Sails Full and By [Hardcover]

Dom Degnon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1995

"Yacht broker and freelance writer Degnon's breezy account of his extended voyage provides entertaining adventure and a refresher course in geography. One unidentified year, with Celia Lowe as crew mate, he set out from New England in Taku, a 41-foot ketch; first stop, the Caribbean, where they picked up additional crew before sailing throught he Panama Canal and on to Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. In everyport they met other "yachties"-long-distance, blue-water cruising has its own culture. They spent six months in New Zealand, fitting Taku and sightseeing. Next, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guines and Australia where they has a rough time finding theor way through the Great Barrier Reef in a storm. Then they headed home via Indonesia (Bali), the Red Sea and the Suez Canal." Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Yacht broker and freelance writer Degnon's breezy account of his extended voyage provides entertaining adventure and a refresher course in geography. One unidentified year, with Celia Lowe as crew mate, he set out from New England in Taku, a 41-foot ketch; first stop, the Caribbean, where they picked up additional crew before sailing through the Panama Canal and on to Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. In every port they met other "yachties"?long-distance, blue-water cruising has its own culture. They spent six months in New Zealand, fitting Taku and sightseeing. Next, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Australia, where they had a rough time finding their way through the Great Barrier Reef in a storm. Then they headed home via Indonesia (Bali), the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Everything that can happen on a cruise did?equipment failure, groundings, split sails, storms. Sailors will cherish this book. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

...a lively and inspiring account of a seven-year circumnavigation and of personal growth. -- Cruising World, October 1995

...like a fresh breeze after a calm, Sails Full and By is a grass-roots adventure in the tradition of Mark Twain and a pleasing read. --SAIL Magazine, September 1995

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Sheridan House; 1st US edition (January 25, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0924486759
• ISBN-13: 978-0924486753
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,798,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sailing Around the World the Fun Way, September 4, 2000

By 

Mark Lewis (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sails Full and By (Hardcover)

Dom Degnon does an excellent job of captivating his reader by authoring a book covering a seven and a half year voyage around the world. The reading is not difficult to follow for even the non sailor. This book focuses more on the people and the locations visited, local stories, and relationships developed with other cultures than the specifics of how to accomplish his feat. Although, there is plenty of that thrown in for those of you hard core sailors.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good sailing and travel book, August 28, 2003

By 

Stephen Schwartz (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sails Full and By (Hardcover)

Dom Degnon is a charming writer and accomplished world sailor. This book is the story of his seven-year circumnavigation in a 41' sailboat. Although Degnon and his various crews have their troubles with weather, officials, and other things, this was a happy and easy cruise. It should be encouraging to those contemplating a similar voyage. Things have gotten even easier now that finding where you are in the ocean is easy due to GPS. Even though I am a weekend sailor on Lake Ontario I found the book to be entertaining and educational.

I have one qualm that I cannot help voicing. The first sentence of the book goes as follows: "Listen! If you are reading this to find out the secret of successfully sailing around the world, here it is: Pack your bag and go." (Also see author statement on this page.) I almost put the book down in disgust after reading this sentence. The last thing we need out there is more poorly prepared and under-funded wanna-be world sailors. Degnon has a superbly well-prepared boat and the funds to allow him to cruise for seven years. How can the rest of us living on paychecks just pack our bags and go?

Degnon never explains how he was able to fund his adventure, but never seems short of cash in seven years. Unless you inherit a fortune or win the lottery I don't see how you can survive floating around for seven years without a regular job--and maintaining a world cruising boat ain't cheap. As a writer once said (I forget who, alas) "More boats have been destroyed by lack of funds then have ever been by storms and groundings." Herb Payson in his books has some interesting ideas about how to make money while cruising--but Degnon never touches on this issue. I suspect because he had some limitless source of funds that he doesn't want to reveal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great round the globe sailing adventure, October 10, 2005

By 

---- Neil H. "A Trailer Sailor's Library" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sails Full and By (Hardcover)

Very well written story of his sailing adventure around the world. Extremely enjoyable. My only beef is that he doesn't have maps printed in the book so you can see the areas he discusses. I read the book with "Always a distant anchorage by Hal Roth" which does have maps, and I would recommend reading both books together, as they cover a similar route in different styles.