Facilities of the Information Centre
The Information Centre houses a number of facilities which are available to CA members. If you are unable to access the centre in person, contact our Information Officer who will be able to assist you with your enquiry.
- Books. The Library contains over 10,000 volumes of books, pilots and other material, a substantial number of which are available for loan.
- Charts. Over 3000 paper charts covering the whole world.
- Periodicals. A wide range of current and past issues of popular and less well known publications.
- Videos. Over 100 DVDs and Videos on a wide range of subjects.
- Regional Files. The CA's unique collection of reports from members
- Photocopying & Scanning.
- Free Wi-Fi
Library opening hours:
| Monday | 09.30 to 17.30 |
| Tuesday | 09.30 to 17.30 |
| Wednesday | 09.30 to 17.30 |
| Thursday | 09.30 to 17.30 |
| Friday | 09.30 to 17.30 |
Should you wish the library to be open outside of these hours, contact us to let us know. It is difficult to open outside office hours without knowing the demand. The library is able to be open at other times thanks to the generous time of its volunteers. Click here to find out more about Volunteering at the library and at the CA.
Loans
Books can be borrowed from the Hanson Room in person but if it is not easy or convenient for you to come into CA House, it is very simple to arrange loans online. Simply search the catalogue online and once you have selected the books or videos that you would like to borrow, click on the 'Library Loan' icon to send an automatic request. You must be logged in as a CA Member to borrow Library items. Alternatively just telephone the Information Officer at CA House on 020 7537 2828 or contact us.
Books are loaned for four weeks and videos and pilots for two weeks. They can be posted out to you and we do ask members to refund postage costs.
There are fines for books and videos which are returned late.
Loan Information
| Type | Loan periods (Weeks) | Renewable | Fines per item (per week) | No. of Items (per member) |
| Books | 4 | Yes | 25p | 4 |
| Non-reference pilots | 2 | No | £2 | 1 |
| Videos | 2 | No | £5 | 1 |
| CD-ROMs | 2 | No | £5 | 1 |
Library Services
Apart from the volumes now at Cambridge, the rest of our library is housed on the first floor of CA House now known as the Hanson Room in honour of the library’s founder. The library includes books from the early 19th century to the present day and continues to acquire books on all aspects of yachting and the sea for the benefit of members. The collection’s scope ranges from oceanography, navigation and seamanship through boat building and practical maintenance to tales of voyages and circumnavigations, of shipwreck and racing triumphs as well as a large section devoted to fiction and featuring every classic yachting tale. A significant number of celebrated authors of these books were CA members, including such notables as Arthur Ransome, Hillaire Belloc, Maurice Griffiths, Uffa Fox and Adlard Coles and the tradition continues with such current writers as Rod Heikell, Ian Dear, Sam Llewellyn and Nigel Calder. For a list of books in the Library whose authors were or are members see the CA author booklist The CA Library is never static. New items – magazines, pilots, books, charts, videos, DVDs, cruising reports - are added on an almost daily basis. All the major nautical publishers provide review copies of their latest books, we also purchase books where we perceive there is an important gap in the collection plus we acquire books and charts from members’ donations. (Donations are welcome but if considering making a donation, we ask you to please first send a list of the books to the Librarian. Our collection is very comprehensive and in practice we find that some of the donated books are already in the collection). Over 1000 of these books have members’ reviews which can be viewed online.
An integral part of the cruise planning feature of the CA’s Library & Information Centre is our collection of over 4,000 charts sorted into 31 folios by geographical area and covering the whole world. The charts are not part of the lending collection and cannot be removed from the Chart Room. The Chart Room also features comprehensive sets of up-to-date electronic charts from C-MAP and Navionics on PC along with demonstration software from Imray and Admiralty. In the main chart collection, about 3,000 of the charts are Admiralty Charts from the UK’s Hydrographic Office and the remaining ones are from Imrays or from the hydrographic offices of other countries. The collection also includes chart books and atlases along with some obsolete and rare charts – the latter are available for members to look at on request. The Hanson Room has a full range of facilities to aid in the practicalities of members’ cruise planning including provision of parallel rulers and dividers plus a dedicated PC for the electronic charts which also has full access to the internet.
The CA’s Library & Information Centre holds an extensive collection from a wide range of publications and maritime journals including current and most past issues of Yachting Monthly, Yachting World, Sailing Today, Practical Boat Owner, Motorboat and Yachting, Motorboat Monthly, Classic Boat, Cruising, Naval Review, The Mariners Mirror and Waterways World. We also stock the Seven Seas Cruising Association Commodore's Bulletin and Blue Flag, the journal of the Dutch Barge Association. Some of our collections go back further than the publisher's own files but the Hanson Room also has the latest issues of all the major UK magazines.
In addition to books and charts, the CA Library holds over one hundred DVDs and VHS tapes. These cover a wide range of subjects from yacht handling to historical documentaries and include a series on the RYA Yachtmaster Syllabus, a set of video pilots and some thirty titles focusing on practical topics such as engine maintenance, varnishing, gelcoat repairs and anchoring techniques. There are viewing facilities in the Hanson Room and the DVDs & VHSs are all available on two week loan to members either by post or personal collection.
Unique to the CA, these contain information on ports, harbours and anchorages, local services, and tourism covering the entire world. They include CA members’ reports (known as Cruising Reports or CRs), official Publications, brochures and leaflets, and other items of interest. The Regional Files are to be found in the Hanson Room in a set of red boxes labelled with the Regional File number of the area covered and located next to the pilot section of the library. If you are unable to come to CA House, there are three other ways to access some of the information contained in the red box Regional Files (available to members only).
- Published three times per year, CNs - Cruising Notes - (previously known as Harbours, Anchorages & Navigation Notes or HANNs) give a summary of all new information placed in the Regional Files over the last few months. These are sent out to members with the Cruising magazine but are also now available online.
- The individual CRs - Cruising Reports - from members which contribute to CNs are electronically and can be accessed directly via our members only website.
- Finally, visit our Cruising Regions pages on MyCA where our regional editors are creating a directory of information contained in the regional files, with links to online resources where available.
Members can request hardcopy of periodicals & magazines, regional files, members’ logs, and books to be posted to them at 10p a page, within the allowance of UK copyright law. We are also able to scan small files to be sent by e-mail or on disk, if required.
To access this service please contact the Information Officer.
There is a computer for member’s use in the Information Centre, although most members bring their own laptops. WiFi is available throughout CA House and the code is available from any member of the Secretariat or from bar staff.
