The Complete Yachtmaster (6th)
R350.00
by Tom Cunliffe
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
Subtitled Sailing, Seamanship and Navigation for the Modern Yacht Skipper, Cunliffe's work has been a best seller since it first hit the market nearly 15 years ago. There is little doubt his latest effort will top the sales list, too and deservedly so.

Cunliffe is not simply an author who knows his subject thoroughly; he is a first class writer with an ability to impart his knowledge in a very user-friendly manner.

The book, with fine, clear colour pics and illustrations, is aimed specifically at skippers and those who aspire to be skippers; so it will not be easy to digest the wealth of info unless you have an understanding of the basics.

It also does not cover every specialist task one can come across in the sailing world. But what it does cover is everything you will need to know to take your yacht out to sea and bring it back safely. Based loosely on the famous RYA yachtmaster programme, it will serve the student well, and for added value, it is a very good reference book.

Further Offshore
A Practical Guide for Sailors
R420.00
by Ed Mapes
Publisher: Sheridan House
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
Don't expect to learn how to sail in this one. It is rather about preparing oneself and one's boat to undertake a passage; and then about knowing what to watch out for and what to do when you are out on the Big Blue.

It is a heavy book, comprehensive in its way; but it might have been enhanced by the use of colour, or at least black and white graphics, to help the text along. That criticism aside, it does contain much that is of interest and of value, especially to the cruising sailor.

It moves from initial boat selection to fitting out, passage planning, and offshore essentials; and it sails or motors from chapters on safety, sail repair, self-steering and radar, to those dealing with health, routing, weather, provisioning, watchkeeping, anchoring and manoeuvres under power.

The author deals with many more issues, and the appendices at the end of the book, starting with Check list for personal gear and clothing will certainly contain anything that might have been overlooked.

The Lilibet Logs (Restoring a Classic Wooden Boat)
R210.00
by Jack Becker
Publisher: Sheridan House
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
It is the story of Lilibet, a classic wooden racing sailboat built in England in 1937, and her restoration to full glory. When the author, who had in earlier years dabbled in old boats, found her on the Internet of all places, she had been abandoned and was more than a little rundown.

But Jack (the author) fell in love with the 42-footer. He trucked her from Chesapeake Bay to Minnesota, and with support from his wife, began a task that would take him two years. And when Lilibet was finally in the water, Jack had to learn to sail! All his previous experience had been on powerboats. That's it in a nutshell.

Croatia Cruising Companion
by Jane Cody and John Nash
Publisher: Wiley Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
A top class publication, first published last year, and absolutely essential if one is planning to cruise the Dalmatian coast and islands.

The introduction deals in a general manner with info on charts, maps, datums, bearings, waypoints, weather, sea states, tides, currents, routes, buoyage, harbours, marinas, anchorages, repairs and maintenance, fuel, language, communications, currency, transport, restaurants, bars, beaches, security and health.

That is all interesting and helpful, but then we get to the exciting stuff. Scores of islands, and mainland areas, are covered, and it all becomes a tour deluxe with wonderful pictures, great graphics, and even more detailed descriptions of approaches to famous towns and cities, and quiet, remote little anchorages.

Local tips and information to help you on shore or off shore, accompany every chart which, in turn, seemingly explores every corner of this very beautiful country.

If you have cruised in Croatia, it will bring back the memories; if you have not yet sailed in this part of the world, then this publication will definitely bring on the itch to up anchor and go!

Dinghy Cruising (3rd) (The Enjoyment of Wandering Afloat)
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
This is the book for small boat (dinghy) sailors with big boat ideas. Margaret and Frank Dye's adventures in their 14-ft Wayfarers and Wanderers are legend. Trucking and trailing and sometimes sailing their little craft here, there and everywhere, they probably saw a great deal more than many yachties.

But the advancing years creep up on all of us. Margaret was no exception. So, finding that lugging the 14-footer in and out of the water, and sailing it sometimes singlehanded was ever more difficult, she set about researching ways and means of making life easier, without sacrificing that which she held most dear the freedom to sail wherever the fancy took her.

With this in mind, she finds the Gull Spirit, at 11 feet, just perfect. What remains is to equip her little craft for cruising, which she does with the aid of modern technology and by trial and error. Many of her ideas are fresh, and she elaborates on the old and new as the chapters go via: Choosing a dinghy, stowing gear, anchoring, meals aboard, sleeping aboard, passage planning, repairs and trailering. Tailored into all the info and sound advice are little anecdotes drawn from years of sailing adventures. It makes for an enjoyable and informative read.

Cruise of the Conrad
by Alan Villiers
Publisher: Sheridan House
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
In any day or age, Australian-born Alan Villiers would have been a remarkable man. He was born in 1903, and before he died in 1982, he had crammed all manner of adventures and achievements into his life, written more books than most sailors make ocean crossings, and fulfilled perhaps his greatest ambition, to find, equip and sail a full rigged ship around the world.
His love of sea and sail started at a very young age, and through the years, he learned the ropes the hard way hands on in big sailing ships. In 1934, when sail was in its twilight years, he found the ship he wanted, in Copenhagen. Named the Georg Stage, and built in 1882, she was used as a training ship for the Danish youth. Villiers renamed the 212 ton, 110ft vessel Joseph Conrad, after another great man of sailing and writing achievement. Thus started a three-year circumnavigation by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the South Seas, East Indies and Cape Horn.
His epic voyage starts in England, and excerpts from the opening pages reveal how he felt about the departure: To leeward, the Dover cliffs pale in the autumnal sun showed me the last of England, and overhead the longshore gulls wheeled and cried for the last time. In the rigging, the soft nor easter quietly murmured into the sails with scarce weight enough to hold them from the masts....the pilot had left now and the ship was mine, and I looked along the decks at the masts in mild alarm. What was this I was about to do.

I, in command .... who never had commanded anything anywhere or led anyone to anything. I, now Master, who had been Able Seaman and naught else ..... to sail this last of all the English ships, to write finis to a centuries-long line of great traditions .... I found myself filled with a great humility and almost reeled at first with a knowledge of my own shortcomings.

Reading that, I felt as though I already knew the man who, over the next 400 pages, would lead his band of sailors and his sturdy ship on a extraordinary journey, packed with adventure, near disasters, and triumphs. It is a fine read, and there are interesting maps (line drawings), old photographs, and plans of the ship to complement the text.

Start Windsurfing
by Jim Collis
Publisher: RYA
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
Once, long ago, I watched, with a great deal of sympathy, a friend of mine try his hand at windsurfing. He spent his entire holiday at Morgan's Bay, trying to master the sport. And at the end of it all, he could manage to sail downwind only, briefly, without falling off. He would have received full marks for perseverance that's all.

This little book from RYA might have helped save him the endless effort, the agony and frustration, for it claims that with a coaching course, one can be up and sailing in just eight hours! More than that, the little book alone Ð it is meant to supplement the RYA course - might have done the trick for him, so good is the presentation.

From the board itself, to the rig, your gear, the wind, handling (like how to stay aboard!); all the info is concisely presented, and the text is well supplemented with pictures and diagrams in colour.

The Mafia Dollars
by Andy James
Publisher: Athena Press
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
Jonti Kershaw is a yacht broker doing reasonably well for himself on the Riviera but not well enough to resist taking a large amount of cash he finds whilst refurbishing one of his purchases for resale. Unfortunately, the money belongs to one of the boat's previous owners, a Mafia boss, who had stashed $300,000 in the boat before going off to prison. Free again, he wants the money. Unfortunately, Kershaw no longer has it, having used it to ease some of the financial difficulties that influenced him to pocket the cash in the first place.

Apart from demanding the return of his money, the Mafia man, Pazzano, wants honour restored. No one steals from the Mafia. And so begins a mob vendetta against Kershaw and friends a vendetta that seems destined to end in the demise of the Englishman, whether or not he succeeds in a desperate effort to raise and return the money. The story races around the Mediterranean as Kershaw, hounded by the gangsters, repays Pazzano, and undertakes a daring raid on an island prison to release a convicted mobster and relative of Pazzano, to wipe out the Ôdebt of honour. Much of the tale is cluttered with rather inconsequential side issues, which slacken the pace. But the end is exciting, with a totally unexpected twist.

Channel Havens
by Ken Endean
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel.031-7096087
For most South Africans, a book on cruising the Western English Channel is unlikely to prove more compelling than any literature on the better-known and more popular destinations such as the Med., the Caribbean, or the Far East. But open it, and browse a minute. It is quite a revelation. The author has found places in the Western English Channel secret inlets and secluded anchorages - that are breathtaking; places of such beauty that they, indeed, have a pull of their own to rival many an exotic spot in warmer climes. Just as importantly, he has found locations where the English sailor can get away from it all - locations neglected by most pilot books.

So, if, by any chance you are in the British Isles, and you do feel like a bit of cruising, then here is the book you will need. It is as much as anything, a guide to a refreshingly different cruising area, containing all the necessary information on tides, winds, physical features and quirks that affect navigation.

Ship Construction for Marine Students (Fifth) (Reed's Engineering Series)
by E A Stokoe
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
This is for the very serious student only. The author, formerly the Principal Lecturer in Naval architecture at South Shields Marine and Technical College in the UK, claims the book is not intended to be comprehensive, and its size certainly does support the claim. But it will nevertheless, I am sure, be perfect for those already involved with ship construction; for engineers, architects, technicians and even those studying for Mate and Master's exams.

A selection of examination questions at the end of the book doubles as a revision of the whole work. The book's value in this specialised field is reflected in the fact that it is in its fifth edition, and that that edition is in its third printing.

Powerboating Companion
by Peter White
Publisher: Fernhurst Books
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
These little Companion booklets are ever in demand, and rightly so. Slimline, with flip-over, waterproof pages, they carry an incredible amount of info on the given subject. It is an instant guide, a ready reckoner. It has a place on your craft, and is small enough to be carried in a pocket.

It contains more than the basics on things one needs to know on the water from pre-start checks, to launch and recovery, manoeuvring, MOB drill, tides, navigation, weather, trouble shooting, anchoring, buoyage, first aid and radio procedures. Everything is clearly explained, with really good colour graphics and pics.

Hamble to Helsinki
by Fay and Graham Cattell
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
This is No 3 in The Cruising Association's series of Skipper's Cruising Guides. It is like all the others: small, neat, and loaded with information for the cruiser. This particular one has a slight difference in that the authors have told the story of their voyage (with excerpts from other trips) in diary or log form, with selected dates. Their 2500 nautical mile trip takes them through the Dutch canals, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and on to Helsinki. It is entertaining, and it offers a great deal of advice and information for anyone wishing to do that route.

Falmouth to the Azores & Back
by Michael Bickell
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
Michael Bickell tells how he and some friends prepare for a trip to the Azores, and then gives a very readable account of a voyage that takes in a bit of Spain and Portugal en route to the nine-island Azores archipelago, and something of Ireland on the return run to Falmouth. It is descriptive, and it is informative. And like its sisters (brothers), this fourth book in the series of Skipper's Cruising Guides is neat and almost slim enough to pop into a pocket, and pop out again should you feel like resuming your voyage with Bickell.

Reeds Practical Boat Owner, Small Craft Almanac 2007
Edited by Neville Featherstone & Peter Lambie
Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical
Available from SAILING Books.
Tel. 031-7096087
If you are planning to do some serious sailing around the British Isles, or the coasts of Western Europe, then you will find a great deal of what you need to know in this book, from navigation to weather, communications, safety and tides. If you happen not to be going that way, then perhaps the only benefit you may get is from the clear illustrations of distress call procedures and signals, international code flags, marks, light recognition for small and large craft, and Admiralty Chart symbols, all of which are contained in many other publications.