Book Reviews

Price: £19.99

Here is an extremely technical publication – most definitely not ‘bedside reading’! It is, however, an almost essential publication for anyone involved in yachts (sail or motor), be it designing, building, surveying, ‘chandling’, renovating, buying or just owning and cruising them. The data contained in this book covers – mostly in table form – pretty well every aspect of construction, equipment and incidentals. Where necessary, clear illustrations are included.It is not possible here to list even a tiny part of this book’s coverage and content but, to give an idea of its enormous range and depth of coverage, these include:-      

• the physical properties of glassfibre to the storage dimensions of oilskins,
• safety equipment requirements and specifications to the measurements of a Gordon’s Gin bottle,
•   engine/wiring recommendations to the space needed for various toilet bowls. 

 If you need to know about it – it’s almost certainly there – and well indexed! To add to the comfort of many readers, Imperial as well as metric data is given. It should be borne in mind that many of the recommendations given are the opinion of the author, albeit an extremely knowledgeable one. The long list of his other publications on nautical subjects on this book’s flyleaf goes a long way to indicating his great depth of experience and knowledge.This, the 6^th edition, was published in 2009 and so can be taken to contain much up-dated information. The reviewer ardently wishes he had been aware of this book at the time he was rebuilding and re-equipping a cruising yacht!  Mark Grimwade 

Price: £12.99

When we stick our head out of the cabin in the morning, we may have some knowledge of the current weather pattern.  But what does that cloud pattern mean?   Will there be a sea breeze today?  Should we expect thunderstorms?  How best can I tack to take advantage of gusts under cumulus clouds?  Above all, what is the wind going to do today?   Practical answers to these and similar questions are contained somewhere within one hundred and eleven pages of text, dense tables and beautifully explained photos.  In the third edition of this 27 year-old classic, Alan Watts has added more colour pictures, reduced the size of tables and added new sections on micro wind shifts and the special winds of the Mediterranean.   The aim is to help a wide range of readers, dinghy and board racers, inland, coastal and offshore sailors to forecast local winds, wind shifts and gusts in their particular location and weather context, in areas as diverse as the Great Lakes, Europe and the Mediterranean.   After three attempts, this reviewer belatedly realized that this volume is a database of experience and information, not a something to be read from cover to cover.  Users  of this book, knowing where they are, what their overall weather pattern is and where they want to sail, can dip into it, filter the information and select practical and helpful guidance.   In the process they will learn a little of the art and mysteries of wind forecasting. 

DG

Price: £16.99

Price: £16.99

 

This is the story of the first round the world race, a spell-binding tale of immense courage, heroic sacrifice and profound despair whose reverberations are still felt by the survivors of this epic drama and whose painful memories have not been alleviated by the passing of time. 

Shortly after Francis Chichester had completed his one-stop circumnavigation of the world in 1967, the Sunday Times newspaper threw down the gauntlet by offering the Golden Globe trophy and the considerable prize of £5,000 (approximately £100,000 in today’s money) for the first person to sail around the globe without stopping anywhere. The rules were very simple, any type of sailing boat was allowed and participants had to start between 1 June and 31 October 1968.  Several sailors were already silently planning such a voyage and eventually nine set off, among them seven monohulls and two trimarans. Under tremendous pressure to get ready in the short time available, most competitors left in unfinished, poorly equipped or grossly unsuitable boats, while several lacked any offshore experience.  It was a sure recipe for disasters which were not long in coming. It was therefore no great surprise that only three made it past the Cape of Good Hope and into the Southern Ocean where the route continued through the Roaring Forties to Cape Horn and home.

As the first to start, Robin Knox-Johnston on the 32 ft Suhaili  maintained his lead but was chased by the most serious contender, the late starter Frenchman Bernard Moitessier on his 42 ft Joshua.  Also considered a potential winner was Nigel Tetley’s faster trimaran Victress.  Another trimaran, Donald Crowhurst’s Teignmouth Electron, had also a good chance of winning but its whereabouts were shrouded in mystery and its eventual untangling was to add a further twist to this amazing tale.

As Suhaili passed Cape Horn and headed for home, Joshua was slowly catching up and the prospect of a nail-biting finish were stoked by an increasingly chauvinistic press on both sides of the Channel. Alas, the sailor-philosopher decided that there were better things in life than fame and riches and, in a true gesture of the hippy sixties, continued east and ended up in Tahiti. Meanwhile Robin Knox-Johnston stayed valiantly on course and claimed victory.  Nigel Tetley also pushed on and, feeling threatened by Donald Crowhurst, ended up pushing his damaged boat too hard and it disintegrated and sank barely one thousand miles from home.  Soon afterwards, the abandoned Teignmouth Electron was found drifting in the South Atlantic and from its retrieved logs it became clear that the unfortunate skipper had been giving misleading position reports and had most probably taken his life.

Several participants have written their own accounts and there have been a number of books written about this unique race but none conveys better the excitement and drama of this modern odyssey than Chris Eakin who skilfully weaves together the disparate strands of a heart-rending tale of human tragedy and redemption of Homeric dimensions.  There are indeed many parallels with the immortal saga of Ulysses as his modern followers battled with monster seas and were tempted by the call of sirens to abandon their voyage, while back home faithful Penelopes waited impatiently for their heroes’ return. As in most such situations, that tale is rarely told and it is to the author’s great merit that he puts this right by bringing to the fore the sad stories of Francoise Moitessier, Eve Tetley and Clare Crowhurst whose suffering and sacrifices throw an unexpected light on this amazing story. More than anything else, it is the interviews with the three widows as well the surviving participants that bring to life so powerfully the events of four decades ago and their lasting consequences.

Jimmy Cornell