Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook: A Compendium for Coastal and Offshore Sailors
by Nigel Calder

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Book Reviews of Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook: A Compendium for Coastal and Offshore Sailors

Book Review: The definitive Cruising Book?
Summary: 5 Stars

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 ½ 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.

Summary of Nigel Calder's Cruising Handbook: A Compendium for Coastal and Offshore Sailors

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.

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