Customer Reviews

Boating 101: Essential Lessons for Boaters

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Perhaps useful if you own a large sailboat, but not very relevant for a lake-bound 23' powerboat. Expected more diagrams.

I have been boating for about a year (i have a 29 foot searay sundancer) and could have written a much better book. Unless you know ZERO about boating, do not buy this book.

I was looking for an easy to follow boating book for my husband and older son. Then I found Siminoff's Boating 101 and quickly learned that even I could follow the text just reading through it in the bookstore. My husband was especially concerned about anchoring and in the various lakes we go to in New Jersey and now with some clues he got from this book, boating and staying out over a few nights is very comfortable for us and has become something we really enjoy. Thank you.

The title says it all...
It was easy to read and the author answers alot of questions you might be too embarrassed to ask.

I took my wife and kids to Tortola this past winter, and bareboat charted a sail boat. I had read through many books on boating, but this one was by far the best. It gave me all the knowledge to enjoy my boating experience without getting into the usual trouble a amatuer would find themselves in. I would recommend this book to anyone, definatley worth the price

While this book seems to be targeted at the novice boater, it can serve as an excellent review piece for the experienced boater as well. This is especially applicable to areas where the boating season is limited to 3 or 4 months of the year, leaving 6 or 7 months to forget a lot of basic skills. Every time I take my boat out, I observe people who need to read this book. It's well written, clear, nicely illustrated and should be a part of every boater's basic library.

This book gives a reasonably good review about boating (but not about boat ownership, see below). It discusses things like safety, navigation, anchoring and docking. Much of it was based on larger sailboats although some of it does apply to boats of all sizes. I was disappointed at the illustrations and pictures that look like they date back to 1970. No color pictures.

But there was little practical advice about day to day boating, which was what I was looking for. Briefly, I wanted to know things like:
1. boat cleaning advice (what best to use)
2. when and how long to run bilge pump
3. tying knots
4. winter storage
5. basic Coast Guard regulations

So the book wasn't bad but was a bit disappointing for beginner boat owner.

I wish more people read something like this. Whilst not exhaustive, it is a good introduction to the essentials.

This book is easy to understand and quick to read. It has basic boating information that new boaters would find very useful. We found the sections on anchoring and docking very useful. Now when we go to a Boating Safety course we will be armed with the basics already.

You can wade through several 200+ page books and get some of the information contained in this one, but this book gives you what you really need to know (and the information is a lot easier to discern than from those big books). So many beginner's books don't really deal with what you have to know, such as docking, anchoring, rules of the road, reading a chart, use of the radio, heavy weather, etc. This is not a "how to sail book." But sailors, like all boaters, must know the knowledge of seamanship contained in this book to be safe and enjoy themselves and unfortunately many on the water do not. I've sailed for many years, have taken several classes, etc. and this is the book I recommend to everyone new to boating or for a review.