The Thousand Dollar Yacht

Seafarer Books 1996, Cl, 214pp, £8.95

When you wake at 0555 and hear an appalling weather forecast - force 6 or 7 all day or thick fog with visibility of 300 metres - remain at your mooring and take this book down and enjoy vicarious boat building, fitting out and sailing with Anthony Bailey.

His dory yacht, "Billy Ruffian", is 27' 10" long, with centre board up draws only 1'9" and the foresail, gaff mainsail and mizzen give 250 sq. ft. sail area. The Seagull outboard, rescued from the deep, cost him $25; building and equipping in the 1960s- with bargaining, 'liberation' and other legerdomain brought the cost to $1039 - a serious excess on the estimated thousand dollars!

He sails around Fisher Island Sound and up the creeks of the Connecticut and Mystic Rivers, Wequetequock Cove and Narragansett Bay - all at the East end of Long Island Sound. (where the Q. E. II hit an ‘uncharted' rock!). Relax and enjoy it. OLW