John F wrote:
Andy wrote:
snip
: All the finer points of sail trim, including mast bend, are covered
: well in books.
: Andy
Could you please list some of the books you've read that
you feel contributed to your sailing knowledge. Not so
much sail trim in particular, but engine maintenance and
mechanical systems, anchoring, docking, navigation, etc, etc.
The ASA and US Sailing books I've read for courses
(Basic Keelboat, Basic Cruising, and Bareboat) I've taken
seem way too light-weight for complete self-learning.
The USPS Advanced Sailing course book seems much better,
and sail trim seems very well covered by Tom Whidden's
The Art and Science of Sails. But I haven't found (what
seemed to me like) good books for many of the other topics
you've mentioned in your preceding posts, and would be
very interested to know what you found the most helpful.
Thanks,
--
John Forkosh ( mailto: where j=john and f=forkosh )
Hi John:
I agree with you about the ASA books; they are pretty lightweight and I
wouldn't rely on them alone. I used the ASA books as basically an
introduction and overview of the topics. Chapman's Piloting, while
pretty thick, I also just used as an introductory text. When I was
actually out cruising I don't think I ever opened the ASA books, and I
only checked Chapman's as a last resort.
Here are the books that I considered to be the most useful to me in
learning to cruise. I am not saying these are the best books
available; Some of them I were on board when we bought the boat and
some of them I picked up at yard sales, etc. and I ended up finding
them useful.
1. Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook. This is what I turned to first,
since it adequately covers a surprisingly large number of diverse
topics. I suspect that if people in this newsgroup threw random topics
at me we would find that 85% of them are covered in sufficient detail
for cruising (not racing) purposes.
2. Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual; Nigel Calder. This
book resolved at least 90% of my mechanical and electrical issues.
3. Marine Diesel Engines; Calder.
4. Fundamentals of Sailing, Cruising, and Racing; Stephen Colgate.
5. Sail Like a Champion; Dennis Conner.
6. The 12 Volt Bible; Living on 12 Volts with Ample Power
7. Surviving the Storm; Dashew.
8. Pardy books, i.e. The Cost Conscious Cruiser, the Capable Cruiser,
etc.
9. Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach; Casey and Hackler.
9. A bunch of books in the peril-at-sea genre. Its good to read about
other people's mistakes.
10. Sailboat Hull and Deck Repair; Don Casey.
Andy