The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice, and Enjoyment of Boating [Paperback]

Francis L. Herreshoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1987

Famed yacht designer and author L. Francis Herreshoff takes us on family style cruises in American waters, during which all sorts of boats and boating skills are explained while they are used. He tells about the adventures of the crews of the catboat Piscator, the ketch Viator, and the engineless whaleboat-style ketch Rozinante. There are anecdotes and examples and a wide variety of boat lore in each chapter, as well as adventures, races and coastwide cruises and historical harbors to visit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a delightful 370 page monologue about shoal versus deep draft, accommodation plans, the proper fish chowder, rowing techniques and the blessings of a head equipped with a cedar bucket, among other subjects.

(Yachting )

From the Back Cover

"Inspired by Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, this book is accurately subtitled The Art, Practice and Enjoyment of Boating. L.F. Herreshoff presents his own highly individual prescription for happy voyaging under sail and power, as exemplified in an imaginative narrative he tells about the adventures of the crews of the catboat Piscator, the ketch Viator, and the engineless whaleboat-style ketch Rozinante. If there is one Herreshoff keynote, it is that simplicity afloat is the surest guarantee of happiness." --Dolphin Book Club

"This charming classic is the only book around on enjoying the minutiae of cruising of the sort that most people do--gadding about one's local bays and islands, ideally with a couple of boats separating for adventures and rejoining at anchorages, indulging in anything-goes races, just messing around. It can be a high art, proves this aristocratic tale." --Next Whole Earth Catalog

"...a delightful 370 page monologue about shoal versus deep draft, accommodation plans, the proper fish chowder, rowing techniques and the blessings of a head equipped with a cedar bucket, among other subjects." --John Rousmaniere, Yachting

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: Sheridan House; Reprint, First paperback edition edition (January 25, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911378677
• ISBN-13: 978-0911378672
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #519,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A look into the soul of cruising, April 6, 1999

By 

chrisseattle "chrisseattle" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice, and Enjoyment of Boating (Paperback)

This book is written as a story, but the plot elements really only exist in order to string together pieces of information in a fashion which is entertaining to read. Topics covered include how to make a proper chowder, how to launch a boat off the beach, binoculars vs. telescopes, a good bit of boating history, anchoring, and many, many others. Herreschoff is quite opinionated, and this book is definitely an antique, but it is good reading and much of what he writes still applies today.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Insight and Opinions, November 20, 2004

By 

Sailing Triathlete (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice, and Enjoyment of Boating (Paperback)

The primary purpose of the book is cruising advice and L. Francis Herreshoff shares some inginuity while covering topics such as cooking, exercise, ground tackle, paint, wood treatment, workshops, tenders, piloting...

Also like many great cruising yacht designers, Herreshoff is full of opinions. Here are a few examples:

On Exercise: "...the young American is too lazy to paddle...if they had taken a moderate ourdoor exercise like paddling, their nerves would be much more at rest and they would enjoy life more, and live longer."

On Power Boats: "We don't hate all power boats, only those modern freaks that look like the result of a collision between an automobile and a dining car...The motor boat designers have to design craft down to the taste of foolish and uncouth individuals...It's a shame that they are not compelled to anchor away from the yacht club for they spoil the looks of the waterfront."

Class: "...vacationing women whose desire to look risque had taken the place of wholesome feminie beauty."

I learned much from this entertaining book and will read it again.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Compleat Bias, March 4, 2010

By 

T. E. Schlemmer "Schlem" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice, and Enjoyment of Boating (Paperback)

I just re-read this classic primer on 50's New England cruising culture, and had to force myself through some of it. There are wonderful nuggets contained herein, but L. Francis seems to eschew planing powerboats and embrace convenience foods. Triscuits are mentioned three or four times, and most of the cruising meals consist of either bacon and eggs or something from a can. Considerable pith and spleen is vented on "Stockless" anchors, without the benefit of sixty years of hindsight and the success of modern anchors, like the Danforth (style) and Bruce-type hooks. There is, too, a subtle sexism in the book that appears grandfatherly, and maybe quaint, in this millenium.

The author's suspicion of technology and marketing pervades the work, but I love having my GPS and radio. The section on "the cedar bucket" (a low-tech toilet), while practical and informative, would make any environmentalist cringe. Nylon rope receives a favorable review, however. I expect, had the book been written ten years later, I would have been treated to a rant about plastic (fiberglass) boats. According to L. Francis, a proper cruiser has a wood/coal burning stove, for heat and cooking, but the fuss, mess, weight, and expense hardly seem justified today.

For me, the sentence that tells me the most about L. Francis is a passage where a powerboat is in serious peril in a squall, while the Rozinante is smartly reefed down and scooting through the chop. One of the boys on the sailboat suggests that the sailboat provide some kind of aid to the stricken powerboat, to which his uncle replies, "It is not customary for a sailboat to render aid to a powerboat". Reprehensible. He later redeems himself when he helps a grounded powerboat kedge themselves to deeper water (only to further explore "new-fangled" anchors and their marketing to clueless boaters).

Read this book with a critical eye and a grain of (sea) salt.