BOOK REVIEWS

THE LONELIEST RACE. 27,000 MILES SOLD AROUND THE WORLD: THE STORY OF THE BOC CHALLENGE 1994-5 -- Paul Gelder. Published in hard covers by Adlard Coles Nautical at œ15.99. 216 pages including 50 each colour and b/w photos. ISBN 0-7136-4202-5

Paul Gelder has written a most readable account of this epic race. It is a story of continuous attrition and constant underfunding for the great majority of the competitors. There is a strong emphasis on the human aspects of this gruelling event. One is enormously aware of the bond between the competitors, a spirit that is sadly lacking in so many branches of competition nowadays. Two characters stand out as the principals of the story and they are not the stars at the head of the fleet but rather the extreme Corinthians, competing for the sake of taking part, in the two smallest boats with no achievable goal other than the satisfaction of completing the course. Sadly, Harry Mitchell is lost at sea but Robin Davie overcomes all odds to finish.

Some readers might feel that more technical detail should have been given about the boats; others may be encouraged to know that they are not going to be distracted from the adventure that these highly individual singlehanders undertook and the appalling conditions that they endured.

The black and white pictures are in some cases quite disappointing, but the colour plates are superb and give the book a quality that would otherwise have been lacking.

The BOC is far divorced from ocean cruising, and this book will give OCC members a feeling of reassurance that we are not obliged to follow the same route with the same emphasis on speed!

MP

STORM TACTICS HANDBOOK: Modern Methods of Heaving-to for Survival in Extreme Conditions -- Lin and Larry Pardey. Published in soft covers by Pardey Books at $19.95 + $3.50 shipping and handling. (Available in the UK from PBO Bookshelf, in the States from Pardey Books, 400 South Melrose Drive, Suite 101, Vista, Ca 92083, USA. Tel: 1-800-694-4888; fax: (619) 941-5760). 170 pages, 11 b/w photos and numerous line drawings. ISBN 0-9646036-6-7

Surprisingly few new books devoted to serious heavy weather and how to survive it have been written over the past decade, though many touch on the subject in passing. Lin and Larry are particularly well qualified to do examine the subject in detail, having twice circumnavigated in yachts under 30ft and having also had the opportunity to exchanged tales and experiences with other cruising sailors worldwide.

Heaving-to, lying a-hull and running-off all have their proponents, but certainly the former -- once the standby of every commercial vessel -- is probably the least used by modern yachts, particularly in its best known `helm down and headsail to windward' form. However as Larry points out, more correctly `... it means using any sail combination, any gear combination necessary to get your boat to lie stopped, about 50from the wind and drifting slowly, directly away from the wind behind its own slick (turbulence).'

Armed with this wide brief the Pardeys investigate how a wide variety of different yachts, from their own full-keel heavy displacement cutter Taleisin to an ultra-light J/30, heave-to under different sail combinations, with or without the aid of a parachute type sea-anchor. They also recount both their own and others' experiences of `survival storms' and analyse why, in the same conditions, some yachts sink or are abandoned while others come through relatively unscathed.

More than thirty pages of Questions and Answers allow a whole range of topics to be dealt with relatively briefly, from `Can you really carry sail in 70 to 80 knots of wind?' to `What can you do to cut down on chafe?' Equipment, including drogues and sea-anchors, naturally comes in for a good deal of appraisal whilst a whole chapter is devoted to `Storm Trysail Installation'. The book concludes with an analysis of Cyclonic Storms taken from the 1938 edition of Nathaniel Bowditch's American Practical Navigator.

On the production side, although authors for the past twenty years or more this is the first book the Pardeys have actually published themselves (partly in order to `get more control of the project' -- I know just what they mean), and the only time the standard slips is in the quality of the photographs.

We all hope never to meet that ultimate storm, but if we sail long enough offshore we probably will. Read Storm Tactics Handbook first.

AH

LIVING AFLOAT -- Clare Alcard. Published in soft covers by Adlard Coles Nautical at œ14.99. 268 pages with line drawings and b/w photographs. ISBN 0-7136-4135-5

You would think this subject was already adequately covered -- but people keep buying the books and Clare Allcard certainly has a valid contribution to make.

More than twenty-five years ago she read of Edward Allcard's vague search for a mate aboard Sea Wanderer and volunteered herself for the position. Since then they have cruised the world together and the photographs, sadly in black and white, give a glimpse of the delights in store for anyone following in their wake.

In compressing all this experience into a single book, the author covers just about everything from The Heads to Health, Sailing Etiquette to Safety at Sea, as well as including appendices on Stars, Knots, and preparing -- not to mention identifying -- the fish caught en route. There is even advice on the correct way to log whale and dolphin sightings and the secret of making pineapples keep longer (suspend them from the crown).

While it would be easy to dismiss Living Afloat as an attempt to jump on a well-crowded bandwagon, anybody on the point of setting off for a long-term cruise would agree that no opinion is to be ignored, no word of advice to be spurned, and whether or not you agree with Clare Allcard on every subject -- and she certainly holds some forthright opinions -- there is no doubting her credentials.

All the same, on occasions it is so wide-ranging (with advice on how to master chopsticks and the correct way to dip a paintbrush into the pot) that one sometimes wonders quite where it is aimed. For the beginner there is advice on what to take on a sailing holiday and a beginner's glossary of nautical terms, and yet elsewhere she goes into considerable detail on the advantages of 24 volt electrics and gives a very well-reasoned argument on the liferaft versus lifeboat controversy. At the same time, while there is a chapter on baby and childcare afloat, there is nothing on pregnancy or, come to that, emergency childbirth.

Never mind, it is far better to have too much than too little, and Living Afloat is certainly very readable with a wealth of personal experience and anecdote. It will surely earn its place alongside all the others.

TS & JP

WORLD CRUISING ROUTES -- Jimmy Cornell. Third edition. Published by Adlard Coles Nautical at œ35.00. 500 pages between hard covers, many maps and diagrams. ISBN 0-7136-4070-7. Plus WAYPOINT DISK containing all the waypoints and coordinates listed, œ9.99 from A & C Black (Publishers) Ltd, PO Box 19, Huntingdon, Cambs PE19 3SF, UK. Tel: 01480 212666, fax: 01480 405014.

Most members will already be familiar with World Cruising Routes. This edition largely follows the pattern of its predecessors with the addition of several new routes, brief landfall information and a great many more waypoints. The predominance of GPS navigation is recognized, together with its function at the route planning stage, and a timely warning included against relying too heavily on the accuracy of charts produced with earlier position fixing methods. Further chapters cover Principal World Cruising Routes and Winds and Currents of the World before getting into the cruising routes proper.

The Waypoint Disk is a new departure. It gives all the waypoints listed in the book in three formats suitable for importation into spreadsheets, databases, word processor and navigation programmes. Formats are differentiated by the suffixes .CSV, .DBF and .TXT, and within each format are broken up into thirty-one files, each containing from twenty-one to 136 individual waypoints and labelled in much the same way as the sub-sections within the book. However for some reason the numbering system, though similar, is not quite the same -- in the book, `Routes from the Cape Verde Islands and West Africa' is AN60, on disk it becomes AN4, while section AN40 in the book is `Routes from Madeira'.

Despite limited computer skills I had no trouble accessing the word processor files which, with the minimum of jiggling, became neat columns. However then came the real surprise -- to quote the README.TXT file (ie the instructions): `Latitudes and longitudes are given in decimal format for ease of calculation'. Well this may be so, but personally I found it confusing! (Doubtless echoing the traditionalists' disapproval when seconds of arc began to give way to points of minutes). Neither is there an overall index, and if using the .TXT format it takes a fairly sophisticated multiple file search programme to produce the co-ordinates of any given place without the need first to check which of the thirty-one files it will be in.

My gut reaction must be that unless you have a navigational programme which can make real use of all this data you will probably do just as well sticking with the book. Conversely if you do have such a programme, and enjoy playing with the computer, then it will be invaluable.

AH

RIGHT TO THE BITTER END: A Survival Guide for Sailing Couples -- Hilary Harron. Published in soft covers by Adlard Coles Nautical at œ4.99. 90 pages including numerous cartoons and plenty of guaranteed guffaws. ISBN 0-7136-4200-9

I normally make at least some effort to match the reviewer to the book, but one peek into Right to the Bitter End and I was hooked. Tongue in cheek it may be, but there's oh, so much truth here!

From the `Dress your Man' activity (does he see himself as Naval Officer, Buccaneer/Adventurer or Viking Warrior?) through Communication (`We'll go for that buoy.' `Which one?' `See that white one?' `No, where?' `There -- beyond the blue boat.' `Which blue boat?' `The one next to the white one.' `White boat or buoy?' etc) with its sub-section entitled Brush up your Boatspeak, and right on to Madam and Steve being tempted by the Weevil, I laughed. Oh and the cartoons are just as good as the text.

An 100A1 stocking filler.

AH

NEW AND UPDATED PILOTS FROM IMRAY LAURIE NORIE & WILSON LTD

ITALIAN WATERS PILOT -- Rod Heikell. Fourth edition, priced at œ29.95. 400 pages (A4, hard covers), with at least one plan and/or b/w photo on most pages, plus eight pages of colour. ISBN 0-85288-282-3

Since compiling the first edition in 1983 Rod Heikell has updated his Italian Waters Pilot every four years, adding as well as updating on each occasion. Covering the mainland coast from the French border to Brindisi in the Adriatic, with sections covering Sardinia, Sicily and Malta, space is also found for notes on marine life and local fishing methods, the all-important food and wine, and a brief summary of factual history plus snippets of Greek mythology.

I would not like to guess how many harbours and anchorage this Pilot covers, but I do know that I would not choose to sail Italian waters without it.

EAST SPAIN PILOTS: Costas del Sol and Blanca; Costa del Azahar, Dorada and Brava; and Islas Baleares -- Robin Brandon. Interim revised editions priced at œ28.50 and œ29.50. 250 or so pages each (A4, hard covers), with at least one plan and/or b/w photo on most pages. No colour photos. ISBNs 0-85288-281-5, 0-85288-285-8

Sadly, Robin Brandon died earlier this year, some twenty years after starting work on his series of pilots covering the Mediterranean coasts of France and Spain. He had already expressed a desire to hand on the task of preparing regular updates and new editions, and the RCC Pilotage Foundation had agreed to add the books to its growing list.

Several of the volumes were distinctly out-of-date by the time of the transfer, and rather than wait several years for new editions to be researched and published it was decided to go ahead with `interim editions', containing updated factual material (light characteristics etc) but necessarily without much new information researched `in the field'. Fully updated new editions should be available by 1997/98.

RED SEA PILOT -- Steven Davies and Elaine Morgan. Priced at œ30.00. 294 pages (A4, hard covers), with hundreds of carefully drawn harbour plans but no photographs. ISBN 0-85288-253-X

Members heading that way will be glad to know this volume is now available. Researched and written by an extremely experienced cruising couple, it will be reviewed in full in the next issue.

FAEROE, ICELAND AND GREENLAND -- edited by Oz Robinson from information compiled by Christopher Thornhill and Major WW Ker. Priced at œ15.00. 84 pages (A4, soft covers), with 32 b/w plans and chartlets. No photographs. ISBN 0-85288-268-8

Again for review in Flying Fish 1996/1 -- and a volunteer reviewer who has cruised the area would be welcomed with open arms! This is the first of the Imray/RCC Pilotage Foundation `low cost, low print run' guides to lesser cruised areas (hence the lack of photographs), and is likely to be followed soon by South America amongst others.

AH