Sailing Around the UK and Ireland

Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical; £19.99
Publication Date: 2009

Roger Oliver writes regularly for Practical Boat Owner and will thus be well-known to many for his straightforward articles. This is a friendly account of his approach to travelling in day sail modules around the whole of the UK. It is good to know just how feasible this is.

The book is set in three parts: Preparing the Boat, Passage Planning and Pilotage, and Circumnavigating the UK and Ireland. The first part is one that many experienced sailors may skip over as it is specific to the fitting out of Jalina, his Sadler 25. It does have, however, useful insights into the way one experienced sailor thinks and plans to ensure boat, stores and the man himself is in good order for the voyage. We are given useful checklists for safety, skippering, spares, charts/pilots and so on.

The second part is split in two: Planning strategies and pilotage problems. Oliver describes in some detail his own way of handling his planning linked with thorough logs set out meticulously. He demonstrates the sketch maps his has to hand in the cockpit for harbour approaches. Acknowledging his attention to detail, he points out that nothing can be taken for granted. He exemplifies this with descriptions of some of the problems he faced on the journey.

Part three is a more conventional narrative of his clock wise trip showing each leg with notes of the way the job was tackled, chartlets of the significant features and photographs both to enhance the pilotage and to give a good general picture of the parts visited. He notes the distance and passage time for each leg and a summary of much relevant data.

Whether you wish to emulate his trip, compare notes, or just use his material to help with part of the journey, you will find this an interesting read and of considerable help. – Michael Davey