Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook: A Compendium for Coastal and Offshore Sailors [Hardcover]

Nigel Calder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 2001

The most comprehensive and helpful guide ever written for selecting and equipping a cruising sailboat

Whether you’re a coastal or offshore cruiser, you’ll find your most pressing concerns treated with the know-how that makes for skillful, confident cruising in Nigel Calder’s Cruising Handbook. The author -- one of the most respected marine how-to authors on either side of the Atlantic, and author of the universally admired Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual, -- walks you through all key technical and practical aspects of modern cruising systems and equipment, providing you with a summary of the skills necessary for safe, enjoyable sailing.

The first half of the book includes an easy-to-use tabular method for evaluating a boat's suitability for cruising; ideas for workable deck and interior lay-outs and organization; how to choose and configure suitable boat systems for cruising; and how to install gear for trouble free operation.

The book's second half teaches you boat handling skills; core navigational expertise; anchoring techniques; weather understanding; heavy weather expertise; and specific skills for long-term and long-distance cruising.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"The indispensable crew. No boat should sail without Calder aboard."--Paul Gelder, Yachting Monthly

This handbook shows you not only how to select and equip a boat for coastal and offshore cruising, but also how to sail and navigate it. Covering all this in one volume is a monumental task, one not attempted since the pioneers of blue-water voyaging wrote the first generation of cruising bibles decades ago. Since that simpler, more spartan era, the typical cruising sailboat has become faster and more comfortable, but also more complex. Even as they've made distant horizons more reachable, the marvels of modern technology have paradoxically raised the ante on the entry-level skills required for cruising. Small wonder then that books about boat handling and seamanship have little to say about the special demands of cruising, while books about cruising presuppose a mastery of the fundamentals of seamanship and navigation.

Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbookpresupposes nothing. It sifts through, organizes, and makes sense of the hundred disciplines of the cruising avocation. It will help you through your first coastal hop or your umpteenth offshore passage. Here you will find

• Comprehensive coverage of cruising sailboat design
• The elements of a comfortable interior and a workable deck presented in depth
• The background you need to decide which of today's technological advancements may detract from rather than add to your cruising enjoyment
• Thorough coverage of cruising skills, from boat handling to transoceanic voyaging
• Fresh wrinkles for even the most experienced sailors

Compiling in one volume all the knowledge needed for successful cruising under sail, Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook provides an inestimable service for sailors. There is nothing else like it.

"If you were shipwrecked on a desert island and could choose only one book to help get you off, this is the book."--Patience Wales, Editor, SAIL

About the Author

Nigel Calder has decades of sailing and cruising behind him. He is widely acknowledged as the world's foremost writer on boat systems maintenance, and writes regularly for SAIL, Cruising World, Ocean Navigator, Professional Boatbuilder, and Yachting Monthly, among other magazines. He is the author of six books, including Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual, Marine Diesel Engines, Refrigeration for Pleasureboats, The Cruising Guide to the Northwest Caribbean, and Cuba: A Cruising Guide.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1st edition (May 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071350993
• ISBN-13: 978-0071350990
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 1.1 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Sailing > Excursion Guides
  • #7 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Sailing > Instructional
  • #27 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Boating

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 125 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive Cruising Book? September 1, 2002

By Ron Chappell

Format:Hardcover

Ordinarily,I would not get too excited about another new cruising book,even one by so eminent an author as Calder, whose previous work: Boatowner's Mechanical And Electrical Manual, has become an icon on both sides of the pond. While the cruising genre is a particular favorite of mine, recent offerings seem to have grown a bit redundant for those of us striving to keep abreast of the field.

This book of Calder's is a whole new ball game.

First of all: It's a very big book both physically, and in terms of it's diverse subject matter. At just under six hundred pages in an 8 ˝ x 11inch format, it is not something I would refer to as a "handbook" unless speaking to a gorilla. The word "encyclopedic" springs to mind, as it is truly monumental in scope and execution...

McGraw-Hill did a commendable job of putting it all together. It looks like it might last, even in the marine environment where it will most assuredly find a home. It features a water resistant cover and flexible spine, designed to lie flat when opened, a wonderful feature on a pitching chart table, far at sea, where information is scarce and time of the essence.

It covers nearly everything. It covers it in exquisite detail. It covers it in a manner anyone can understand. There are chapters relating to most any conceivable contingency a cruiser might run in to, from boat selection, equipage, and maintenance, to the more esoteric areas of daily life on a cruising sailboat (and much more than I wanted to know about navigational history).

Calder remains the quintessential "systems" man and his section on surveying a prospective purchase, with it's attendant checklist, is, alone, worth the price of the book. The section on weather and prediction should be required reading for every television forecaster in the country. There are up to date chapters on shipboard health, and disease prevention criteria for every sector of the world. Nearly every page is clearly illustrated, and at the end of each technical chapter a "worksheet" so that you may evaluate your own vessel or system. Here is a man not afraid to infuse his material with the very latest in technological know how, even though it may at some point appear dated. For the mathematically inclined there are charts, graphs and formulas enough to satisfy the most gifted. And all this, is just the tip of the iceberg.

I have read this book cover to cover and word for word (it took a very long time). Is it the proverbial "One Book Cruising Library" - the definitive work on the subject?

I think it may well be.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very complete reference December 21, 2003

By J. Van Belle

Format:Hardcover

The strength of this book is its readability. Calder writes very well, and he organizes this book in a way that makes it something one can read from cover to cover. Reading his work actually makes you want to be sailing.

His treatment of yacht design is a fantastic walk through the desireable characteristics of yachts for cruising. If you are buying a boat, read this book before you finalize your decision. Calder acknowledges that every boat is a compromise, and he clearly favors traditional design over modern lines (he repeatedly expresses his distaste for wing keels, for example).

The book then progresses through different sailing and cruising skills and issues. His discussion of anchoring is one of the best I have seen, and he does an admirable job of explaining marine weather.

The one thing to keep in mind about this book is that it is rather "blue sky". He describes the ultimate cruising yacht (which looks remarkably like his own) and tends to overcook some of the concerns with "lesser" designs. Not everyone can afford to have a brand new Pacific Seacraft 40 built for them from scratch, but this is the boat Calder essentially lists as the perfect cruising yacht.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the book you need! April 30, 2002

By Suzy F. Homemaker

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book goes into the detail necessary to outfit a cruising boat. The pictures and diagrams make the concepts very clear, and easy to implement. Many books have a few great ideas, but Calder concetrates them in one spot. The 18 page "Checklist of Desirable Features" at the end of the first section is worth the price of the book alone!