Customer Reviews

The Cruising Life: A Commonsense Guide for the Would-Be Voyager

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My wife and I recently began seriously considering cruising as a way to depart from the 9-5 working world, before we were too old to enjoy it. In addition to doing a lot of sailing since these societally mutinous thoughts have entered our heads, we've read a lot of books on cruising.

If you want a comprehensive reference book on all things sailing, get The Annapolis Book of Seamanship. If you want drama and a lesson in the harshest of realities, read The Perfect Storm and pray you can avoid that kind of experience at all costs.

The Cruising Life is a practical, tasteful overview of how to start cruising, and my opinion is that this appears to be a reasonable approach to the pursuit of happiness in warmer (or colder) climes on a sailboat. Sometimes I wanted a lot more information than I got here, but that wasn't the point...

The author offers frank, balanced treatment of all topics - and admits his opinions are his. For example, he offers a great account of what passes for a bluewater capable cruising boat (smaller may be better than larger, and older, well-used boats are best).

My thanks to Mr. Trefethan for fanning the flames of our cruising ambitions.

This is the book you should read before you buy a boat, before you make up your mind to go sailing, before you take that job and shove it.

I like Jim's book a lot. It is opinionated - good, I was looking for opinions. He does favour the old woodies but that is because he has a lot of experience with them. My boat is "plastic" and I'm sure he wouldn't fire torpedoes at me if I were to offer cocktails.

It is good about the philosphy of why you should go, or stay, and good with how to stash the necessary loot. I find most of these books biased towards the reasonably established crowd - 40-ish. Most of the books don't consider the cut-price option of shoe-horning yourself into a small, sturdy boat and roughing it a little. You don't need $100k+ to do this. It all depends on how much luxury you are prepared to sacrifice for your cause.

Like most would-be cruisers, I thought owning the boat is the most important part of cruising. Wrong, wrong ... at least I like my boat but has sunk more money than it should have.

I went cruising ... with about US$15k (give or take) of floating equity . We had a few problems in the 2 months or so we managed to sail for but it was all a hoot (except getting the engine out). The last problem put us ashore for the next year or so but it is entirely unrelated to cruising so we can't begrudge the boat for that one. We will be back.

Terry from WA - the wiring diagrams are fine - get a fire extinguisher &/or electrician if you are a boat owner ;-).

fair winds

I bought this book when my wife and I were selected to crew on an 80 ft motorsailer for two years, which was to be our honeymoon. We had only six months to pay off our debt and have enough money for two years. This book helped us do it. It helped us a little with financial planning, but mostly kept us focused on what was important and that if we put a plan together and stuck with it, we would make it.

The real value of this book is that is makes the goal of cruising achievable. This is a book that helps you plan your dream of cruising and making it happen, but this is one book you can leave at home. It has some technical information and some liveaboard information, but don't buy it for that, as there are many other, better books that cover those subjects.

Buy the book to help you 'get gone' and you will not be disappointed. It will also help keep you motivated and working toward your goal of cruising.

One last benefit of the book is that the principles discussed apply to many other aspects of life. Since my wife and I have come back, we have continued to live the cuising life on shore and we live much more simply and spend much less money.

The book does have some good points if you can wade through the fluff. His obvious scorn for all "plastic" boats and the manufacturers that build them is quite obvious. He makes no bones about the fact if you buy anything other than a wooden boat for less than $50,000 you're a fool. I still would have given the book three stars until I got to his section on batteries. In two wiring diagrams he showed a direct short across the battery terminals that would cook the batteries if it didn't burn the boat up first! Fortunately he admits he is no electrical expert!

Really enjoyed both Jim's style and his philosophy which are based on practical and honorable life goals. He deliberately avoids the 'must-have-new-gadget' views and shows how by simplifying your life you can greatly enrich your value system. However Jim is a practical person who treats finances very seriusly with sound explanations. Highly recommended.

This is a book written for Americans by an American. As a non-American some advice was irrelevant to me. Apart from this, I found it very useful; valuable insights as to what to expect from a cruising lifestyle, motivation to take the plunge and above all a humorous writing style. I found it compelling. Definitely a good book to read before you buy your yacht, and reread many times before you leave.

Some of the reviewers of this book seem put off by Trefethen's opinionated writing style. I enjoyed it thoroughly. This book was not meant to be read by someone on a boat, but rather someone who is thinking about being on a boat. If there were more cruising books like this one, there would be a body of literature from which a budding cruiser could read, compare opinions and then decide for themselves what route is the best for them. I'd rather have an author tell it like he/she thinks it is than say "you'll just have to find out for yourself."

A must for potential cruisers. The author not only tells you what to do, he tells you why you should and backs up his reasoning with examples from his own experience of sailing half way round the world with a youg family, and the experiences of other cruisers they met on the way. It contains a wealth of information, and bursts a few long held erronous beliefs. Its suitable for both the experienced cruiser and the one who is still toying with the idea. The book is sprinkled with anecdotes which clearly demonstrate the author is a man of humour and wisdom. A thoroughly worthwhile and enjoyable book.

This book was about how to become a "minimilist". (In other words, get rid of all your material stuff, your ideas of "status", start to live simply, start exercising, and start saving, saving, saving!!) By building your "kitty", you're able to buy your boat with cash. It, too, was about practical stuff and a much simpler life! The only regret I had was that it didn't have any pictures! Other than no pictures-I loved it!

If you're thinking you'd like to get a boat and push off for more than a few days, you should defintiely read this book first. It's not a manual for sailing, but rather a manual for preparing to sail. It's full of the basic kinds of information that budding cruisers need to know to help them decide if the life is right for them, while still including enough detail about boat types and systems to show that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to cruise successfully. This should definitely NOT be your boat's bible, but it's a very good and entertaining start to your library.