Seamanship Secrets: 185 Tips & Techniques for Better Navigation, Cruise Planning, and Boat Handling Under Power or Sail Paperback – May 14, 2009

Excellent Book! Tons of knowledge well organized and simple to find or retrieve. I have been boating since I was a boy with my Dad who learned from his Dad. I've always owned boats, made my living on boats and ships and have lived aboard most of my adult life. I've learned a thing or two over these years most importantly, Never Stop Learning! Even if youre re-learnkng stuff you forgot. I have learned better, easier way to do things I'd been doing the hard way for ever! It's better to know what I don't know but know where to find the answers! This book, like Chapmans is a new "go to" book along with "The Craft of Sail" by Ian Adkins. Greatest primer on sailing. If you want to teach someone to sail without confusing them, this is The Book.

This is a great book for a beginning sailor or motor boater, providing an easily read and accessed reference of basic boating skills and some less than basic "secrets" to effective seamanship. Sure, the other more established and well known references such as Chapman's "Piloting and Seamanship" and Rousmaniere's "The Annapolis Book of Seamanship" are more comprehensive and complete, but they're HUGE volumes that are not easy to keep aboard for quick reference. This author clearly knows his stuff (having been a captain and in USCG for many years) and provides a number of hints and instruction that will help a beginner gain needed boating skills quickly while still providing some new information for more seasoned sailors.

As a maritime professional, I found this work to be thoroughly researched and well put together by an author who has a resume to back it all up. His presentation to the reader is very straightforward and is very easy to understand. The techniques contained in this book are solid and very easy to apply.....in fact, I'd be willing to bet that it contains more than the 185 tips indicated by the title! I believe this book is very well suited for someone who has some experience on the water and is looking to fine tune his/her skills. It will also enable the more seasoned veteran to brush up on a few areas. Because it contains quite a bit of jargon that may be quite foreign to a novice mariner, I would not necessarily recommend the book for someone who has never before stepped foot onto a boat. I cannot agree more with the author's assessment of the Florida Straits: Given the tremendous volume of fast-moving deep draft cargo vessels, cruise ships, tugs & tows, commercial fishing vessels, and an absolute deluge of recreational vessels, the "Straits" presents a very unique challenge for mariners of all experience levels. I only had a few issues with the entire work. First, on page 148, the author demonstrates a poor interpretation of the nautical rules of the road when he discusses an overtaking situation between a sailboat and a large supertanker. Basically, the author's guidance is for the sailing vessel being overtaken to quickly maneuver to allow the supertanker to pass. According to the rules, the sailboat is under no obligation to keep clear or alter course (unless operating in a narrow channel or traffic separation scheme, which it is not). In fact, the rules state that the vessel being overtaken shall maintain course and speed. It is the responsibility of the overtaking vessel to keep clear. I believe the point the author was trying to make is that any action one takes to avoid collision needs to be early and substantial....waiting until the last minute is not going to cut it, especially when dealing with another vessel traveling at a high rate of speed. Despite his intentions, the author should have more clearly dissected the situation and discussed each vessel's responsibility to avoid collision. Second, I wish the author had discussed more alongside boat handling techniques and more about forces acting upon boats. I understand this book was not written solely for the purpose of discussing boat handling; however, because boat docking presents one of the toughest challenges for recreational boaters (and seasoned professionals for that matter), I feel the topic warranted a little more discussion than it did in the book. For readers interested in more boat handling techniques, I recommend "Boat Docking" by Charles T. Low. Despite these two small bits of feedback, I believe the work done by the author is truly outstanding. I highly recommend this work for all intermediate to advanced mariners. I will be purchasing another copy of this book for my wife's grandfather who is an avid boater.

This is one of the first books on sail navigation and sailing that I couldn't put down, I have been to asa 106, and this book cleared up any confusion I had after the class. A very informative cut to the chase no bs book. I contacted the author and thanked him for writing the book, John got right back to me and even though I never met him, I feel like we are friends, he gave me advice on captian school and his skipper tips are very much looked forward too every month, get this book

Wow, this covers way more than my captain's license class. Let me clarify: The author offers ways to apply common sense practice to the rules and marine situations. It may be a bit daunting for the novice, but there is so much great information that this book should be well worn from frequent referencing by all levels of mariner........ highly recommended!Capt. Jeff MS/Cat 'Cheshire'

Wide-ranging exposition of all major aspects of serious marine voyaging. I am an experienced transocean sailor and found several nuggets I did not know. Excellent overall, altho’ sometimes I found the author’s tone like a salesman . . . .

Great book for amateur or experienced boaters! Full of great ideas. Should be part of any boating library.

There are some really good nuggets in this book that might make it worth a quick pass through. Sometimes just finding out the word for something is good enough so you can do your own googling on the topic.Overall though, the book is almost dangerously light on detail. In a couple instances the author shows a lack of understanding that makes you question where his head is at (e.g. he claims prop walk is due to the water closer to the surface being less dense due to having more dissolved air. This is a pretty silly explanation for a phenomenon also observed in propellor aircraft).

Great reading and full of good strategies not found in a normal instruction book.

Great tips and advice

In the book no secrets about seamanship are revealed - only basic tips/hints are given, which one usually learns during preparing for the license... I was quite disappointed with the content...

easy to understand. Very useful

Ce livre est truffé d'une quantité incroyable d'informations. L'auteur maîtrise parfaitement le sujet et sait comment en faire profiter ses lecteurs. Un livre à lire impérativement.