Best sailing book(s)
- Thread starter Whatsit
- Start date
Two books that should be on your bookshelf Don Casey's book and Nigel Calder.
BookLibrary Manager | | Maintenance & Repair | This Old Boat, Second
BookLibrary Manager | | Maintenance & Repair | Boatowners Mechanical and
BookLibrary Manager | | Maintenance & Repair | This Old Boat, Second
BookLibrary Manager | | Maintenance & Repair | Boatowners Mechanical and
Definitely agree the Nigel Calder book is a must. But not so much the Casey books as he does not ever mention the brand names he is recommending you use. (I have yet to figure out which type product is Cetal) A better book that does reference the name of products recommended is Boat Maintenance by William Burr. It also covers more topics.
Are these books smack you in the face entertainment? Like for instance “A Walk in the Woods” is a smack you in the face entertainment book. Is it like that?
For pure entertainment Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. I have all 20 of them.
Just wondering
Thanks
Mike
I've never read “A Walk in the Woods” so I'm still not sure what smack you in the face entertainment means. These are historical novels. The movie Master and Commander contained scenes from a few of the books. The author puts you on board and immerses you in the British tall ship navy. Ships, tactics. e.g. weatherhelm, discipline and life aboard. It gets very real.
Calder's book is more technical than Casey's. Calder is deep into the science of boat systems, currently he is writing a lot about batteries and charging systems.
Casey takes a different approach, less technical, more based on experience. Both have their place, with that said, if I only had one choice, I'd opt for the Calder book.
Cetol is essentially a synthetic varnish that is porous, where as traditional varnishes and polyurethanes are not. This allows it to breathe and helps to eliminate the problem of varnish lifting off wood due to moisture and oils in the wood. The original stuff was, to put it politely ugly. The newer Natural Teak looks better, but not like many coats of Epifanes high gloss varnish. Cetol® Marine Natural Teak Wood Finish for Yachts | Interlux
I’ve been reading the reviews of the first book in The series and it sounds great. If you have a chance read a walk in the woods. I’ve read it 3 times and have cried with laughter each time. It does have some foul languages at times but still well worth the read. I guess smack you in the face entertainment means you can’t put the book down even if your wife is screaming at you to help with the kids and a word of warning never reply “I baby sat the kids all day yesterday” :0) (just joking)
Mike
I'll probably get some disagreement here, but I also recommend a subscription to Practical Sailor. They do a lot of work for us, sifting thru what works and what doesn't. When I had the Mac, it wasn't very helpful, but now with a 30 footer, more articles are relevant to my maintenance needs.
The Complete Sailor by David Seidman, also the only one that's actually enjoyable and not dry as a history textbook.
https://books.google.com/books/abou...ver&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.com/books/abou...ver&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
Practical Sailor is worth the money. Over the past few years they have added more articles on examining different issues beyond simple product reviews. Recent articles maintaining water tanks and the series on jack lines and tethers are well researched.
Good Old Boat is another publication. Lots of information on maintaining and improving our old boats. The subscription is a bit pricey, but worth it.
Old boat or new, get Don Guilette's Sail Trim Guide and Peggy Hall's Get Rid of Boat Odors. Both available right here.
One of the cool things about Amazon is creating Lists. As a group we could probably create a 'Sailing Library' list that anyone can access, add books too, and also add their personal reviews to each book. Then we can pin the 'Sailing Library' thread to the top of the forums. Just a thought...
Sailing for Dummies, an easy read, informative, and covers a lot of topics without getting too technical. A great primer. Once you get the vocabulary down, the other publications mentioned above will make more sense. Also, as you have probably discovered, this forum is a treasure trove of information.