The Impractical Boat Owner
The Impractical Boat Owner

Author: Dave Selby

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-07-13

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 1472944852

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This is a book with no practical purpose whatsoever. As any fan of Dave's would probably guess, a book by him won't make you a better sailor, and it won't provide any instruction on boat maintenance. But it will entertain – his light but observational writings tap the rich well of all those things that sailors know but few dare admit. The Impractical Boat Owner is a collection of Dave's columns for Practical Boat Owner magazine, expanded for the book, and with additional 'Lessons Not Learned' hints and tips boxes, all accompanied by Jake Kavangh's wonderful cartoons. Taking us from Dave's first flounderings afloat to more recent, er, flounderings afloat, themes covered include: - first attempts at sailing - how not to sail singlehanded - mysteries of maintenance - how not to sail with a dog - the impenetrable mysteries of navigation and weather - how not to race With a Foreword by Mike Peyton, The Impractical Boatowner is an antidote to all that's written about expensive shiny new yachts, self-improvement, the quest for qualifications and practical skills.

Away All Boats
Away All Boats

Author: John Cole

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1466861983

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High-spirited and passionate--at once a useful guide and a record of an extended love affair with small boats--Away All Boats is a blending of sparkling waterlands and vivid memories. Author of Striper and Fishing Came First, John N. Cole takes readers from the dangers of haul-seining for striped bass that challenge a wooden dory's limits in the surf to the excitement of searching the flats of the Florida Keys for tarpon and other game fish aboard a shall-draft, high-tech craft perfectly matched to the task. Evocative of nature's miracles and realities (and the foibles of men who go down to the sea in "ships"), the writing is dry and witty, tender and perceptive. Alongside the hard facts and opinions about the selection, refitting, maintenance, and use of small boats is a series of wonderful stories about the author's explorations as a bayman and fisherman in the waters of eastern Long Island, Maine, and the Florida Keys. Each boat described serves to introduce a key chapter in the author's life and his taste for adventure. John Cole's first love is the skiff, rowboat, dory, or sharpie--any relatively stable wooden boat that can be easily and efficiently rowed--but the author also takes on larger craft powered by the internal combustion engine to indicate that every boat is designed to perform a limited family of functions. The trick, as we learn in these robust pages, is to find the boat you need (not always the boat you want), and Cole offers practical advice on how to go about it. The surprise is that a good boat doesn't have to be expensive; some are even gifts from the sea. As to basic equipment, the author keeps the advice simple: a compass, charts, a tachometer, an ammeter, an understanding of local winds and tides, and, with luck, an informed "weather eye" to minimize risks in open water.

Practical Boat Owner's Sailing Around the UK and Ireland
Practical Boat Owner's Sailing Around the UK and Ireland

Author: Roger Oliver

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1472906772

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This book, based on a highly successful series of articles in Practical Boat Owner magazine, is a detailed practical guide to sailing around the UK - all by means of day sails. Roger Oliver, a passionate sailor, explains his in-depth passage planning, boat preparations, weather checks and log-keeping, as well as his choice of routes, the detailed navigation, sail trim tips and on-passage maintenance, all for the benefit of sailors who have a yen to follow in his footsteps. Packed with a wealth of practical tips on seamanship, anchoring in high winds, coping with big seas, problem-solving, harnessing the tide, sailing short-handed and living aboard for extended cruising, this book will be a godsend to the many thousands of sailors who enjoy coastal cruising and who will discover (as did Roger) that it is perfectly possible to cruise around the whole of the UK in a series of day sails. With this book to hand, and inspired by Roger's detailed route maps and spectacular photographs, anyone can experience the thrill and enjoyment of sailing around the beautiful and varied UK coast from any starting point.