Five books every wannabe should read.

[Sea Dreaming]

Just 5 books? Ha! It's a start. Great suggestions so far. Do buy the used books. You will need more some book kitty for the future.

[Simonsays]

Originally Posted by lancelot9898

One comment about weather predicting. There are people who devote years to learning about weather, yet their predictions are not very accurate even for short term forecasts. Just get a good barometer.

sounds stupid but a barometer and a few links for local weather forecasts is better than some half assed attempt at studying meteorology.

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by Simonsays

sounds stupid but a barometer and a few links for local weather forecasts is better than some half assed attempt at studying meteorology.

If you are coastal sailinng and have access to the net, this will work, but if passagemaking then understanding weather and the ability to read grib is truly an asset.

books:
Beth Leonard - The Voyagers Handbook - if she doesn't discuss it - you don't need to know it
Adlar Coles/peter Bruce<. Heavy weather sailing
Slocum - alone around the world






if you can read Danish - Meteorologi og Oceanografi for Skibsofficer - Mette Hundahl. Best meteorology book I've ever found

[barnakiel]

I would not bash weather forecasters too hard. I know many that are very good ones.

Sure learning something about weather will not hurt any sportsman, especially when the sport is done outdoors.

It is not so much about forecasting (which is best left to modern computers) as it is about understanding what is going on around you (and why, if you are a wx freak ;-)).

Online wx services (e.g. windfinder, windguru, wunderground, yr.no, etc.) tend to be either decent or good, and they work from varied models (some work from more than one model at the same time) so it is best to watch them all, and use the ones that yield best accuracy in your area.

b.

[captain58sailin]

Bowdicth
Survive the Savage seas,
Ten Easy Steps to Celestial Navigation
Ashely's book of knots
Chapmans

[morgan342]

Adrift by steven callahan is a good read....76 days lost at sea on a life raft

[JPA Cate]

Nice to see this thread revived: here's one for newbies, to start learning to respect the sea, "The Serpent's Coil," by Farley Mowat.

They're from a long time ago, but the drawings from the early circumnavigators, like the Hiscocks, in their boats, give someone an idea of how stowage can be made usable and safe for use at sea. When old timers here on CF whinge about the lacks of new boat designs, this may be due to looking for what works at sea, not the same as what looks inviting at the dock, unless you know what works at sea, already.

If you don't care to make passages, maybe not the right thing for you.

Ann

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Steady Hand

If you are on a tight budget, look for these titles on Amazon in their used books. These books are very popular and have been out for many years, so I would expect there to be many very cheap used in Amazon.

I cn almost always find the books I want from Amazon used books.
Read the the lot but buy your favorites on Kindle. Pass on the rest to other wannabe sailors.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Simonsays

sounds stupid but a barometer and a few links for local weather forecasts is better than some half assed attempt at studying meteorology.

Interesting - when we were in the Caribbean we used a guy by the name of Chris Parker and got a chance to meet him and his one advise to us was you have to make your own forecast and decisions as sometimes I am wrong. We took that to heart and we have sailed a lot in a lot of places and make our own forecasts.
Best example - in 2013 we were sitting Antigua waiting on a weather window to leave for an Atlantic crossing and talking to Chris and looking at 3 different forecast models - we had possible window and spent a bit of time talking to Chris about it and the issue was the front coming across the USA and if it would dip south or go north and east - we looked at our data and talked to Chris and it was a fair chance of going south but if it did not it would have been incredible sailing - my forecast was no we will sit as the chance of the front going south was to high and if it went south it would not have been a good day - 3 boats left and 3 boats were lost - we waited and got a window a week later that I felt was good and we had a great sail across -
we spend a lot of time looking at weather and frontal movements to see what we are going to do and without a couple of books on board we never would have learned that
yes we look at local forecasts if we have the internet and use the gribs from the ssb but we have to make our decisions and what we think the long range weather will do - we look at at least 3 different forecasts if we can
in Russia this past summer we saw a front coming from a far distance - many days out and decided it was going to blow across the Black Sea and if we used all our Russia visa days we would be caught out in the open sea when it blew across so we left with 3 days on our visa and did a 3 day sail to Odessa - the next day the front came through 50k winds - a lot more than the local forecasts called for
So in our opinion you have to make your own forecast as it is your boat and life that you are dealing with

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by chuckr

Interesting - when we were in the Caribbean we used a guy by the name of Chris Parker and got a chance to meet him and his one advise to us was you have to make your own forecast and decisions as sometimes I am wrong. We took that to heart and we have sailed a lot in a lot of places and make our own forecasts.
Best example - in 2013 we were sitting Antigua waiting on a weather window to leave for an Atlantic crossing and talking to Chris and looking at 3 different forecast models - we had possible window and spent a bit of time talking to Chris about it and the issue was the front coming across the USA and if it would dip south or go north and east - we looked at our data and talked to Chris and it was a fair chance of going south but if it did not it would have been incredible sailing - my forecast was no we will sit as the chance of the front going south was to high and if it went south it would not have been a good day - 3 boats left and 3 boats were lost - we waited and got a window a week later that I felt was good and we had a great sail across -
we spend a lot of time looking at weather and frontal movements to see what we are going to do and without a couple of books on board we never would have learned that
yes we look at local forecasts if we have the internet and use the gribs from the ssb but we have to make our decisions and what we think the long range weather will do - we look at at least 3 different forecasts if we can
in Russia this past summer we saw a front coming from a far distance - many days out and decided it was going to blow across the Black Sea and if we used all our Russia visa days we would be caught out in the open sea when it blew across so we left with 3 days on our visa and did a 3 day sail to Odessa - the next day the front came through 50k winds - a lot more than the local forecasts called for
So in our opinion you have to make your own forecast as it is your boat and life that you are dealing with

You've got that spot on Chuck.. I find forecasting these days to be more of a coin toss by the experts in many case's.
In certain area's there are to many local factors that create micro-systems which go against anything forecast and a forecast 15-20kts can in reality be a 40+kts as happened to me this year 25miles from Cadiz.
Must confess tho'.. once reliable patterns are all over the place at the moment.. eg my Transat this year when from St Martin to Almerimar in E Spain via the Azores we had consistent Easterlies, bar 48hrs of a Northerly blow that helped on the last 180 odd miles to St Vincent.

Addendum; Glenans Sailing Manual is an entertaining informative book for 'Wannabe's'.. here's a free PDF download..
http://www.bookfeeder.com/pdfbook/th...ing-manual.pdf

[wsmurdoch]

Bookfeeder lead me to TzarMedia which asked for credit card info. The reviews don't look too good. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/tzarmedia.com

[UNCIVILIZED]

Assuming that you have the basics of how to tack & gybe down, then the following should flesh out your boat handling, sail & rig trim, & outfitting knowledge pretty well. Along with one tossed in for fun, & to stimulate your imagination.


Sail & Rig Tuning - by Ivar Dedekam
Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia, vol. II - Steve & Linda Dashew
The Cruising Life - Ross Norgrove
Cruising Rigs & Rigging - Ross Norgrove
One Watch at a Time: Around the World With Drum on the Whitbread Race - Skip Novak

[AliArcher]

Originally Posted by goat

Sailing for dummies. No, really.





goat

I've just finished that and going through it again. Quite a good book!

[KJB]

I have found this book to be very helpful. The budget's are obviously outdated.

Living Aboard. The Cruising Sailboat as a Home.

[PhiSig1071]

I have to admit, after reading this thread and others I went out and got "Heavy Weather Sailing" by Coles/Bruce and I didn't find it helpful. I actually couldn't finish it. I didn't think it contained much useful information on actual tactics to deal with heavy weather. I thought "Fastnet, Force 10" was more useful, because it outlined what "storm tactics" were used by different boats, and what worked and what didn't.

Farley Mowat is certainly entertaining, but you shouldn't believe that a single word of it is nonfiction.