BOOK REVIEWS

FIRST AID AT SEA -- Dr Justin Adams and Dr Colin Berry. 2nd Edition. Published by Adlard Coles Nautical at œ8.99. 28 7 /2" x 10" ring-bound pages in full colour on card. ISBN 0-7136-3826-5

The first aid book is as essential a piece of equipment as the first aid kit itself. Without proper knowledge of what to do in an emergency, a first aid kit is somewhat redundant.

First Aid at Sea is attractive, bright and carefully laid out with clear diagrams. The language is straightforward with no medical jargon to confuse or deter the reader. As well as being an excellent reference manual its appearance will encourage crew to read and learn -- in contrast, a hefty textbook would discourage many readers.

It has a practical design ring-bound design with waterproof (or at least `wipe off') pages for use on deck without getting waterlogged. There is a simple flip up index, colour coded to make access easier and enable the reader to find information quickly in an emergency. As well as first aid advice the book includes a helpful Communications section which describes word for word how to call for assistance by radio and other means, reassuring information for the shocked first aider or victim trying to remember procedures.

All in all, First Aid at Sea provides an excellent guide to sailors both on short passages and over long distances. It gives the reader vital information that could save lives as well as advice on everyday cuts and bruises. A worthwhile investment for anyone going to sea.

CB

CIRCUMNAVIGATOR'S GUIDE -- edited by Gwenda Cornell. Published by World Cruising Publications, PO Box 165, London WC1B 3XA at œ12. 132 spiral bound 6" x 9" pages between soft covers. 25 harbour chartlets, photographs in accompanying advertising only. ISBN 0-9517486-3-7

It is no surprise that the family who brought us `flotilla circumnavigation' would bring us a cruising guide to a selection of the circumnavigator's major world ports. Jimmy Cornell collected information on twenty-five ports during the first Europa Round the World Rally in 1991-92. He is clear in the introduction that the primary goal of assembling this information was to assist in the second and upcoming Round the World Rally, and perhaps be helpful to the individual circumnavigator as well.

The format and organisation of the book have been well thought out. Spiral binding allows it to be opened flat without pages tending to flip in the wind, and the smaller size makes it easy to stow or take ashore in a day pack. Organisation of information is really where Jimmy Cornell excels. The first section reflects his point of view on route planning and lays out why the Rally follows its chosen path. In the part entitled Forward Planning there is a good table of immunisation guidelines.

The bulk of the book is devoted to twenty-five important stopovers found along the Rally route. Each port has a chartlet and the text is broken into the following sections: Approaches, Formalities, Port Facilities, Marine Services and Provisioning. Filling out the pages are relevant advertisers purveying their wares in each of the respective harbours.

For those participating in the Rally this book is undoubtedly helpful considering the pace at which one travels and the need to find immediate assistance during a relatively short stay in port. For those who are cruising at a less challenging pace or along a route less travelled, I am not sure of the value of the book in its current version. One still needs detailed harbour charts, and the wealth of up to date information found on the receiving end of an SSB radio through the many impromptu cruising networks is staggering. Cruisers as a group display an uncanny ability to search out good deals, albeit in an environment where time is not critical. Spend time at any of the yacht club bars or cruisers' watering holes in major world cruising ports and discover the real meaning of the `coconut telegraph'.

MWS

PHILIP L RHODES AND HIS YACHT DESIGNS -- Richard Henderson. Published by International Marine, Camden, Maine in paperback at $29.95. 415 pages, crammed with photographs and reduced lines plans, interior and exterior profiles and arrangement drawings. ISBN 0-87742-415-2

Phil Rhodes was a prolific and diverse naval architect whose hundreds of designs ranged from the 7ft Seafarer yacht tender of 1961 through World War II minesweepers, tugs and hospital ships. This book, however, concentrates on the sailing yachts, mostly designed between the 1930s and the 1960s, with which many members will be familiar.

Richard Henderson, after a short biography of Rhodes, devotes the bulk of the book to descriptions of forty-four of his most notable designs and their derivatives. This is no dry academic treatise though -- while Henderson includes detailed histories and interesting features of each yacht, the story is peppered with anecdotes like that of the owner who hung his saloon carpet from the boom to increase the area of his mainsail! An appendix contains a list of 390 yacht designs together with a minimum of dimensional information -- it is a shame that displacements and sail areas are not included.

Few of Rhodes' designs were out and out racers, with the notable exception of Weatherly, which successfully defended the America's Cup in 1962, and Carina, which won the 1955 and 1957 Fastnets. He was more interested in designing yachts which were strong and seaworthy -- and a delight to the eye. Rhodes was that rare beast, an engineer and an artist. His hulls are superb, with their exquisite sheerlines and beautifully balanced ends. The sheerline of his 1939 48ft sloop Copperhead was described in a yachting magazine as `almost sensuous'.

Rhodes' approach, as Henderson interestingly points out, was the opposite of many of today's designers -- rather than using dinghy features as a model for larger yachts he took the features of his 60ft and 70ft designs and scaled them down for his smaller boats. His Rhodes 27, for example, retains much of the elegance of her larger sisters.

The accommodations bristle with features -- large oilskin lockers, secure sea berths, solidly built cockpit shelters -- which are appreciated by ocean sailors but are so often given low priority in contemporary boats.

These yachts are not as speedy or as spacious down below as modern designs of similar length, yet anyone thinking of designing or building an ocean cruising yacht today would do well to study this book and judge their own creations against these yardsticks of grace and seaworthiness.

RK

THE AUBREY / MATURIN NOVELS -- Patrick O'Brian. Published by WW Norton & Co, New York, and Fontana Paperbacks, London. A series of sixteen novels commencing with Master and Commander, first published in 1971, to The Wine Dark Sea published in 1993.

`He spoke feelingly on the good effect of cat-hairpins, well-sniftered in ...'. If this is the kind of phraseology that intrigues you then this series of novels, set in the Royal Navy of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, will appeal.

O'Brian has delved deep into naval records as the inspiration for his books which follow the career of the ambitious and convivial Captain Aubrey and his mysterious friend Dr Stephen Maturin -- ship's surgeon, spy and naturalist. The roar and the smoke of the cannon, the sweat and the blood of the lower decks, the ponderous manoeuvrings of the great wooden ships and the daring fights against overwhelming odds are all captured in the best Hornblower tradition.

There is more to his imagination, however, than mere heroic adventures -- the complex relationship between Aubrey and Maturin weaves up and down through the stories like the violin and cello music they are so fond of playing together. The tension and formalities between the officers and the task of maintaining hundreds of men in cramped conditions as a cohesive force are described with great feeling. We learn of the loneliness of command and the isolation of those left ashore; of devious politicians and admirals who manipulate events to their own ends.

However the real power of these books for the ocean sailor is O'Brian's deep understanding of the sea and the feelings of those who choose to accept its challenges: `... he felt as though he had returned to his own element. It was not that he did not like the land -- capital place; such games, such fun -- but the difficulties there, the complications, were so vague and imprecise, reaching one behind another, no end to them: nothing a man could get hold of. Here, although life was complex enough in all conscience, he could at least attempt to cope with anything that turned up.'®MDSU¯2 These novels will cause you to examine your own reasons for taking to sea.

RK

1. The Mauritius Command

2. The Post Captain

THE MAGICIAN OF THE SWATCHWAYS: A biography of Maurice Griffiths -- Dick Durham. Published by Yachting Monthly at œ12.95. Hardback, 176 pages with photographs and line illustrations. ISBN-1-85277-96-1

Dick Durham is a reporter for the Daily Star newspaper and lives at Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. He sails his 30ft, Alan Buchanan designed cruiser/racer on the Essex Coast in the waters so dear to Maurice Griffiths' heart. He secured the job of writing the biography as a result of Griffiths reviewing his earlier sailing book On and Offshore: Cruising the Thames and the East Coast which resulted in Durham meeting the great man and an agreement to cooperate in the production of the biography.

Maurice Griffiths is one of the grand old men of British yachting. He was born in 1902, started sailing on the East Coast immediately after the First World War and owned a string of small cruising yachts. His earliest boats were of doubtful design and certainly lacking in structural integrity. Young Maurice learnt the hard way by his own mistakes and soon developed a love of the shallow, tidal creeks and waters of the East Coast.

At the age of sixteen he started working for a local estate agent and auctioneer in Ipswich. Poor trade in houses resulted in redundancy two years later and he immediately started his own yacht agency and augmented his income by writing articles for railway magazines and a weekly publication called Yacht Owner. In 1924 his first book, Yachting on a Small Income, was published and, on the death of his father later the same year, he sold his yacht agency and moved to London to try his hand at writing on a full time basis. At first life was a struggle but he joined a publishing house and in January 1927, when barely twenty-five, was appointed editor of the magazine Yachting Monthly -- a post he held for over forty years.

Maurice Griffiths wrote a number of books, his most famous being The Magic of the Swatchways in which he expounds his love of the shallow waters of the East Coast. He also designed a series of yachts suited to these conditions. Surprisingly, he has not written an autobiography. The nearest he got to it was in Sixty years a Yacht Designer published by Conway Maritime Press in 1988. But this only touches on his early life and concentrates on his designs.

In this biography, Dick Durham has filled in the gaps. He explains Griffiths' love of the East Coast -- and his lifelong dislike of deep water offshore cruising and racing.* We learn of his marriages -- the first a disaster, the second a great success -- and his wartime service in the RNVR, blowing up mines and scuttling redundant ships. There are appropriate quotes from Griffiths' delightful writings which reflect his views on the development of yachting over a period of great evolution. The problems of running a struggling yachting magazine at the time of the recession make interesting reading. And we are given an insight into his philosophy towards yacht design based on his lifelong experience of the waters which he loved to sail.

This biography starts in a slightly slow and somewhat disjointed way using perhaps too many quotes from Griffiths' writings and lacking a smooth dialogue to blend them together to make easy reading. But the style soon improves and the result is a fascinating record of the life of one of the most influential British yachting writers and designers of the past seventy years. An interesting read but what a pity there is no index.

PC

* (Even so his 30ft Waterwitch, a hard-chine triple bilge keel design, was for many a years a popular blue water cruising choice and many circumnavigated.)