Notable New Books: Sail Care & Repair

From Ocean Navigator #131 July/August 2003 Dan Neri, an accomplished and successful sailmaker based in Newport, R.I., has turned his no-nonsense approach to building sails to the writing of this valuable book on the care of sails. There have been numerous books published that explain traditional sail care - leather palm, needles, leather patches, etc. - but Neri's project goes a big step farther. He has written the book for the self-reliant sailor, both coastal and offshore, but he has incorporated the latest advances in technology and practices that have revolutionized sails and sail care in the last decade. Chapters…
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Notable New Books – 1421: The Year China Discovered the World

Gavin Menzies' new book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, alternately called The Year China Discovered America, depending on the edition, weighs almost as much as a hard copy of Bowditch. Within its 576 pages, Menzies lays out before the reader his theories that Chinese junks circumnavigated and charted much of the globe some seven decades before Christopher Columbus sailed to America. Why read this book by an amateur historian? Well, to begin with, Menzies is an experienced sailor. He has navigated the world's oceans practicing celestial navigation as a naval officer, and later as a submarine commander. He…
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Notable New Books: The American Practical. by Nathaniel Bowditch

A bit over 200 years have elapsed since the great master Nathaniel Bowditch published his ubiquitous New American Practical Navigator, a book that essentially broke the salt barrier of navigation by introducing a more gentile way of deriving "lunars" for position fixing. The American Practical Navigator, known by navigation dorks as H.O. No. 9, is now being published in a bicentennial edition, offered for sale by the U.S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency and by a joint private venture between Celestaire and Paradise Cay Publications. The book is available for $49.95 through the private company and for $65 from the…
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Notable New Books: Tall Ships Down. by Daniel S. Parrott

Daniel Parrott, captain of the replica topsail schooner Pride of Baltimore II, analyzed the loss of five traditional sailing vessels, Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore and Maria Asumpta, casualties that resulted in the deaths of 112 people between 1957 and 1995. The loss of the ships varied, due to the explosive effects of weather, poor design or bad judgment on the part of the crew. He approached each event with the eye of an unbiased professional, fairly judging those involved in the context of the circumstances. Parrott pored over testimony, logbooks and survivors' accounts, and conducted his own interviews.…
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Notable new books for the holidays (Part II)

Nelson: The Arctiv Adventures of Tristan's Old Sea DogBy Anthony Dalton Tristan Jones sailed the world, accumulating fantastic adventures so that he could describe them in great detail in his books. He was often accused of fictionalizing his life and stretching the truth, but he never failed to tell a good yarn. Weaved throughout many of his stories were numerous mentions of his dog Nelson, a one-eyed, three legged beast of a Labrador. Anthony Dalton, true to the form laid out by the old master by stretching reality, has created a charming tale - told from the perspective of the…
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Notable new books

Down East A Maritime History of Maine by Lincoln P. Paine While Hank and Jan Taft's Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, which has recently been republished by Curtis Rindlaub, provided the cruising sailor with a regional bible of useful information on anchorages, hot showers, and provisioning, Down East, A Maritime History of Maine, can fill in as the cultural companion to such a cruise. Lincoln Paine, whose previous book Ships of the World,was published in 1998 by Houghton Mifflin, has produced another engaging volume of history and reference. Down East includes a description of the coastal economy, particularly how…
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By the numbers

Long before the advent of electronics and high tech wind measuring devices, a qualitative wind estimating method called the Beaufort Scale of Wind Forces was used. It was invented by an early English navigator by the name of Francis Beaufort (1774 to 1857) who wanted to correlate ships' log reports of wind speed with the ensuing action taken by the ships' skippers to set the proper amount of sail on the square riggers. Too little sail and the ship was not combat ready; too much sail and the ship risked having its sticks blown out. His scale ranged from 1…
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Notable New Books: Boatowner's Illustrated Electrical Handbook

This is a texbook; it says so in the introduction, which was written by American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) instructor and curriculum designer Ed Sherman, who uses the book in his seminars. That the book is endorsed by such an august body is promotion enough, but the book is also easy to read and enjoyable (for those who find beauty in the order of things). The author guides the reader from the very beginning with Ohm's Law (with enthusiastic salvos: "I believe you will find electricity to be fun.") and an introduction to basic circuitry. He then builds upon…
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Fiddler’s green

EMIL "BUS" MOSBACHER, JR. America's Cup Skipper and OpSail Chairman Two-time America's Cup winner Emil "Bus" Mosbacher, Jr., died August 13, 1997, at the age of 75. Raised on Long Island Sound, where he was an eight-time International One Design champion in the 1950s, Mosbacher skippered the 12-meter Weatherly to victory over Australia's first Cup challenger, Gretel, in 1962. Two challenges and five years later, Mosbacher was at the helm of the Intrepid when she swept Australia's Dame Pattie in four races. The opposing helmsman in both series was Jock Sturrock, who also died this year. (In 1970 the same…
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Notable New Books: Boatowner’s Illustrated Electrical Handbook

This is a texbook; it says so in the introduction, which was written by American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) instructor and curriculum designer Ed Sherman, who uses the book in his seminars. That the book is endorsed by such an august body is promotion enough, but the book is also easy to read and enjoyable (for those who find beauty in the order of things). The author guides the reader from the very beginning with Ohm's Law (with enthusiastic salvos: "I believe you will find electricity to be fun.") and an introduction to basic circuitry. He then builds upon…
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