Looking for suggestions from all the old (and young) salts out here... My dear friend, daughter of a dear friend, just turned 13. She has been taking sailing lessons in Cohasset, MA, for the past 3 years, and really loves it. I wanted to get her a book about sailing for her birthday. Looked for a few at the local store, but they were either: -Too dire - Adrift, North to the Night...not the right subject matter... -Too likely to get me in trouble with her Mom - those about sailing around hte world by yourself... -Too techincal and dry Sorta thinking about something written by a women (sorry boys), that will help grow a nascent passion through some engaging writing. So - what great ideas to you have? What inspired you? What do your kids like??
Sailing books for a 13 yr old girl learning and loving sailing
- Thread starter Tereza
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Sailing books for the young
I know what started me on my sailing days is old indeed, but the author was Arthur Ransome who wrote a series of some 10 books. His theme of young children exploring local waters and respecting nature carries on through most of his stories, fiction yes, but enough practical sailing on inland lakes with some salt water thrown in experiences included. Some titles, 'We didn't mean to go to Sea', 'Coot Club', ' Great Northern'. Simple adventure stories of kids being kids. Arthur Griffiths
I know what started me on my sailing days is old indeed, but the author was Arthur Ransome who wrote a series of some 10 books. His theme of young children exploring local waters and respecting nature carries on through most of his stories, fiction yes, but enough practical sailing on inland lakes with some salt water thrown in experiences included. Some titles, 'We didn't mean to go to Sea', 'Coot Club', ' Great Northern'. Simple adventure stories of kids being kids. Arthur Griffiths
You mean novels .fiction and non-fiction?
I have racked my brain for good tales and can't think of any books . If you can find any books by Joseph Lincoln she should love those. He wrote around the end of the 19th century of sea tales and along shore stories in the Cape Cod region. His books are long out of print and first editions are valuable. The link is to an on line copy of one of his stories.
I have racked my brain for good tales and can't think of any books . If you can find any books by Joseph Lincoln she should love those. He wrote around the end of the 19th century of sea tales and along shore stories in the Cape Cod region. His books are long out of print and first editions are valuable. The link is to an on line copy of one of his stories.
Try Good Old Boat, the magazine
or their website, they've been developing books like that in print and on CD for a few years and have some good titles.
or their website, they've been developing books like that in print and on CD for a few years and have some good titles.
Any of the above...
Ross - any of the above...I am open to a learning-type book, but am wanting to make sure it engages her - so am thinking that a sailor's own story of how he/she fell in love with sailing, or even a novel, would be best. A story that is based around sailing. Am so far finding either things for smaller kids, or adult bools that are just too dry. I will start looking through the selections so far...thanks all!
Ross - any of the above...I am open to a learning-type book, but am wanting to make sure it engages her - so am thinking that a sailor's own story of how he/she fell in love with sailing, or even a novel, would be best. A story that is based around sailing. Am so far finding either things for smaller kids, or adult bools that are just too dry. I will start looking through the selections so far...thanks all!
Capture Her Imagination!
Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi. Inexperienced 18 year old goes to sea in a Contessa 26 and circumnavigates. Just perfect for a 13 year old. I would also recommend First You Have to Row a Little Boat which is all about a young boy learning to sail. It's by Richard Bode. Hope this helps. Gary Wyngarden
Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi. Inexperienced 18 year old goes to sea in a Contessa 26 and circumnavigates. Just perfect for a 13 year old. I would also recommend First You Have to Row a Little Boat which is all about a young boy learning to sail. It's by Richard Bode. Hope this helps. Gary Wyngarden
try duh libary
Our Cleveland Library is the hub for the county system linking all the libraries together. There are actually two systems here in Cleveland/Cuyahoga County. I am sure there must be a biggie system near you. Simply log into their system, and type in "sailing" or "sail" or "wooden boat" or whatever into their search engine and peruse. (Is that how the word is used, or can be used?) I've found books on boating from the 1860's that you use to be able to take out (some guy named Letterman put a stop to that when he saw a librarian break the back of a book that was over 120 years old! He contacted the main library, and now you can only get them in the research area of the downtown main library.) I am sure you could find books to satisfy a 13 year old. Better, look at an online library. They have books for free that you can read.
Our Cleveland Library is the hub for the county system linking all the libraries together. There are actually two systems here in Cleveland/Cuyahoga County. I am sure there must be a biggie system near you. Simply log into their system, and type in "sailing" or "sail" or "wooden boat" or whatever into their search engine and peruse. (Is that how the word is used, or can be used?) I've found books on boating from the 1860's that you use to be able to take out (some guy named Letterman put a stop to that when he saw a librarian break the back of a book that was over 120 years old! He contacted the main library, and now you can only get them in the research area of the downtown main library.) I am sure you could find books to satisfy a 13 year old. Better, look at an online library. They have books for free that you can read.
But then it'll be my fault when SHE sails around the world
Library is great idea - forgot about that...though I want to make a nice gift of a book, but can use the library as a great reference (duh - ain't that what they're for??) I looked at Maiden Voyage - that sounds almost perfect - though I fear her parent's reaction should I plant THAT idea in her head!!
Checking all these suggestions - thanks!!
Library is great idea - forgot about that...though I want to make a nice gift of a book, but can use the library as a great reference (duh - ain't that what they're for??) I looked at Maiden Voyage - that sounds almost perfect - though I fear her parent's reaction should I plant THAT idea in her head!!
Checking all these suggestions - thanks!!Gary, My thoughts exactly
It was Tania Aebi who I have to blame for my addiction. I fell in love with sailing from reading her accounts in Cruising World many years ago. Those accounts later became the book you mentioned. Great reading and I have no interest in a solo circumnavigation.
It was Tania Aebi who I have to blame for my addiction. I fell in love with sailing from reading her accounts in Cruising World many years ago. Those accounts later became the book you mentioned. Great reading and I have no interest in a solo circumnavigation.
- Jan 22, 2008
- 519
a few female sailing authors
Naomi James Clare Francis Lin Pardey Then some young people's classics: A Year in a Yawl by Russell Doubleday If the Shoe Fits: The Adventures of a Reluctant Boatfrau By Rae Ellen Lee By the Grace of the Sea : A Woman's Solo Odyssey Around the World By Pat Henry
Naomi James Clare Francis Lin Pardey Then some young people's classics: A Year in a Yawl by Russell Doubleday If the Shoe Fits: The Adventures of a Reluctant Boatfrau By Rae Ellen Lee By the Grace of the Sea : A Woman's Solo Odyssey Around the World By Pat Henry
"Maiden Voyage"
I second that suggestion. And there are a lot worse things a young person could aspire to than sailing round the world.
I second that suggestion. And there are a lot worse things a young person could aspire to than sailing round the world.
Thames is right....
Arthur Ransome wrote Swallows and Amazons, and many others besides the ones Thames has listed. A teacher of mine had me read Swallows and Amazons in eighth grade, and it saved me from a life of powerboating. Much to my fathers dismay, I became a sailor when him and all his friends were stinkpotters. Recently, I bought the entire series of books for my 11 year old. We read the first together, and then recently, she has read the next one, and then waited for me to read it, and that has paced her. I'm forty six, and I laugh out loud at the authors ability to see through the mind of a child. Very Mark Twain-ish. I see Small Craft Advisor has now listed the first book in the series on their book list, but all are availabkle on Amazon, or special order with B & N and Borders. Take Care, Steve
Arthur Ransome wrote Swallows and Amazons, and many others besides the ones Thames has listed. A teacher of mine had me read Swallows and Amazons in eighth grade, and it saved me from a life of powerboating. Much to my fathers dismay, I became a sailor when him and all his friends were stinkpotters. Recently, I bought the entire series of books for my 11 year old. We read the first together, and then recently, she has read the next one, and then waited for me to read it, and that has paced her. I'm forty six, and I laugh out loud at the authors ability to see through the mind of a child. Very Mark Twain-ish. I see Small Craft Advisor has now listed the first book in the series on their book list, but all are availabkle on Amazon, or special order with B & N and Borders. Take Care, Steve
- Jan 22, 2008
- 519
I am so impressed by this forum
and how it has banded together to encourage a parent in the development of one new young sailor. Now that is TEAMwork for the greater good of the sport!
and how it has banded together to encourage a parent in the development of one new young sailor. Now that is TEAMwork for the greater good of the sport!
“The Greatest Sailing Stories Ever Told”
Twenty -seven Unforgettable Stories edited by Chris Caswell. This book is fabulous because it introduces you so many of the great story writers. You would have to read and choose the right stories for your daughter because there are some scary ones like Slocum in the straits of Magellan or being kidnapped by some Arabs. But the excerpt from one of William Buckley’s books is superb. And I hope I do not get in trouble but here is a paragraph from E.B. White’s “The Sea and the Wind That Blows”. Your daughter will know the author from Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. He writes about his love for sailing: “Waking or sleeping, I dream of boats. . . . If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble. If it happens to be an auxiliary cruising boat, it is without question the most compact and ingenious arrangement for living ever devised by the restless mind of man - a home that is stable without being stationary, shaped less like a box than like a fish or a bird or a girl, and in which the homeowner can remove his daily affairs as far from shore as he has the nerve to take them, close-hauled or running free - parlor, bedroom, and bath, suspended and alive”. You might know Chris Caswell from his editorials in Sailing magazine. He writes the intros to each story. There is lots more, especially Sterling Hayden and Buckley but my fingers are tired.
Twenty -seven Unforgettable Stories edited by Chris Caswell. This book is fabulous because it introduces you so many of the great story writers. You would have to read and choose the right stories for your daughter because there are some scary ones like Slocum in the straits of Magellan or being kidnapped by some Arabs. But the excerpt from one of William Buckley’s books is superb. And I hope I do not get in trouble but here is a paragraph from E.B. White’s “The Sea and the Wind That Blows”. Your daughter will know the author from Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. He writes about his love for sailing: “Waking or sleeping, I dream of boats. . . . If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. A small sailing craft is not only beautiful, it is seductive and full of strange promise and the hint of trouble. If it happens to be an auxiliary cruising boat, it is without question the most compact and ingenious arrangement for living ever devised by the restless mind of man - a home that is stable without being stationary, shaped less like a box than like a fish or a bird or a girl, and in which the homeowner can remove his daily affairs as far from shore as he has the nerve to take them, close-hauled or running free - parlor, bedroom, and bath, suspended and alive”. You might know Chris Caswell from his editorials in Sailing magazine. He writes the intros to each story. There is lots more, especially Sterling Hayden and Buckley but my fingers are tired.
Adventure on Candlewood Lake
Tereza, About thirty-five years ago I took a couple of my college friends from my (then) home in NJ to your lake to sail our tired wooden Blue Jay for the day. Not too much wind but we managed to get pretty far from shore when one of the guys stepped on the bottom of the boat instead of the floorboards lining the cockpit. His foot went through the boat and the lake came in pretty quickly. We somehow managed to make it back to the launching ramp without capsizing, but pretty much awash in Candlewood Lake! We managed to get the boat on the trailer and back home, but I believe that was about her last sail, at least for us. It did seem like a beautiful lake! For your young sailor friend, I'd recommend Farley Mowat's "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float." Fun story of this Canadian writer's adventures and travails with a barely seaworthy old wooden boat.
Tereza, About thirty-five years ago I took a couple of my college friends from my (then) home in NJ to your lake to sail our tired wooden Blue Jay for the day. Not too much wind but we managed to get pretty far from shore when one of the guys stepped on the bottom of the boat instead of the floorboards lining the cockpit. His foot went through the boat and the lake came in pretty quickly. We somehow managed to make it back to the launching ramp without capsizing, but pretty much awash in Candlewood Lake! We managed to get the boat on the trailer and back home, but I believe that was about her last sail, at least for us. It did seem like a beautiful lake! For your young sailor friend, I'd recommend Farley Mowat's "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float." Fun story of this Canadian writer's adventures and travails with a barely seaworthy old wooden boat.
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