You will be surprised by the fancy projects you can make with a square knot, a double-French hitching, or four-strand braids (a dog collar, a tool grip, and a decorated picture frame, respectively)! You can also tie the sailor's Turk's Head knot into a bracelet and morph a monkey's fist knot into a doorstop or a fun toy for your dog. Marine artisan Barbara Merry, an expert in artistic marlinspike seamanship skills, shows you how with Marlinspike Sailor's Knots and Crafts. With the help of her expert guidance, you can create more than 30 ropework projects that will add a nautical touch to your boat, RV, camp, or home.
Here are just a few projects you can create withMarlinspike Sailor's Knots and Crafts:
Companionway treads * Gear hammock for your bunk * Decorated carafe * Canvas ditty bag * Water bottle carrier * Manila doormat * Zipper pull * Swing hammock for your backyard * Key fob * Checkerboard * Reusable net shopping bag * Eyeglass case * Ring toss * and more
Don't worry if you have never worked with rope in this way before--Barbara will take you step-by-step through theprocess, from choosing and measuring materials to putting the final touches on your nautical project. Projects are suitable for scout troops or afterschool activities as well!
I know you'll want to read more after you finish Sailing a Serious Ocean. And be warned, you'll very likely want to sail with John, perhaps across an ocean. -- DALLAS MURPHY, AUTHOR OF ROUNDING THE HORN
After sailing 300,000 miles and weathering dozens of storms in all the world's oceans, John Kretschmer has plenty of stories and advice to share. John's offshore training passages sell out a year in advance and his entertaining presentations are popular at boat shows and yacht clubs all over the English speaking world. John's talent for storytelling enchants his audience as it soaks up the lessons he learned during his oftenchallengingvoyages. Now you can take a seat next to John--at a lesser cost--and get the knowledge you need to fulfill your own dream of blue-water adventure.
In Sailing a Serious Ocean, John tells you what to expect when sailing the oceans and shows how to sail safely across them. His tales of storm encounters and other examples of extreme seamanship will help you prepare for your journey and give you confidence to handle any situation--even heavy weather. Through his personal stories, John will guide you through the whole process of choosing the right boat, outfitting with the right gear, planning your route, navigating the ocean, and understanding the nuances of life at sea.
Our oceans are beautiful yet unpredictable--water that is at one moment a natural mirror for the glowing sun can turn into a foamy, raging wall of fury. John knows our oceans, and he is one of the best teachers of taming and enjoying them. Before you set off across the big blue, turn to John for his inspirational stories and hard-learned advice and discover the serious sailor in you.
The maintenance bible for boatowners is fully updated and better than ever!
If it's on a boat and it has screws, wires, or moving parts, it's covered in Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. When you leave the dock with this indispensable resource aboard, you have at your fingertips the best and most comprehensive advice on:
Gives you everything you need to know about catching fish in tropical seas. A guide to catching and cooking fish from the decks of a cruising boat. It gives you what you need to know about catching fish in tropical or middle-latitude seas - from a cruising boat underway or at anchor, from a dinghy, in the surf, and while diving reefs.
Praise for this boating classic:
The most up-to-date and readable book we've seen on the subject.--Sailing World
Deserves a place on any diesel-powered boat.--Motor Boat & Yachting
Clear, logical, and even interesting to read.--Cruising World
Keep your diesel engine going with help from a master mechanic
Marine Diesel Engines has been the bible for do-it-yourself boatowners for more than 15 years. Now updated with information on fuel injection systems, electronic engine controls, and other new diesel technologies, Nigel Calder's bestseller has everything you need to keep your diesel engine running cleanly and efficiently. Marine Diesel Engines explains how to:
Anyone who contemplates any onboard do-it-yourself work should have this book at his or her elbow.--Cruising World
This book reduces a boat to its most rudimentary parts in simple drawings and clear explanations. Fascinating to read, it's a perfect teaching tool.--Ocean Navigator
Whether you're a new mariner or a lifetime veteran, How Boat Things Work is a resource you can't afford to be without. With intricate two-color cutaway drawings of eighty different systems and devices, as well as detailed explanations of how they're assembled, how they work, and how they can go wrong, this book covers every primary component of your boat's inner workings.
This guided tour under the hood of your sailboat or powerboat includes:
Read what the the U.S. Power Squadron and the U.S. Coast Guard trust as the definitive authority on electronic navigation, now updated with the latest electronic technologies and methods
The Weekend Navigator teaches you how to navigate using today's tools and methods, including the latest technologies such as smart phones. While electronic navigation is here to stay, author Bob Sweet recognizes that they are still based on traditional charts and piloting skills, and he combines the two to pass along to you a solid understanding of all the principles of marine navigation.
In addition to its continued ground-breaking instruction for the now-digital process of navigation on board power- and sailboats, Sweet helps you understand recent options for chartplotters, less expensive handheld GPS units, smart phones, and the navigation possibilities presented by phone apps. New to this edition is a section entitled Ooops, which provides an insightful collection of boating accident tales resulting from common GPS and chartplotters no-nos. Using The Weekend Navigator, you can get on the water right away and learn to navigate in an afternoon with GPS; master chart-and-compass piloting while, not before, he or she departs; plot courses and fix positions on paper or electronic charts; and more.
The 12-Volt Bible for Boats is a clear, nonthreatening introduction to the 12-volt electrical systems used on small boats to power everything from reading lights to bilge pumps. This second edition is thoroughly updated with respect to modern batteries, breaker and panel design, alternative energy sources, and troubleshooting equipment, but it retains the fundamental simplicity that is the source of its enduring popularity (more than 100,000 copies sold).
Your quick-access guide to international andU.S. boating rules
The U.S. Coast Guard requires every boat morethan 39-feet long to carry a copy of the nauticalrules of the road onboard. Here's one that is convenientand handy enough for quick reference on thewater. This bestselling guide includes the full text of the original rules, and Charlie Wing's clear, rule-by-rule translations make them easy to follow. It also includes a One-Minute Guide Decision Tree and a brief overview of the rules' intent to give you a good idea of what to do in any common situation.
Belongs in the bookshelf of every cruising vessel.--Blue Water Sailing
If you are serious about that extended voyage, read The Voyager's Handbook.--Sailing
Every now and then a new voice emerges in the world of sailing literature that stands out, a voice that is both clear and of lasting quality. The appearance of such a new voice is something of an event, and that's what we'd call the publication of The Voyager's Handbook.--Blue Water Sailing
This inspirational and comprehensive manual leads you step by step through every aspect of choosing, planning, and following the voyager's life. Using three example boats representing three cruising lifestyles--Simplicity, Moderation, and Highlife--Beth Leonard helps make your bluewater dreams come true, whether you're sailing on a shoestring or a CEO's pension.Starting with the things you can't do without--an enthusiastic crew, a seaworthy boat, and, of course, money--Leonard offers sage advice on how to select crewmembers who are truly committed to the voyage, how to choose the right boat for you, and how to find just the right approach to financing your voyage and making the most of every dollar spent.
Managing life from a floating home and keeping that home livable, seaworthy, and safe requires you to become, among other things, the ship's purser, engineer, doctor, cook, and cruise director. You'll discover how to prepare for these new roles and put necessary equipment and arrangements in place before you untie your docklines.This exquisitely detailed guide also helps you master the skills you'll need to handle a boat at sea with a small crew, including
Complete with dozens of easy-to-use graphs and tables for quick reference, along with the hard-won wisdom of experienced cruisers, The Voyager's Handbook is the ultimate resource for anyone who is planning, preparing for, or just dreaming about a great adventure on the high seas.
Earning a captain's license just got easier
Whether you are an avid boater seeking to improve your seamanship and get a discount on boat insurance or aspire to start a business running a charter, sightseeing, or whale-watching boat, this revised and updated Fifth Edition is the only resource you need to obtain the captain's license you want, including the six-passenger Six-Pack, Master and Mate Inland, Master and Mate Near Coastal, and Sail/Auxiliary Sail Endorsement.
Get Your Captain's License is thorough enough to replace costly classroom instruction with its 350 pages of seamanship and navigation tutorials and more than 1,500 carefully selected questions and answers from the Coast Guard exams.
The book also contains details of a special offer (20% discount) for access to a new associated website from Examiam that combines a digital version of this book with all 12,000 of the U.S. Coast Guard's latest Captain's license questions. Please note that access to this website is not included with the purchase of this book; additional fees apply.
Make the U.S. Coast Guard your first mate
The Small-Boat Seamanship Manual contains all the information found in the Coast Guard's official 1,200-page training manual, giving you access to the highest standards of seamanship practiced and perfected by professional mariners. In addition to in-depth coverage of boat handling and navigation, you'll find instructions for dealing with extreme situations, including search and rescue, towing, firefighting, vessel flood management, righting capsized boats, and maneuvering in heavy surf. You'll also learn about
This is the U.S. Coast Guard's primary training resource for boat handling and seamanship in conditions ranging from benign to extreme. Now this accumulated wisdom is yours with the Small-Boat Seamanship Manual.
Authoritative, practical, and hands-on information on reading and relying on electronic and paper nautical charts
The classic How to Read a Nautical Chart explains every aspect of electronic and paper nautical charts: how a chart is assembled, how to gauge the accuracy of chart data, how to read charts created by other governments, how to use information such as scale, projection technique and datum that every chart contains; how not to get fooled or run aground by overzooming. Nigel Calder teaches you how to squeeze every ounce of information out of a nautical chart (on your GPS, chartplotter, or nav station) and understand the limits of accuracy for all charts, paper and electronic, raster and vector.
This much-awaited second edition addresses the changes in the world of electronic charting, integrated onboard navigation systems, as well as radar overlays and AIS and their interfacing with charts. A new chapter onthe Wiki Revolution explores the mechanisms allowing you to incorporate user-generated content into navigational products and share this content with others--harnessing a user-base never before possible. Calder also explores how 3D-technology and real-time depth and weather information is creating interactive charting capacities that are fundamentally changing how we navigate. Calder's unique, practical insights will help you to navigate safely for years to come.The definitive guide from the world's best-known sailboat maintenance expert
Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual combines six core volumes into a single, utterly dependable resource that answers every frequent question, explains every major system, and helps you keep your boat and its components shipshape.
More than 2,500 clear and detailed illustrations guide you step by step through every procedure. Casey's technical virtuosity, his user-friendly explanations, and Peter Compton's diesel engine expertise make even the more complicated repairs and improvements easy to understand. This must-have guide saves you time, money, and grief as you learn the fastest, easiest, most effective ways to:
It takes thousands of hours of sailing to get the kind of knowledge contained in this book. -- from the Foreword by Bruce Schwab
The ONLY bible for how to sail your boat fast, safe, and aloneSolo sailing is within any sailor's grasp with a little forethought--and this essential guide.
Got a 35-foot sailboat? No problem. Is the wind blowing 20 knots? No problem. Are you racing offshore overnight? Even better. Singlehander Andrew Evans learned the hard way how to sail and race alone--with lots of mishaps, including broaches and a near tumbling over a waterfall--and in Singlehanded Sailing he shares the techniques, tips, and tactics he has developed to make his solo sailing adventures safe and enriching.
Learn everything you need to know to meet any solo challenge, including:
Now completely revised and updated, and expanded by more than fifty percent, The Complete Canvasworker's Guide, Second Edition, brings you Jim Grant's thorough step-by-step approach to constructing a nearly endless variety of attractive and functional gear for your boat. Grant, with his wife, Connie, has taught sailmaking and canvaswork for more than 20 years, and he brings an often intimidating craft within the grasp and budget of anyone from an all-thumbs beginner to a would-be professional.
Forget that canvas always used to be made of cotton. Today it is far more commonly woven of synthetic fibers: acrylic, polyester, or nylon. Here is all the information you'll need to make use of them all. Grant's no-frills approach, refined over years of answering the questions of puzzled students, is for any boatowner who wants to take needle to fabric. And as tens of thousands of proud boatowners will happily testify, it really works.
Here's what reviewers have said about The Complete Canvasworker's Guide:
Literally every question is answered in this book.--Yachting
Chock full of everything from basic information to a variety of ideas designed to improve, upgrade, and protect a boat.--Small Boat Journal
An immensely practical book.--Practical Boat Owner
A concise and to-the-point workbook.--Soundings
From the acknowledged master of the instant boat--tips, techniques, and designs for quick-and-easy plywood boatbuilding
Dynamite Payson offers you a new guide to building 15 exciting boats from master designer Phil Bolger. Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson includes plans and instructions for a multipurpose skiff for sail, oar, and power; a pirogue for single or double paddle; a big pram dinghy; a maneuverable peapod; a long, fast, rowing dory; a rugged outboard-powered work skiff; and more. You will enjoy the commonsense advice, step-by-step building instructions, and tips on tools and materials that have made Payson a hero of amateur boatbuilders worldwide.