As the popularity of rowing in mid to late adulthood has grown, so too has the number of rowing club members and participants in regattas increased. Rowing attracts not only former racing rowers who return to rowing for fitness, health, and competition, but also the many late and lateral entrants who are perhaps competing for the first time. This growing interest in the sport makes it even more important to provide instruction for these masters rowers. Masters Rowing caters to interested beginners learning the sport and adapting their boating equipment, as well as to ambitious masters rowers looking to improve their technique. Within this book, the reader will find tips for fitness training and hints for competition. In addition, the reader will understand the theoretical basics of training and performance development of active but older rowers. Coaches of master rowers will also be able to take the information in this book and apply it to their athletes' training. Furthermore, all training information provided is backed by scientific, specialist research. With Masters Rowing, readers will be able to increase their fitness and hone their skills to compete at their best.

The fundamental skill of tying knots is useful in countless situations, both indoors and out. The Book of Knots teaches you which knot to choose and exactly how to tie it, whether you're constructing a trout fly, repairing a hammock, mooring a boat, securing a load to a car roof rack, or engaging in a rescue or survival situation. This invaluable manual explains through clear line diagrams and step-by-step descriptions how to tie more than 125 practical knots.

Why will a sailor never go to sea on Friday 13th? Why are boats always referred to as 'she'? How do you navigate the ocean without a compass? Does the Bermuda Triangle really exist? Why do sailors wear earrings? Did Blackbeard actually exist? Did Nelson really say 'Kiss me, Hardy'? What is the correct way to bury a body at sea? Why is a rope never called a rope? This fascinating collection of maritime folklore and trivia delves into the history, science and culture of the sea, and is packed full of entertaining, surprising and insightful facts, from the delightfully obscure to the amusingly quaint, including everyday expressions that have their origins on board ship. It is a complete treasure trove for young and old alike. Topics include: sailors and superstitions; ships and shipbuilding; navigation and seamanship; pirates and smugglers; fish and fishermen; coasts and oceans; tides and weather; art and literature of the sea.

Popularly thought of as a recreational vehicle and one of the key ingredients of an ideal wilderness getaway, the canoe is also a political vessel. A potent symbol and practice of Indigenous cultures and traditions, the canoe has also been adopted to assert conservation ideals, feminist empowerment, citizenship practices, and multicultural goals. Documenting many of these various uses, this book asserts that the canoe is not merely a matter of leisure and pleasure; it is folded into many facets of our political life. Taking a critical stance on the canoe, The Politics of the Canoe expands and enlarges the stories that we tell about the canoe's relationship to, for example, colonialism, nationalism, environmentalism, and resource politics. To think about the canoe as a political vessel is to recognize how intertwined canoes are in the public life, governance, authority, social conditions, and ideologies of particular cultures, nations, and states. Almost everywhere we turn, and any way we look at it, the canoe both affects and is affected by complex political and cultural histories. Across Canada and the U.S., canoeing cultures have been born of activism and resistance as much as of adherence to the mythologies of wilderness and nation building. The essays in this volume show that canoes can enhance how we engage with and interpret not only our physical environments, but also our histories and present-day societies.

Pete Goss became a national and international hero when he rescued French yachtsman Raphael Dinelli as his boat sank beneath him in the round-the-world single-handed sailing race, the Vendee Globe, on Christmas Day 1996. In doing so Pete scuppered his own chances in the race but was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by France's president and made a friend for life in Dinelli. Close to the Wind is his own story of the race and its dramas, his revolutionary boat, Aqua Quorum, his thoughts and emotions during four months of solitude at sea, the extraordinary surgery that he had to perform on his own elbow and the aftermath of the rescue in the Southern Ocean.

Naming a boat is as personal as naming a baby (even if few male skippers would risk telling the wife that). The culmination of many years of dreaming and penny pinching, the purchase of a boat of any size is a huge event for any sailor, and with that comes serious naming pressure. Many boatowners have a secret fear that someone else got their brilliantly original name first - or ruined it for ever by reducing its reputation to snigger-worthy opprobrium. Sometimes it's so difficult to name a boat that skippers are desperate enough to ask the sorts of people who think Boaty McBoatface would be a good choice... The perfect gift for any skipper or would-be skipper, and featuring hundreds of common and uncommon names, this entertaining little book will answer perhaps the most important question new owners should ask themselves: what will this name say about me? And as everyone knows, once you've named a boat, you never ever change it, so it also answers the question: what is my boat name saying about me? Names will be categorised and listed alphabetically within these chapters: - Pun Intended (some reveal a classic wit, others reveal just how many desperate unfunny dullards there are sailing around in yachts called Seas the Day) - Common as Muck (bad names - Moondancer, Wave Catcher and others that sound like names from a bad children's novel: where they come from, why they're bad, and how to avoid inventing another) - A Bit of Pedigree (good names - but probably too classy for you to get away with copying them) - Don't Even Go There (they might be uncommon these days, but sometimes there's a good reason for that) - Word Piracy (expressions borrowed from other languages - with varying degrees of wisdom) - Myths, Legends and Gods (inspired by heroes and deities of cultures now lost to the past) - The Devil's Own (don't tempt fate by calling your boat Invincible, as the Royal Navy did each time the last one sank/exploded - plus other superstition-violating names) With fascinating history, a fair bit of psychology and a lot of humour, this is the essential guide for all would-be boat owners, and anyone buying a gift for Dad for Father's Day or Christmas.