A modern, authoritative anchoring guide for sailors and powerboaters.

A boat swinging safely at anchor can mark the relaxing conclusion to a great day of boating or the successful completion of an essential emergency measure, while failure to anchor properly can be frustrating, inconvenient, or downright dangerous. "The Complete Anchoring Handbook" is your path to mastering this indispensable seamanship skill..

Based on original engineering analysis--and with contributions from such international anchoring experts as Alain Fraysse and Chuck Hawley--"The Complete Anchoring Handbook" emphasizes the proven best gear and methods for anchoring safely in any situation with any boat, sail or power. Heres everything you need to know, from the basics to the most advanced techniques. Poiraud and company describe: . . The physical forces acting on a boat, its ground tackle, and the sea bottom. Why the new generation of roll-stable anchors (including the Spade, Rocna, Manson Supreme, and others) is proving superior to traditional favorites. How to select and size anchors and ground-tackle components. How to connect those components without introducing weak points in your ground-tackle system. .

Alain Poiraud is an engineer and the inventor of the award-winning Spade anchor, as well as the Sword. He has participated in the Tour de France sailing races and cruised for decades in a self-designed ketch. His experiences in the weedy-bottomed Mediterranean led him to reengineer anchoring on a sound empirical basis..

Achim and Erika Ginsberg-Klemmt have cruised all over the world since 1992 and lectured widely on their "technomadic" lifestyle. Achim has worked as an engineer for underwatergeophysical sonar systems and seafloor mapping, and continues to develop imaging software for L3 Communications. Erika teaches writing at the Ringling College of Art and Design..

A memoir of life as an adventurer and sailor in the Mediterranean, by the noted naval historian. Ernle Bradford spent his twenty-first birthday in Egypt, serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. It was there that he came across the profoundly affecting words of Anton Chekhov: "Life does not come again; if you have not lived during the days that were given to you, once only, then write it down as lost." After the war, Bradford married and settled in London, but the mandate of those words inspired him and his wife to quit their jobs, sell their home, and sail to France in their small ship Mother Goose. The Journeying Moon chronicles their adventures as they travel through Europe and the Mediterranean. From the people of Malta who believed Bradford was a spy from MI5, to his interactions with the Sicilian Mafia, Bradford tells the charming and vivid tale of his days as a true adventurer.