you though. If you are looking for rules of thumb to memorize about the weather, you will not like this book. Also, if you are looking for a simple overview, this is not the book for you. An overview of the basics that was informative for me was Weather at Sea by David Houghton.Weather for the Mariner Overview

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Weather at Sea Review

Weather at Sea
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Weather at Sea ReviewThis American edition of Weather At Sea is in a different and better category than the original British edition on which it is based. The book is about twice as long as the original, and the added detail is all North American related. The explanations of such weather elements as Adiabatic Lapse rate are as good as any I've read. For understanding and using the weather in the kind of sailing most of us do, i.e., mostly alongshore with an occasional short foray offshore, I can know of no better single volume. Even though published in the 1988, it still up to date and just plain good. What it does not do is delve into the kind of modern techniques in which I, personally, have little interest, e.g., faxes, 500 Mb charts, GRIBS, etc. A fine little book. It''s a pity it's no longer in print.
But it can be bought quite inexpensively both new and second hand.Weather at Sea OverviewThis book clearly explains the basic principals that govern the weather. The concepts have been made easy to understand, letting you get the most from weather maps and forecasts, along with teaching you to predict the weather.


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Heavy Weather Boating Emergencies: What to Do When Everything Goes Wrong Review

Heavy Weather Boating Emergencies: What to Do When Everything Goes Wrong
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Heavy Weather Boating Emergencies: What to Do When Everything Goes Wrong ReviewThis is like a Boy Scout Handbook for power boaters. Filled with detailed information and great illustrations, it is a must for every boater. Whether you are an occasional boater or an faithfull weekend warrior this book should be read and kept on board. The rescue techniques and boat handling methods are very important for all of us to practice when we are out on the waters. Luttrell's book should be required reading for every person who rents boats for the occasional trip to the lake.Heavy Weather Boating Emergencies: What to Do When Everything Goes Wrong OverviewFresh-water boaters will find life-saving information on how to maintain control in emergency situations. Written specifically for powerboaters, this book details what to do when encountering heavy weather and on-board emergencies such as engine failure,falling overboard, or loss of position. Readers will also learn how to prevent accidents and catastrophes by learning how to identify storms before they arise.

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The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds Review

The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds
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The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds ReviewWe get a lot of clouds in Michigan. You know, the Great Lakes and all. Sometimes, the blue sky people come here and find our skies depressing. But I like the clouds in all their varieties. In fact, when I am forced into a morning drive to the east with the Sun directly in my eyes, I am grateful when it disappears behind a cloud. Over the years I have seen some wonderful things. I remember as a child seeing a rainbow in a circle around the Sun and being amazed by it and looking up why it was there. I didn't understand all the technical terms, but remember that it talked about ice crystals refracting the light. Even so, I only learned about the clouds in the most rudimentary way.
Storm clouds are always amazing to see. I have even seen a few tornadoes and some amazing skies when I lived in Queensland, Australia for two years. There was a cyclone when I was there and that was literally a breath taking experience. The stinging rain comes sideways and it is hard to breath facing into the wind. I could even lean all my weight back into the wind and with my arms outstretched, it easily held me up. One of the wonderful aspects of this book is the way the author shares his love of the beauties in the lest dramatic types in a way that enthuses us to go and look for them on our own.
Gavin Pretor-Pinney is the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and if you love pictures of clouds I can't recommend his website strongly enough. Really, they are amazing in their variety, drama, and beauty. This book has thirteen chapters. The first ten take us through the ten main cloud types from the low cumulous up to the cirrostratus. Before the first chapter there is a handy chart of these clouds and their common altitudes that can guide you to the relevant chapter in the book.
Each chapter has a very helpful information page that describes how to spot the cloud type, some photos of the various ways the clouds can appear, what to look for in identifying it, and how to avoid confusing it with a similar cloud (particularly the various stratus types), and it various species and varieties. Each chapter then goes on to talk about the cloud in variety of ways. The author may tell us some new aspect of cloud formation, some anecdotes about the cloud, ways to appreciate that type of cloud, how it might have been represented in paintings, poetry, and even in history. There are plenty of pictures (but to see them in color - got to the cloud appreciation society website), charts, and informative illustrations. However, this is not a technical book. It really is for fun and succeeds admirably in not only holding our interest, but also in teaching us many new and enjoyable things.
The eleventh chapter takes us through a grab bag of attendant cloud formations that are often seen with other cloud types. The twelfth chapter is ostensibly about contrails (which the author rails against), but is really an enviro-alarmist bit about how high flying jets can be contributing to global warming (right). I notice that in the very next chapter on the Morning Glory formation in northernmost Queensland (no, I haven't been to that part of the state), the author did not hesitate to take a high flying jet liner (actually a series of them) to travel half the world away to see this cloud formation. Magnificent as the Morning Glory is and how nicely this chapter concludes the book, it does bespeak the sincerity and coherence of his concerns.
This wonderful book helps me to see our varied skies in new ways. I begin to see the ten main types of clouds in my local sky and now know much more about their altitudes, how they are formed, what they say about the weather cycle we are in, as well as catching the different species and varieties and sticking them more easily into my memory. I will be consulting this handbook many more times as I gain more skill in spotting the clouds overhead.
Enthusiastically recommended.The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds OverviewNow in paperback: the runaway British bestseller that has cloudspotters everywhere looking up. Where do clouds come from? Why do they look the way they do? And why have they captured the imagination of timeless artists, Romantic poets, and every kid who's ever held a crayon? Veteran journalist and lifelong sky watcher Gavin Pretor-Pinney reveals everything there is to know about clouds, from history and science to art and pop culture. Cumulus, nimbostratus, and the dramatic and surfable Morning Glory cloud are just a few of the varieties explored in this smart, witty, and eclectic tour through the skies. Illustrated with striking photographs (including a new section in full-color) and line drawings featuring everything from classical paintings to lava lamps, The Cloudspotter's Guide will have enthusiasts, weather watchers, and the just plain curious floating on cloud nine.

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Adlard Coles' Heavy Weather Sailing, Sixth Edition Review

Adlard Coles' Heavy Weather Sailing, Sixth Edition
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Adlard Coles' Heavy Weather Sailing, Sixth Edition ReviewI am still in the process of reading but so far I like it. The first chapter is a bit overwhelming with statistics on boat stability but it is still very interesting. The book has great glossy photos and the material is organized and presented in an easy to follow format. Perfect for an intermediate sailor. I am very much looking forward to further reading.Adlard Coles' Heavy Weather Sailing, Sixth Edition Overview
The seamanship classic you should have on-board when sailing in rough weather

Adlard Coles' Heavy Weather Sailing provides you with expert advice for when you venture out of sight of land, whether for racing or cruising. It gives a clear message of seamanlike design features, preparations, and tactics that you should consider against the time when it comes on to blow. It includes new how-to chapters on storm sails, taking shelter, and managing multihulls in storms, plus thrilling new accounts of actual storm encounters.


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