After years of boating, Alex Zidock has put his vast experience into this extremely informative guide to Trailer Boats. Alex takes the reader, in an easy-to-understand style, from the front bumper of the tow vehicle to the prop nut of the engine, explaining every item in between. You will find all you must know about safety, care, maintenance, and operation of a trailer boat, its tow vehicle, and the trailer. Trailer Boats includes chapters explaining how to choose the right boat, motor, and trailer. Other chapters explain towing, launching, retrieving, seamanship, safety, and the routine maintenance every boat requires and deserves. From the smallest johnboat to the largest weekender, this is truly a book no trailer boater should be without.

Designed to give the newcomer to this subject an insight into the workings of the boat engine, and also to cater for the more experienced person who wishes to learn more about maintaining his engine to a high standard, this book covers both diesel and petrol engines. It enables the reader to recognize parts of typical marine engines and gain a deeper understanding of their working parts.

In this firsthand account of life aboard the ships of the Great Lakes, Mark Thompson weaves together the threads of a story that relives a centuries-old tradition. Thompson began his logbook after he reported for duty aboard the Calcite II at Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisconsin, for the 1996 shipping season. A Sailor's Logbook is the first such book to chronicle a sailor's life at the end of the twentieth century. Not just a detailing of weather, cargo, and crew relations, A Sailor's Logbook is also an account of the daily lives of a diverse group of crewmembers as they share their sailing knowledge, "sea stories," and the many memories that accompany the pictures. Although there are ample resources in museums, archival collections, and company files regarding statistical logbook information, A Sailor's Logbook details the intricacies of daily life on a Great Lakes freighter. Thompson navigates the reader through the waters of the Great Lakes and his own life in this very special narrative.

"I suggest, henceforth, when a woman talks women's rights, she be answered with the word Titanic, nothing more just Titanic," wrote a St. Louis man to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He was not alone in mining the ship for a metaphor. Everyone found ammunition in the Titanic suffragists and their opponents; radicals, reformers, and capitalists; critics of technology and modern life; racists and xenophobes and champions of racial and ethnic equality; editorial writers and folk singers, preachers and poets. Protestant sermons used the Titanic to condemn the budding consumer society ("We know the end of . . . the undisturbed sensualists. As they sail the sea of life we know absolutely that their ship will meet disaster."). African American toasts and working-class ballads made the ship emblematic of the foolishness of white people and the greed of the rich. A 1950s revival framed the disaster as an "older kind of disaster in which people had time to die." An ever-increasing number of Titanic buffs find heroism and order in the tale. Still in the headlines ("Titanic Baby Found Alive " the Weekly World News declares) and a figure of everyday speech ("rearranging deck chairs . . ."), the Titanic disaster echoes within a richly diverse, paradoxical, and fascinating America."

Lets face it. To the uninitiated, the confined and often animated galley of a cruising boat lends itself to creating such less-than-mouthwatering delicacies canned beef stew served over a bed of reheated noodles. After all, theres no storage space, very little in the way of modern appliances, and limited, if any, refrigeration.

Cruising Cuisine will put a flavorful end to all that. Longtime cruiser Kay Pastorius offers everything a cook needs to know to adapt to the very different world of cooking at sea, in strange ports of call, or in deserted anchorages far from supermarkets.

Far more than a collection of recipes, Cruising Cuisine is filled with advice on mastering fine cooking techniques guaranteed to produce delicacies everyone on board will relish.

The simple and exciting recipes in Cruising Cuisine--everything from crowd-pleasing appetizers to tempting sauces and sinful desserts--are fresh, modern, healthful, and tailored to save cruisers time, energy, and effort. Here are more than 450 recipes for all gastronomical persuasions: Pear Crepes, Apple Pancakes, Porcini Mushroom Dip, Conch Fritters, Curried Rock Scallops, Basque-Style Chicken and Sausage, Orzo with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Stir-Fried Thai Chicken in Coconut Sauce. All are far removed from the crunchy-granola, freeze-dried, open a can of this and add it to that school of boat cooking.

Kay Pastorius lays out numerous techniques around which the cruising chef can improvise, using whats on hand. She offers tips on how to set up and customize a galley: Did you know, for example, that a wok is ideal for cooking aboard because it makes economic use of whichever heat source you use? And she provides advice on how to stock provisions and deal with supermarket-separation syndrome; how to use fresh ingredients to supplement onboard staples; how to cook your catch; and how to shop for fresh (and safe) local produce, meat, and fish wherever you drop anchor, even in the markets typical of popular cruising stops in Mexico, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific.

Arthur Edmunds has created a tremendously informative book concerning fiberglass boats and their systems. Fiberglass Boat Survey will guide you through the process of choosing a boat type for your intended use. This book then continues by detailing exactly what you should inspect on any boat before you make an offer of purchase. Granted, a professional surveyor's report will be required at a later date to secure financing and insurance, but this book will guide you through the same process the professional surveyor will use. When you complete your own survey, you will have a list of the positives and negatives which you can hold in hand at the time of your offer. This step will not only enable you to make a fair offer, but also will certainly prevent surprises when the surveyor files the final report. You will not have your hopes built up only to have them dashed by the professional's report. You will know all of the information before you make your first offer. This book also offers information for locating, hiring, the customary fees for, and interaction with the professional surveyor. If only there were a book like this for used cars

Here is the history and romance of the majestic vessels with tall masts, billowing sails, and distinctive figureheads that conquered the seas and changed the face of the world.

Here is a detailed study of the motive forces of a yacht written in clear and accessible terms. The author has the rare gift of enabling his readers to relate the nautical phenomena with which they are so familiar to a scientific explanation of how and why these occur. The first part covers downwind sailing, upwind sailing, sails, the hull, and the dynamic motion of a yacht. Part Two is devoted to more mathematical explanations of the same phenomena for those requiring a more scientific approach.

Few people have done more than Sam Devlin to popularize wooden boatbuilding. For the past 15 years he has been designing, building, and helping others build his fleet of small sail and power boats. Ranging in length from 7 to 40 feet--so graceful, pert, and purposeful they seem to have been born on the waves--these boats belie the fact that they are built from sheet plywood using wire stitches and epoxy glue. In other words, anyone can build them, and many have. A 1988 WoodenBoat magazine profile of Devlin garnered more than 1,800 inquiries for his boat plans, an unbelievable response to any article in any magazine. Sailboats like Nancys China (costs less to build than the reported cost of one place setting of Nancy Reagans china) and powerboats like Surf Scoter are familiar, much-appreciated sights these days. Devlin developed this guide to building boats--his or any other designers--from the building instructions he supplies with his plans. It is a mature, shop- and ocean-tested manual, covering everything from sharpening the tools to launching the finished boat. There is also a gallery of Devlins designs and a detailed appendix listing sources for tools and other materials.

Between these covers is the essence of centuries of seafaring experience, distilled into a concise, alphabetically organized reference for sailors and powerboaters. Youll find rules of thumb for hull thickness, bottom paint coverage, estimating distances, when to hoist and lower flags, predicting weather, which colors are unlucky, rope size and strength, anchoring rights, making a rum punch, and a lot more. This is either the most useful boating book ever designed to entertain or the most entertaining book ever designed to be useful. Open it to any page and browse awhile. Youll see.

Since the late 1950s, when the first plastic sailboat shocked the New York Boat Show, fiberglass boatbuilding has gone through classic growing pains. Longtime yacht broker and marine surveyor Henry Mustin has seen it all: the slow acceptance of those early, heavy boats; the market boom of the lighter boats of the 1970s; the boat pox scare of the 1980s; and the continued lack of industry standards that makes buying and owning a fiberglass boat an adventure. In Surveying Fiberglass Sailboats Mustin explains what to watch for in a used sailboat from each era, and how to ferret out the hidden defects in any boat. He shows how to estimate the cost of repairs and the value of a boat. And he addresses the question: When is a fiberglass boat too used up to save?

Mustins part-by-part look at hull, deck, rig, and machinery is both a minicourse for transforming used-boat shopping from a game of craps to a science, and the first step in a holistic boat maintenance program. His discussion of the significance of cracks found in aging hulls and decks is the most thorough in print. He is not shy in assessing the lack of regulation of professional surveyors, nor does he shrink from pointing a finger at shoddy building practices.

Having a used boat surveyed is a critical prelude to buying it. Yet a professional survey is expensive--several hundred dollars. Surveying Fiberglass Sailboats will enable you to conduct your own surveys while narrowing the field, then monitor a professional surveyors performance when selecting your target boat.

The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History presents the first such narrative of the earth's tenth largest body of water. In this beautifully written and illustrated volume, John S. Sledge explores the people, ships, and cities that have made the Gulf's human history and culture so rich. Many famous figures who sailed the Gulf's viridian waters are highlighted, including Ponce de Leon, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, Francis Drake, Jean Laffite, Tyrone Power, Richard Henry Dana, Libbie Custer, Elizabeth Agassiz, Ernest Hemingway, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as Charles Dwight Sigsbee, at the helm of the doomed Maine. But Sledge also introduces a fascinating and diverse array of people connected to maritime life in the Gulf, including Mesoamerican pyramid builders, Spanish conquistadores, French pirates, Creole women, Cajun fishermen, African American stevedores, British jack-tars, and Greek sponge divers.Gulf events of global historical importance are detailed, such as the only defeat of armed and armored steamships by wooden sailing vessels, the first accurate deep-sea survey and bathymetric map of any ocean basin, the development of shipping containers by a former truck driver frustrated with antiquated loading practices, and the worst environmental disaster in American annals. Occasionally shifting focus ashore, Sledge explains how people representing a gumbo of ethnicities built some of the world's most exotic cities--Havana, way station for conquistadores and treasure-filled galleons; New Orleans, the Big Easy, famous for its beautiful French Quarter, Mardi Gras, and relaxed morals; and oft-besieged Veracruz, Mexico's oldest city, founded in 1519 by Hernan Cortes. Throughout history the residents of these cities and their neighbors along the littoral have struggled with challenges both natural and human-induced--devastating hurricanes, frightening epidemics, catastrophic oil spills, and conflicts ranging from dockside brawls to pirate raids, foreign invasion, civil war, and revolution. In the modern era the Gulf has become critical to energy Production, fisheries, tourism, and international trade, even as it is threatened by pollution and climate change. The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History is a work of verve and sweep that illuminates both the risks of life on the water and the riches that come from its bounty.

A unique combination of artistry and technical virtuosity -- the simplest and clearest guide yet to building curvaceous boats from wood.

One of the finest, most colorful and definitive studies of whaling ever published. Describes whaling trade, rigging, gear and handicrafts; construction and outfitting of ships, with fascinating details and anecdotes about whales and whaling waters, whaling men, methods of attack, crafts and routines, much more. Richly illustrated with 133 halftones, 17 line illustrations. Introduction by Robert Cushman Murphy. Bibliography.

Youve just spent a day on the water under a sweltering sun. You sit back, enjoying the seclusion of a remote anchorage, lulled by the rattle of ice in your cold drink. A pretty picture, but a rare one aboard cruising boats.

A house is never without its utility umbrella, but when you pull your boats shore-power plug youre on your own. Even good refrigeration systems use a lot of energy. And bad ones? Erase those ice cubes from your tropical fantasy.

Refrigeration for Pleasureboats explains how the cruising sailor can acquire the amenities--even the necessities--of an efficient onboard refrigeration system. Whether youre off for two days or two years, you must balance the highest possible cooling capacity with the lowest possible energy consumption. Calder explains clearly and logically how and why refrigeration components work, how to keep them working efficiently and economically, and what to look for when something goes wrong.

Boat refrigeration systems are phenomenally expensive. A modest refrigerator/freezer system, professionally built and installed, can cost more than $4,000. Yet these units can still have unpleasant side effects--such as killing the boats batteries. Refrigeration for Pleasureboats provides all the step-by-step information an amateur needs to design and build a custom refrigeration unit that will cost far less than half the price of an off-the-shelf unit and will likely run better with far less drain on the batteries. With Calders maintenance and troubleshooting tips, youll be able to keep it running for years to come and keep those ice cubes tinkling in that frosted glass.

In view of the sky-high purchase and ownership costs of today's large yachts, more and more people are opting to cruise in smaller boats, ranging downward in size from 30 feet to as small as 15 feet. In a boat with limited space, forethought and good design are particularly important for both safety and comfort -- but all too often these are precisely the areas shortchanged in fiberglass production sailboats. Upgrading Your Small Sailboat for Cruising is intended to bridge that gap, with dozens of projects to make a daysailer suitable for cruising, or a pocket cruiser more suitable. The book offers improvements in every area: masts and rigging, flotation, strengthening fiberglass hulls, bow rollers, enclosed cockpits, stowage tanks, water systems, seating and sleeping arrangements, lockers, bulkheads, canvaswork, hatches, and ventilation. These and many other details, taken together, can make the difference between pleasure and misery when cruising in small sailboats.

Extract from Foreword by John F. Millican, Director, Warsash Maritime Academy, Southampton, UK...Dr. Solly has very cleverly woven together a social history of seafaring in the post-war years...you discover just how well the author ...has captured the experience of being at sea ...a wonderfully evocative read, and an important contribution to the history of the period. This story continues the adventures of Jonathan Caridia, the narrator in "Mariner's Launch", and shows his continued professional and social growth.Written in an eminently readable style which encourages empathy with the narrator, the reader shares Jonathan's pride at leaving behind his cadetship and experiences his uncertainties when he joins his first vessel as Third Navigating Officer. Jonathan impresses as a very real person encountering new challenges and some dramatic situations, which he handles responsibly and with increasing confidence. The reader learns how he confronts new challenges and handles his responsibilities, often conveying a laconic, dry sense of humour.Seafaring then was more leisurely than today, yet "Mariner's Voyage" is not only for veterans but is also a must for younger readers and all who enjoy rattling a good read. Seafarer's expectations today may have changed a little, although computerisation requires different skills, but going to sea will always be exciting. The sea remains a demanding and challenging taskmaster for those navigating vessels and does not suffer fools gladly. This true-to-life adventure story of a young man's development in his maritime career will ring true with many seafarers, being appreciated by veteran and young sailors alike. It also gives a detailed and enjoyable picture of the 'golden age of shipping' and will be of great appeal to all maritime enthusiasts and armchair sailors.

Were the Austronesians hapless travelers on fragile craft, drifted at the mercy of the waves to the far-flung islands of the Pacific? Or were they intrepid seafarers whose exploratory voyages covered much of the great ocean on seaworthy canoes capable of being sailed against the wind? This book addresses these questions in one of the most thorough discussions of Austronesian sailing canoes ever attempted.
The canoes themselves are described in detail, and similarities and differences in hull configuration, sails, and sailing techniques are noted. A review of earlier writings on the canoes repeats the earlier understanding of their origins: that the earliest canoes were the double-outrigger type and that single-outrigger canoes came later, followed by the double canoes in which the great voyages from Central Polynesia to such extremities as Hawaii and New Zealand were made. Another chapter summarizes the great advances of recent years in anthropological and archaeological studies of the Pacific.
At the heart of the book is a thorough examination of canoe seaworthiness. Doran's conclusions are that Austronesian canoes were amply seaworthy and fully capable of intentional voyages of discovery, and that previous views on the ages of canoe types are just the opposite of the probable sequence. Double canoes seem to be the oldest type; single-outrigger canoes probably were devised somewhat later; and much later, possibly only about 2,500 years ago, double outriggers were developed. Maps showing the distribution of canoe types, sail types, sailing techniques, and the like, illustrate these ideas.