The Gigantic Book Of Sailing Stories

MORE YACHTING YARNS is great news for South Australians and lovers of all things nautical.  This captivating book with its fascinating sea and river stories is a must for anyone with yachting or maritime interests.  It traces the history of 10 South Australian sailing vessels from construction through their life journey and is interspersed with humorous anecdotes.

To promote the remarkable achievements of South Australian sailors, author Judith Roinich has researched the sailing careers of a variety of local sailing craft and unveiled extraordinary tales of courage, skill and endurance.

The book features a daring ocean crossing in a small yacht, South Australia's first commercial refrigerated fishing / sailing vessel, liveaboard 38ft yacht, a racing sloop's survival in the 1998 Bass Strait "bomb", Holdfast Shores unique dolphin swim charters, Bali surf charter boat, 1903 historic "human torpedo" mothership, a river ketch's re-enactment of Capt Sturt's voyage, the 1966 world 505 champion and South Australia's 2003 J24 State champion:

• Helsal II
• Temptation
• Bass Voyager
• Sandpiper
• Reserection
• Mary Ann Simms
• Shearwater II
• Hecla
• Obsidienne
• Black Bottle

Sailing in Stitches relates the story of a circumnavigation in a 74 foot Yawl. Dr. John Cocker, a retired Family Physician and Publisher of STITCHES, the Journal of Medical Humour, decided at age 67 that he still had time for one more adventure. The book relates the planning and purchase of the vessel and then the adventures that happened along the way.

A motley crew was assembeld and left Fort Lauderdale in November, 2000. Dr. Cocker, with 20,000 miles of blue water sailing experience, was the only one on board who had sailed out of sight of land before. Heading down the Caribbean to Trinidad and then the Panama Canal, Dr. Cocker relates stories of the sailing, along with anecdotes and incidents that occurred.

The vast space of the Pacific, the 3,000 mile leg to the Marquises, when no other boat was seen for three weeks, and the events that occurred on scattered Pacific Islands, together with some natural history, economics and gossip make fascinating reading.

From Australia, the voyage headed from Bali through the South China Seas, where they were boarded at night by pirates, then through 'Pirate Alley', the straights of Malacca and to Phucket. Next came the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Mediterreanean, and home across the Atlantic.

"Secrets' is the modern Bowditch, written so clearly that navigation and seamanship will be comprehensible to anyone . . ."
-- Dave and Jaja Martin, circumnavigators and authors of Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey

"It's a great book. The prose is simple and clear . . ."
--John Vigor, author of The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat

"The nautical tips and techniques presented are encyclopedic, yet the clear explanations demystify the topics . . ."
-- Don Launer, contributing editor for Good Old Boat magazine

"It is a fine piece of work and should be read by anyone contemplating coastal cruising or blue water voyages. It definitely deserves a place in the offshore yacht's library . . ."
--Ted Brewer, yacht designer, author, and offshore racing and cruising sailor

Be a Better Skipper

In the night, wind, rain, fog, big seas, strong currents, or congested waters, when there’s no time for textbook seamanship solutions, what you need are shortcuts and techniques that work quickly and reliably every time.

Distilled from the vast accumulated lore of seamanship and navigation, here are the absolute essentials--185 techniques that work without fail in the pilothouse or the exposed cockpit or flying bridge of a shorthanded sail- or powerboat. John Jamieson shows you how to:

• Set up a clipboard chart table for cockpit use
• Avoid hazards with danger bearings or a GPS grid highway
• Estimate current speeds with the 50-90-100 rule
• Track other boats in poor visibility using radar plots and bearing drift
• Sail home without a rudder or get your twin-screw boat home on one working engine
• Dock or anchor under any conditions
• And much, much more

Even in this age of electronic navigation you need to know how to eyeball your boat through any situation. Each of the techniques in this cut-to-the-chase book has shown itself to be absolutely repeatable. It will work this time, the next time, and the time a er that, in conditions fair or foul.

Tales of adventures on the high seas captivate both sailors and those who stand on the shore and gaze out across the oceans.  In this original collection of sea stories, edited by veteran writer Dick Durham, the gamut of human experience is mirrored in a world of tragic shipwrecks and sea monsters, epic races and brave rescues, tall ships and tiny dinghies.

Written in the author's inimitable powerful and poetic style, Amazing Sailing Stories brings the incredible, frightening, and whimsical—from worlds ancient and modern—to life.

• A collection of stories ideal for the armchair enthusiast and active sailor alike
• Durham is the author of three sailing titles and contributes regularly to the yachting press

Big adventures on the high seas—from one of the greatest seafaring writers of our age

Hal Roth’s vivid, authentic tales of the sea have riveted readers around the world for forty years. Here, in one volume, are three of his classic sea stories, each one a white-knuckled, rail-down voyage into the unknown.

A hard-working San Francisco husband and wife abandon their jobs, their security, and, some would say, their sanity to sail their 35-foot sloop to Japan and back—the long way! Over the next nineteen months, they discover exotic islands, fascinating people, and a whole new way of life.

A few years later these intrepid voyagers decide to try their luck against Cape Horn, but they will need a lot more than luck to survive the vicious storms, violent seas, and perilous shores of the world’s most dangerous stretch of water.

Then nine courageous sailors accept a challenge to do what has never been done before: to race alone, in a small sailboat, around the world—nonstop. Only one will complete the race; seven will be forced to withdraw, and one will simply disappear.

“Roth writes with grace, humor, and poetic insight about the vastness and beauty of the ocean.”—Library Journal

“By all means read all of Hal Roth you can find.”—Practical Sailor

“Roth’s books about his life at sea, including Two on a Big Ocean and Two Against Cape Horn, are universally listed among the most influential sailing books ever published.”—SpinSheet