Customer Reviews

The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice, and Enjoyment of Boating

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I thought this was a wonderful book. It tells a simple story of people meeting up and going sailing, including a cruise of several days. In the process of telling this story, the author imparts a continuous stream of sailing knowledge throughout. I just completed a review of "Sea Steading", by FitzGerald, and just realized that these books have the same philosophy on sailing and opinion on powerboats. But, this book is more of a joy to read.
The Compleat Cruiser is a bit dated, written in the 50s I believe, which adds an interesting historical aspect. But, it is also a shame that the story isn't updated to reflect what we would find today in the locales described in the book. Read the book and then find a kid to give it to, you might create a sailor out of him or her.

As a long time cruiser and live aboard I was surprised at the contribution this book makes to modern sailing skills. It is very readable and full of interesting sailing lore and knowledge from an earlier age. Absolutely loved it and have recommended it to many other accomplished cruisers.

Love this book! Absolutely love this book!!!!!

Here is the caveat: I've only read through page 148. Why, because my book does not contain pages 149 through 212. The book arrived in pristine condition. It appears to be a fully bound paperback book with no flaws, but it is missing about 60 pages. I'm going along enjoying the story about binoculars, all of sudden the conversation goes to Nantucket whaling ships? WTF? Then I look down, the left page clearly is marked 148. The right page is marked 213. I look through the table of contents, and sure enough the book is missing all those pages (including the ceder bucket story, which I was so looking forward to hearing :).

Even without those 60 odd pages, pages 1 through 148 earn five stars on there own. I started to return the book and get a replacement copy, but I would much rather get a replacement copy, then return the book. I don't want to be without a copy; even if it isn't a 'compleat' copy, pardon the pun (I guess I know what 'compleat' means now. Another irony is one of the publishing house type snippet reviews on the back cover actually reads "... a delightful 370 page..." Thanks for rubbing my nose in it. Why couldn't I have got a complete book instead of the reviewers who didn't appreciate the writing style.). Plus I don't want to return the book, wait around a few weeks for the replacement, and possibly end up with another book missing the same pages?

I read the reviews before purchasing, and vaguely recall a person describing a similar problem; which didn't seem to make any sense at the time, so I blew it off. Now I can't seem to find that persons review. I also vaguely recall either the publisher or amazon resolved their problem. Either way, I don't have much of a problem, but I do want to read the cedar bucket story @#$$%%!

Well regardless, I got my money's worth already. Pages 213 through 369 will just be gravey. I sure do want to hear that cedar bucket story. Ah SNITZEL!

L.F. Herreshoff was part of a family who are one of the anchors of New England sailing. He was opinionated to say the least. This does not mean that his thoughts had no value. This work, although dated, provides some lessons for sailors and a look at the Ozzie and Harriet days of American culture.

Modeled on Walton's, The Complete Angler, Herreshoff presents his philosophy and practical suggestions within a narrative of a group of boats sailing in the Cape Cod area. The people are functional families of wise parents and polite children including teenage girls who ask appropriate questions, learn their lessons, and when ashore are only interested in shopping and historic sights.

These are well-to-do people, upper middle class, presenting a time just before the 1960's of values that they thought would never change.

This is a great book. Sort of a series of fables, the characters are never more fleshed out that Aesop's Tortoise and Hare, but they get the job done. How many years is it now since this was written? And still, powerboaters are the same menace they were when L Francis first wrote his mini-screeds against them, trendy boats are still being sold to people who don't know what they're doing, clever bad anchors still abound, rigs intended to cheat a rule are found on little cruising boats, making them hard to handle and slow and expensive. Madness.

Some of the boat design stuff is dated. Rozinante is a very pretty and useful cruiser for a keelboat, but modern sensibilities tend more to very shallow draft and the legacy of Munroe and the sharpies, or to multihulls. The attitudes towards women are, uh, well intentioned but of another century, let's say. But the good sense that pervades the whole thing is just wonderful, like a breath of fresh air.

If you like boats you'll like this book. I re-read it every couple of years.

this is a fun travel read that also explains fine points of cruising and boat handling for several boat types from a master of simplicity and directness.
the dovetailing of the information with the story is brillant and a LF Herreshoff masterpiece - as elegant as a rozinante!

Originally written as a series of articles for THE RUDDER magazine during WW II, the abridged book-version is classic Americana. LFH manages to present a treasure chest of timeless yachting skills, while introducing the reader to the pre-multi-culti New England of his early 20th Century youth, a culture of genteel Yankee community in symbiotic relationship with a maritime inheritance of unpresendented abundance and beauty. If you want to learn the basics of pre-plastic messing about in good boats, while embarked on a time-capsule voyage to a bye-gone New England, still firmly in Yankee hands, this book will take you there. You will return with a ditty bag full of Herreshoff's life-experience, and eyes wide open, a budding student of the art of low-tech, high-touch cruising, a curiously-Yankee spiritual path of a transendant nature.