Boating Books

Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual

Nigel Calder

Amazon Price: $32.97 List Price: $49.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $25.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Crafts & Hobbies -> Models
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Ships -> Repair & Maintenance
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The boatowner's foremost troubleshooting guide, now better than ever

If it's on a boat and it has screws, wires, or moving parts, it's covered in Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. When you leave the dock with this book aboard, you have at your fingertips the best and most comprehensive advice on:

• Battery technologies
• 12- and 24-volt DC systems
• Corrosion, bonding, and lightning protection
• Generators, inverters, and battery chargers
• Electric motors and electric lights
• Marine electronics, antennas, and RFI
• Diesel engines
• Transmissions, shaft brakes, and propellers
• Refrigeration and air-conditioning
• Tanks, plumbing, and through-hulls
• Pumps and watermakers
• Steering, autopilots, and wind vanes
• Stoves and heaters
• Winches, windlasses, and bow thrusters
• Spars, rigging, and roller reefing

"If you had to choose a single book to help you assess and maintain your boat gear, this would be it."—Practical Sailor

"A truly remarkable bible. . . . This book is the best of its kind."—WoodenBoat

"A major achievement. . . . It would be hard to imagine anything going wrong on a boat that couldn't be figured out with this book."—Sailing World

"The world's best technical reference and troubleshooting book."—Sailing Inland and Offshore

"This manual will be of lasting interest to anyone who wants to know how their boat works, what has gone wrong when it doesn't, and how it could be fixed."—Classic Boat

"Without becoming too complex, the book covers almost every imaginable mechanical or electrical matter in the marine environment."—Work Boat World

"Calder lives what he writes, . . . [and] what he offers . . . is practical solutions to problems associated with increasingly complex marine systems. . . . [A] bargain for anyone in the construction and repair side of the boat business."—Professional Boatbuilder

The Annapolis Book of Seamanship: 2nd Edition, Revised

John Rousmaniere

List Price: $32.50 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Engineering -> Special Topics -> Military Engineering
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Boating
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Sailing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Annapolis Book of Seamanship 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Reading this book will shorten any sailor's learning curve. It covers all aspects of the sport. John Rousmanierehas compiled an amazing reference/textbook that is interesting, informative and invaluable. I highly recommend this book to sailors at all levels of proficiency. Thank you Mr. Rousmaniere for this wonderful resource.

Fantastic Sailing reference 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I highly recommend this book for any aspect of sailing knowledge.

My brother found a first edition of this book in someone's trash, and grabbed it for me, as he knew I was a sailor and thought it might be useful or important. I had learned to sail from "Sailing for Dummies"; this, however, is (or should be) the bible for learning to sail. It is the only sailing book I've read that has described how to fly a spinnaker in a useful manner.

Editorial Review:

Based on the U.S. Naval Academy's courses in navigation, piloting, and seamanship, the first edition of this work became the bible for sailing schools and pleasure sailors across America. Its new revised edition is packed with invaluable information and is an indispensable resource for any sailor. Drawings and charts.

Chapman Piloting & Seamanship 65th Edition (Chapman Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling)

Elbert S. Maloney

Amazon Price: $37.80 List Price: $60.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hearst Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $28.73

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Boating
Subjects -> Sports -> General
Subjects -> Sports -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE Essential Guide for All Boaters!
With millions of copies sold, Chapman Piloting has been the leading reference for both power and sail boaters for nearly 100 years. Now this absolutely essential guide—large and beautifully produced, with 928 pages, 1,500 full-color illustrations and charts, and exploded views and cutaways—is thoroughly updated with all the latest information on federal laws, regulations, and fees. In fact, NO competing book is more current. Additionally, Chapman covers the newest technology—especially in the area of communications and navigation electronics equipment, such as GPS, radar, depth sounders/fish finders, chart plotters, and other gear. Even the illustrations—photos, sketches, chart plots—have been freshened up and improved, as has all the contact information, from postal and e-mail addresses to websites.
Virtually anyone who puts a craft on water needs this vital information about boating rules, weather, tide, currents, and navigation. Here are all the facts about special seamanship for powerboats, small craft, and boats under sail; anchoring, communications, and navigation; inland boating, marlinespike seamanship, and boating customs. Decade after decade, it's the book that boaters reach for, the pilot's best mate, and an absolute necessity on board.
Chapman's is:
* The standard text for private boating schools throughout the U.S.
* The officially recommended book for the U.S. Coast Guard's boating education classes
* The guide chosen by the United States Power Squadrons
 
 
 

Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die: Sailing Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations

Chris Santella

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Stewart, Tabori & Chang Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $12.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Boating
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Sailing -> General
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Sailing -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Landlubbers joke that sailors are always wanting to head off to the ends of the earth, but Chris Santella takes that life-changing desire very seriously. In this, the third installment in his immensely successful “Fifty Places” series, Santella assembles a crew of the world’s greatest championship racers and professional adventurers and persuades them to disclose their favorite destinations around the globe.

Interviewees include some of the best-known men and women in the sport: Tom Whidden and Gary Jobson (members of the winning 1987 America’s Cup crew), Jeff Johnstone (of J-Boats), award-winning sailing writer Lin Pardy, and many others. The amazingly diverse places they’ve selected range from clubby East Coast ports (Marblehead, Annapolis), to idyllic tropical refuges (Ilha Grande, Brazil; the Polynesian atoll of Mopelia), to some of the most hair-raisingly treacherous waters on earth (Cape Horn).

Coastlines around the world—even Antarctica and the Arctic—are represented, and the chosen spots include some spectacular inland waters, such as the Bras d’Or Lakes and the North Channel of Lake Huron. For each of the 50 places, the sailor recommending the venue spins an entertaining yarn about his or her experience there, and each description is accompanied by a "make you want to go there now" photograph.

World Cruising Routes, 4th Edition

Jimmy Cornell

List Price: $49.95 By: International Marine Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $19.36

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Ships -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Ships -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

World Cruising Routes 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

When planning a circumnavigation one has three choices: 1) Do not plan and accept the extreme dangers of circumnavigation; 2) take a year or more and plan using all available nautical publications, charts, electronic navigation systems; and 3) read and use the outstanding information provided in "World Cruising Routes." This publication will save you time and more important provide excellent tips for short and long passages across the oceans of the world. Cornell has taken the time to consolidate information and plot the important way-points for us.

The most important advice given is the timing of transits. Cornell identifies the risks and the pleasures of circumnavition and avoiding weather disasters. Thanks to Mr. Cornell, sailors who venture forth on the oceans will be safer and more comfortable at sea.

Editorial Review:

This updated comprehensive cruising guide to all the world's oceans is a valuable reference for cruising sailors and armchair dreamers. More than 500 sailing routes are detailed, including 40 new routes to such high-latitude destinations as Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and Antarctica. The book includes 64 pages of 2-color maps, updated Gps coordinates for navigation, and route-by-route descriptions of weather and hazards.

The Rules in Practice 2009 - 2012 (Rules in Practice)

Bryan Willis

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $15.24

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Sports -> Miscellaneous -> Reference
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Boating
Subjects -> Sports -> Water Sports -> Sailing -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The racing rules of sailing explained. Get ahead of the competition with this straight talking, practical guide to the racing rules 2008-2012

Rules in Practice is primarily for competitive sailors who race in keelboats and dinghies.  The Racing Rules of Sailing apply to all forms of sailboat racing.  The author – a member of the International Sailing Federation - looks at 100 key situations that occur on the racecourse – both championship and club racing.  Unlike the competition, Bryan looks at each situation from your viewpoint, the helmsman. It summarizes what each may, must, or cannot do.

 Armed with this information you will have the confidence to exploit your rights to the full, on the water and in the protest room.

 It features a special analysis of the latest rule changes and has been extended to contain the very latest Rules and Appendices in full.

 Introduction.

1. The Basics.

2. Before the Preparatory Signal.

3. In the Preparatory Period.

4. The Start.

5. The Gate Start.

6. On the Beat.

7. Rounding the Windward Mark.

8. On the Reach.

9. Rounding the Wing Mark.

10. Rounding the Leeward Mark from the Reach.

11. On the Run.

12. Rounding the leeward mark from the Run.

13. The Finish.

14. Means of Propulsion.

15. Taking a Penalty.

16. Protesting.

17. Requesting Redress & Appealing.

 The Racing Rules of Sailing for 2005-2008.

Introduction.

Basic principle.

Part 1. Fundamental Rules.

Part 2. When Boats Meet.

Part 3. Conduct of a Race.

Part 4. Other Requirements When Racing.

Part 5. Protests, Redress, Hearings, Misconduct & Appeals.

Part 6. Entry and Qualification.

Part 7. Race Organization.

Appendices.

Index.

How to Sail Around the World : Advice and Ideas for Voyaging Under Sail

Hal Roth

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $16.47

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Earth Sciences -> Geography
Subjects -> Science -> Earth Sciences -> Geography -> General
Subjects -> Science -> Earth Sciences -> Geography -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new classic from one of the world's most respected sailing authors

More than 35 years ago, Hal Roth quit his job as a journalist and went sailing. Since then, he's logged more than 200,000 sea miles. Along the way, Roth also has authored eight voyaging classics, including the 1978 bestseller After 50,000 Miles.

Taking that book as its starting point, this handsome new volume incorporates the new technologies and discoveries of the last quarter century along with another 150,000 miles of experience.

A compendium of mature, time-tested sea wisdom from one of the world's most respected sailing writers, How to Sail Around the World will tell the reader:

• How to choose and equip a sailboat for long-distance cruising, with an emphasis on simplicity and a modest budget
• How to plan and conduct a voyage anywhere in the world
• How to master the arts of navigation, anchoring, and daily life aboard in exotic places
• How to cope with storms at sea--the most complete and authoritative treatise on this critical topic ever published

How to Read a Nautical Chart : A Complete Guide to the Symbols, Abbreviations, and Data Displayed on Nautical Charts

Nigel Calder

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $8.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Military Science
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Ships -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Ships -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The best handbook on chart usage, from one of the most trusted names in boating

In 2000, the U.S. government ceased publication of Chart No. 1, the invaluable little book that generations of mariners have consulted to make sense of the complex system of signs, symbols, and graphic elements used in nautical charts. Now Chart No. 1 is not just reborn but expanded and improved in How to Read a Nautical Chart. The demand for a book like this has never been greater.

Arranged and edited by Nigel Calder, one of today's most respected boating authors, --and containing four-color illustrations throughout,-- How to Read a Nautical Chart presents a number of original features that help readers make optimum use of the data found in Chart No. 1, including a more intuitive format, crucial background information, international chart symbol equivalents, electronic chart symbology, and thorough explanations of the practical aspects of nautical chart reading.

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates (Harvest Book)

David Cordingly

List Price: $14.00 By: Harvest Books Amazon Marketplace: 139 new & used starting at $0.38

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> Transportation -> Ships -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 107 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A History Major's Review 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

As a child pirates fascinated me, but as a college student studying history I found that serious forays into the historical truth of piracy were few and far between. My boyhood fascination and adult inquisitive nature both found outlets in Under The Black Flag. The book is written with the general population in mind but has enough for historians to gain further insights into the lives of pirates.
The book deals primarily with the pirates found in the Caribbean and North America, but gives brief accounts of pirate activity in the rest of the world as well. It profiles such figures as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Anne Bonney, Black Bart, and Calico Jack among others. The book even has a section on famous fictional pirates, reminding us of literary classics such as Long John Silver and Captain Hook.
If you have ever wanted to learn more about Pirates, this is the book for you.

Editorial Review:

"This is the most authoritative and highly literate account of these pernicious people that I have ever read." -- Patrick O'Brian

Pirates are so much a part of legend that it is easy to forget they actually existed. UNDER THE BLACK FLAG tells their story in a rollicking account of the golden age of piracy that is packed with history, anecdote, and above all adventure. Here are the true stories of such bloodthirsty legends as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny, and the fearsome Mary Read. And here are rousing descriptions of what ships pirates sailed, what punishments they exacted, what they really wore, and how they flourished--or perished. From the smoky havoc of shipboard battle to the loneliness of a fugitive's life at sea, this spellbinding narrative vividly brings the brutal world of pirates to life.

The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat

Mark Nicholas

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Paradise Cay Publications Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $9.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> Ships -> Repair & Maintenance
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Transportation -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excelent resource 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is a terrific find. I'm still unsure if I will take the plunge and live aboard, but whatever decision I make it will be far more informed than it would have been without reading this book. The author goes over every aspect of preparing to live aboard in great detail. If you are considering living aboard, or you already have decided to, you should definitely pick up a copy of this book.

Editorial Review:

The Essentials of Living Aboard educates both dreamers and explorers with information about this wonderful and rewarding lifestyle. Mark Nicholas has combined his experience of life aboard with the advice of other liveaboards, marina owners, technicians, boat manufacturers and advocates in order to detail the challenges and offer real advice for success. This lifestyle, typically thought to be out of reach or "for other people," is now available to all who dream.

Essentials explains, among other things how to:
•Figure out your needs
•Choose the right boat
•Buy your boat
•Choose the right marina
•Prepare for the lifestyle
•Outfit your boat
•Plan for all climates
•Forecast your costs
•and more!