Sailing & boating books

neris

Im looking to build my small library of sailing books up so am looking for recomendations of books to buy and avoid (not books on learning how to sail)

Some of the books i have that i would recomend are

Fastnet force 10, about the 79 fastnet disaster. A great read for any yachtie
At the mercy of the sea. About 3 different single handers caught up in a caribbean huricane.
Sail of the century. About the 87 americas cup in freemantle.
Faster and faster. The 93/94 whitbread race and the introduction of the w60 class.
Berserk in the antartic. This is a great read and funny. Its about an american who wants to go to the antarctic but the only way he can get there is on a 25foot yacht with a scandanavian skipper and a south american who turns into the crew mate from hell.

Conchir

I quite enjoyed A World of My Own by Robin Knox Johnston, about his part in the Golden Globe Round the World Race.

miss no stars

I just finished Into the Wind by Pete Goss. It didn't leave me as :eek: as Left for Dead (written by one of the crew on Grimalkin in the '79 fastnet) did but it was an interesting book that covered more than just the race - the qualifying, sponsorship, design & build stages and the realities of long distance solo races.

ETA: it was about the 1996 Vendee Globe where a guy running before the mother of all storms turned back into the wind to rescue a fellow competitor.

HeidiHeidi

I read the Pete Goss one a while back - it was good, but not great.

Ellen McArthur's (first? she may have written others since) book about her life was very interesting - very obviously not ghost-written, and just the nitty gritty detail of getting into that sort of life and the grind of having to do pitches and presentations and selling herself to get sponsorship was very intesting - and slightly excruciating. She came across as the most incredibly driven personality - which I think you'd have to be to get into solo sailing. Not for me, that's for sure :eek:

(this is the one I'm on about http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-on-the-World-ebook/dp/B004LLIHGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381698953&sr=8-1&keywords=ellen+macarthur)

I absolutely loved The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, about the first non-stop round-the-world race in the 60's (I think). He went a bit doolally, faked his logs, pottered around the Atlantic for months and months while the rest actually did sail around the world, and it all went properly and completely pear-shaped on him in the end. I won't give any more away for the sake of people who don't know the story, but it's a very good read indeed.

My other favourite read, which is nothing to do with actual sailing, but feeds my total fascination with lighthouses, is the story of the Fastnet lighthouse (which I'm particularly taken with). I'll edit this post tomorrow with the actual title and author, but it's a great little read, the story behind the (current) Fastnet is a very interesting one.

ETA - GREAT idea for a thread!!!

Stheno

Fantastic idea for a thread, when I started sailing this year I watched a few videos about the fastnet, so I'd love to read that book.

Great suggestions in later posts too!

neris

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

I read the Pete Goss one a while back - it was good, but not great.

Ellen McArthur's (first? she may have written others since)

(this is the one I'm on about http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-on-the-World-ebook/dp/B004LLIHGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381698953&sr=8-1&keywords=ellen+macarthur)

I absolutely loved The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, about the first non-stop round-the-world race in the 60's (I think). He went a bit doolally, faked his logs, pottered around the Atlantic for months and months while the rest actually did sail around the world, and it all went properly and completely pear-shaped on him in the end. I won't give any more away for the sake of people who don't know the story, but it's a very good read indeed.

ETA - GREAT idea for a thread!!!

Ellen mcarthur did do a 2nd book but can't remember its name & havent read it.

Another good book about the single handed round the world is "a voyage for mad men" it tells the story of the race & competitors.

murphym7

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

I read the Pete Goss one a while back - it was good, but not great.

Ellen McArthur's (first? she may have written others since) book about her life was very interesting - very obviously not ghost-written, and just the nitty gritty detail of getting into that sort of life and the grind of having to do pitches and presentations and selling herself to get sponsorship was very intesting - and slightly excruciating. She came across as the most incredibly driven personality - which I think you'd have to be to get into solo sailing. Not for me, that's for sure :eek:

(this is the one I'm on about http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-on-the-World-ebook/dp/B004LLIHGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381698953&sr=8-1&keywords=ellen+macarthur)

I absolutely loved The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, about the first non-stop round-the-world race in the 60's (I think). He went a bit doolally, faked his logs, pottered around the Atlantic for months and months while the rest actually did sail around the world, and it all went properly and completely pear-shaped on him in the end. I won't give any more away for the sake of people who don't know the story, but it's a very good read indeed.

My other favourite read, which is nothing to do with actual sailing, but feeds my total fascination with lighthouses, is the story of the Fastnet lighthouse (which I'm particularly taken with). I'll edit this post tomorrow with the actual title and author, but it's a great little read, the story behind the (current) Fastnet is a very interesting one.

ETA - GREAT idea for a thread!!!

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst really was excellent.

Tabnabs

The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier. My all time favourite sailing book. A Frenchman that almost won the race that turned RKJ (and Crowhurst) into a household name. If you've read the RKJ book, then this will be all the more contrasting and interesting.

Tristan Jones, any of his books. But the Incredible Voyage is as good a place to start as any.

The Last Man Across the Atlantic by Paul Heiney. A very enjoyable read about an amateurs dream to "race" across the Atlantic.

the beer revolu

neris wrote: »

Another good book about the single handed round the world is "a voyage for mad men" it tells the story of the race & competitors.

An absolutely fascinating book!!
As part of it, it covers some of the Donald Crowhurst story.

Conchir

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

I absolutely loved The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, about the first non-stop round-the-world race in the 60's (I think). He went a bit doolally, faked his logs, pottered around the Atlantic for months and months while the rest actually did sail around the world, and it all went properly and completely pear-shaped on him in the end. I won't give any more away for the sake of people who don't know the story, but it's a very good read indeed.

Tabnabs wrote: »

The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier. My all time favourite sailing book. A Frenchman that almost won the race that turned RKJ (and Crowhurst) into a household name. If you've read the RKJ book, then this will be all the more contrasting and interesting.

I read both of these, and Knox Johnston's. The whole race is just gripping, each individual story is worth telling, it's such a lonely race yet they're all connected. All of these are worth a read.

What I really love is how at home both Moitessier and Knox Johnston were at sea, both in their own ways (though certainly not all the time). I thought their accounts of their Christmas Day at sea were fantastic, especially Knox Johnston singing some carols after his dinner. Really good reads.

Also, has anyone got The Lifeboat by Nigel Millard? I might get it for Christmas, I follow him on twitter and his photography is amazing.

miss no stars

I bought my mum a book called Mrs Chippy's Last Expedition when I was at the Shackleton exhibition (worth a visit, even if only to test your sextant skills).

I am presently waiting for the book to be finished so that I can read it, but so far it's getting a good response from my non-sailing cat-adoring mum. I also mentioned it to a person who does sail and they said they found it very good. (as a cat-mad sailor I can't wait to read it) I've dipped in to a few entries that left me smiling.

It's basically written as the ship's cat's log of the transantarcric walk expedition. The author wrote another book about the expedition so I presume it's correct in detail. Apparently it also shows through that the author knows cats. As its done in journal format it'd be an easy book to keep on the go as a humorous easy read.

kfod

Tabnabs wrote: »

The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier. My all time favourite sailing book. A Frenchman that almost won the race that turned RKJ (and Crowhurst) into a household name. If you've read the RKJ book, then this will be all the more contrasting and interesting.

+1 on this. Moitessier, what a legend.

Also "Once is Enough" by Miles Smeeton is a good read, and "Trekka, around the world" by John Guzzwell.

They were both written about sailing voyages in the late 50's and it's like a different world. In "Once is Enough" they plan to take a 46' Ketch "Tzu hang" around Cape Horn. Nobody really knew much about taking a small boat by that route so it was a real adventure. It doesn't go to smoothly either......

Guzzwell's book is about building his little boat and sailing her around the world stopping here there and everywhere, along the way he takes a break and goes crewing on "Tzu Hang" for her fateful Cape Horn trip.

Another great book is "Voyages of a Simple Sailor" by Roger Tailor. It documents three varied but enthralling sailing adventures the author experienced.

HeidiHeidi

The book I referred to earlier about the Fastnet lighthouse is by James Morrison. But googling that gives no results (bar the singer, and it definitely isn't by him!) so maybe it's out of print. If you come across it anywhere, it's a very interesting read indeed.

On a lighter note entirely, I remember being in absolute tears laughing at "Three Ways to Capsize a Boat" by Chris Stewart - an (allegedly) true story about how he got a job as skipper of a Cornish Crabber yacht in the Greek Islands despite never having sailed before. It was a complete hoot. (He's probably better known for "Driving Over Lemons".)

neris

Another 1 i forgot about is Sail Ireland by Enda O'Coineen. Its the story of the Irish entry Ncb in the 89/90 whitbread. Probably not the easiest book to find now but good read if you can find it.

HeidiHeidi

neris wrote: »

Another 1 i forgot about is Sail Ireland by Enda O'Coineen. Its the story of the Irish entry Ncb in the 89/90 whitbread. Probably not the easiest book to find now but good read if you can find it.

I had dinner with him recently!!! Well, was seated beside him at a dinner, more accurately. Talk about a driven man! He has a very interesting project in the pipeline - not sure how "secret" it is, given he told me about it , but since it's not yet in the public domain (or not that I've heard anyway) I won't say much about it yet - but it'll be a good one, and very popular, if it comes off.

ETA - just watching his episode of Secret Millionaire - it's gone off the RTE Player at midnight in case anyone wants to catch it!

pedroeibar1

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

The book I referred to earlier about the Fastnet lighthouse is by James Morrison. But googling that gives no results (bar the singer, and it definitely isn't by him!) so maybe it's out of print. If you come across it anywhere, it's a very interesting read indeed.

On a lighter note entirely, I remember being in absolute tears laughing at "Three Ways to Capsize a Boat" by Chris Stewart - an (allegedly) true story about how he got a job as skipper of a Cornish Crabber yacht in the Greek Islands despite never having sailed before. It was a complete hoot. (He's probably better known for "Driving Over Lemons".)

I'm away from my books at the mom - will list a few at the weekend. I disagree on the Stewart book, I thought it was not very believable, he played down his training. And he's possibly best known for being the guy who nearly made it with Genesis before being fired as their drummer.;)

ahun

Ron Pattenden: Land on my right
Capt. Joshua Slocum: Sailing alone around the world
Mike Perham: Sailing the dream

welder

Sailing in Grandfathers wake by Ian Tew is worth a read if you trip over it. He is a relative of someone I used to work with and I picked it up on ebay for them. True story about how he retraced parts of his grandfathers travels in 1938 sixty years later. Nicely interspersed with extracts of his grandfathers log(which was kept by his aunt who crewed for him )

In search of islands:A life of Conor O'Brien by Judith Hill is a good read too, Esp if you have any interest in west cork or the restoration of the Ilen. Some of O'Briens books,such as the castaways, are worth a read too if a bit tricky to get hold of.

neris

theres a good selection of sailing books available through resellers on amazon. you can pick up 2nd hand books on the cheap and p+p on top is still cheap enough

pedroeibar1

My marine reading interest is sailing history including biographies, not everyone’s cup of tea/tot of rum. I’ve excluded the Dana, Conrad, Melville, Childers classics as they are well-known, so I will give just a few ‘must reads’ from my bookshelves in no particular order.

Square riggers:
Eric Newby’s ‘The last Grain Race’ (Newby signed on as a deckhand in the late 1930’s in what was to become the last grain race. Very entertaining, he went on to become a highly respected travel writer and correspondent.
The Mammoth Book of ‘Life Before the Mast’ edited by Jon E Lewis (Sailors’ eyewitness accounts from the days of fighting sailing ships late 1700s to early 1800’s. Great images from what it was like to be on the receiving end of a broadside to press gangs to mutinies.)

Anthologies
‘Before the wind’ – David Gowdey
Faber Book of ‘Tales of the Sea’ edited by John Coote
‘A Book of Sea Journeys’ compiled by Ludovic Kennedy
Peter Freuchen’s Book of the Seven Seas.

Cruising
High Endeavours by Miles Clark (Adventure/love story of the Smeetons – a remarkable couple, years afloat, sailed from Japan to Donegal, plus lots more, 130k miles in 15 years. Starts post WW2)
‘Down Channel’ by RT McMullen. (Dates to the second half of the 1800’s. Mainly UK, but has a couple of cruises to Ireland, including one to Bantry during which he visits the Bull & Cow Rocks (worth getting if only to read that chapter.)
‘Sailing Round Ireland’ by Wallace Clarke
‘Ireland from the Sea’ by Andrew Phelan.
Storm Passage by John Ridgeway (Scotland to Cape Verdes & Azores)
Sailing to the Edge of Fear Frank Dye (Sailing a 16 ft. Wayfarer from Florida to the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence. Log book style.)

History
Hen Frigates by Joan Druett (Lives of the wives of the merchant captains who accompanied them on long voyages)
Ahab’s Trade – Granville Mawer, (history of South Sea whaling)
Any of N.A.M. Rodgers books

Fiction
Anything from the Aubrey/Maturin series (‘the Cannon’) by Patrick O’Brian.
If you are an O’Brian fan, worthwhile buys are
A Sea of Words by Dean King & others (Lexicon of terminology used in the novels)
Harbours & High Seas by Dean King & Others (Atlas etc covering the novels)
Lobscouse & Spotted Dog by Lisa Thomas and Anne Grossman (book on the research that went into providing the recipes for the food mentioned in the novels.)

neris

Just finished reading a good book called "winter in fireland" about a couple who cruised around the tip of south america in the beagle channel and magellan straights. After the first few pages i thought it would end up in the bin but was a good read and sounds like a great part of the world to cruise around. Remote, unspoiled and a place where theres actually a good few other hardy cruisers and sounds a lot better then greek islands or Caribbean. They have a website blog bout there trip after from the pacific back to canada www.bosunbird.com book is here on amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winter-Fireland-Patagonian-Adventure-Wayfarer/dp/0888645473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385147164&sr=8-1&keywords=Winter+in+fireland

it is pricey but second hand copies are cheap