Tag: sailing

Dylan Winter films 12m Sharpies on the North Norfolk coast

Keep Turning Left sharpies in Norfolk 2

I’ve just been charmed by another of Dylan Winter’s Keep Turning Left films. This one is a 10-minute piece about 12m Sharpies on the North Norfolk Coast, where the boats are popular with racers because of their ability to sail in a few inches of water.

It’s free to watch in a small window, but those who subscribe for $4.99/quarter have a much better chance of appreciating Dylan’s dreamy photography.

For more on the 12m Sharpie class, see the class website and earlier posts at intheboatshed.net: 12 metre Sharpies at Wells, Norfolk and Temptations part IV: a small classic to build and race .

David Seidman’s Sailing: A Beginner’s Guide is available again

David Seidman Sailing: A Beginner's Guide David Seidman Sailing: A Beginner's Guide
David Seidman Sailing: A Beginner's Guide

Some typical pages from David Seidman’s book. It’s not all about modern boats and racing

I’m pleased to be able to say that our favourite sailing tutor is available again, and now in its second edition in its current version from Adlard Coles.

In a much earlier edition David Seidman’s Sailing: A Beginner’s Guide was the best how-to sailing book on my shelves when I was learning how to sail, and many years later it’s now also become a favourite with both my wife and daughter.

I gather the main addition to the new edition of the book is a section on GPS and some new stuff about roller furling, and I’m happy to report that the rest of its contents seem unchanged.

One of the things that makes Seidman’s book special and will likely make it a recognised classic in years to come is that he doesn’t assume that we all have the latest boats and wish to race them.

Most sailing tutors seem to have been made in conjunction with one of the manufacturers and often feature whichever of their models is exciting them at the time. But that approach leaves out most of us. It may be most of the points relevant to the latest boats apply to old boats too, but this focus on shiny new boats can be off-putting for learning sailors, many of whom are likely to be learning in older boats and are also likely to choose an older boat when they come to buy.  It’s true that many of the points relevant to the new boats will apply to the older boats also, but that’s not necessarily obvious when everything looks so different.

If an analogy is needed, it’s rather like the situation where you buy a basic model car and read the manual only to discover that most of it is taken up with added De Luxe GL gizmos and luxury designer features that don’t apply to your bargain basement jobbie with the barest floor covering: it’s deflating, and in a strange way makes you feel oddly wrong.

And then there’s the issue of racing. Seidman doesn’t ignore it, but he does recognise that there’s much more to sailing that rushing round the buoys and arguing about it all afterwards, having a drink and handing out pots. Actually, there are many kinds of leisure sailors, including potterers, picnickers, RYA-style club racers, thrill-seekers, explorers, adventurers, not forgetting the absolute beginners who don’t yet know which way sailing will take them.

Overall, probably most of us are non-racers or once a year racers, and part of Seidman’s charm is that he doesn’t make you feel that you’re inadequate of wrong if that’s not the way our sailing instincts run.

Seidman covers the broad spectrum of sailing, including Bermudan sloops and Marconi single-handers as well as traditionally rigged boats, and makes his intentions clear through his sweetly drawn illustrations. There’s even a practical section on rowing, and he also sneaks in quite a lot of context and history. Sailing doesn’t seek to rival more specialist books like Tom Cunliffe’s Hand, Reef and Steer: Traditional Sailing Skills for Classic Boats, but he does reflect sailing as many of us encounter it. He also has an infectious enthusiasm and is a good, clear writer.

If you’re looking for a book that explains how to sail, I recommend Sailing: A Beginner’s Guide. It’s available in its second edition from good bookshops including Amazon.

Francis B Cooke’s writing republished in blockbuster manual of traditional yachting

Cruising Hints FB Cooke 450 pixels

Francis B Cooke was one of the great yachting writers of the 20th century and more – a long-lived man, he was first published in 1883 and was still writing in the early 1970s, by which time he was in his early 100s .

He has been one of my favourite authors for many years, and so I’m delighted that Lodestar Books led by Dick Wynne have brought out a compendium of his writing.

I think it’s high time Cooke was rediscovered – a very popular sailing author for many decades, his books are full of practical information and advice peppered with beautifully told stories about his experiences and descriptions of the East Coast areas of Essex, Kent and Suffolk. However they are now rare in the second-hand bookshops.

Cruising Hints: The Traditional Yachtsman’s Compendium is a big book of 686 pages including the index priced at £30 from the Lodestar website – or something around 5p/page. I will make a great Christmas present for many Intheboatshed.net readers. (That’s a hint, but the way!)

What you get is a very complete manual of old-fashioned small boat cruising, that’s still relevant for traditional boat owners and enthusiasts today, intermingled with pieces of writing that demonstrate a deep and abiding enthusiasm. For example, the section ‘The boat’ includes chapters with titles such as ‘Yachting with economy’, ‘Selecting a yacht’ and ‘Size for the single-hander’, but it also includes a chapter headed ‘A perfect love of a boat’ that turns out to have been drawn by Harrison Butler.

This quotation from ‘A perfect love of a boat’ encapsulates several of Cooke’s regular themes of economy and practicality, enthusiasm, adventurous single-handed sailing (in contrast to many of his 19th and early 20th century cruising contemporaries, who required the help of a hired man) and of course his beloved East Coast:

‘She is a perfect love of a boat, and when my ship comes home, I shall be tempted to have her built. That is of course if I still remain in the same frame of mind… The design I am in love with for the moment comes from the board of that enthusiastic yachtsman Dr T Harrison Butler, and was published in the Yachting Monthly of November 1915… an exceedingly pretty and comfortable little cruiser. The boat has a very nice sheer and a bow that reminds me of the excellent small cruisers designed by Mr J Pain Clark. The underwater lines suggest weatherliness, and with a good length of keel she should be very steady on her helm… Length over all, 18 feet 6 inches… Of course, the boat is very small but it is astonishing what a lot of fun one can have even in a ‘tabloid’ cruiser. She strikes me as being just the thing for knocking about on the estuaries and creeks of the East Coast at weekends, whilst a trip up to Lowestoft would be quite within her capabilities in any ordinary summer weather.’

The phrase ‘when my ship comes in’ is mildly amusing – Cooke was a successful merchant banker, so I’d be surprise if he was short of a bob or two.

The new book Cruising Hints includes chapters and sections describing the classic East Coast sailing area, a substantial collection of Cooke’s design commentaries often describing craft that are now considered classics, and an extraordinary number of beautiful lines and layout drawings – it’s a real feast of the draftsman’s art.

There are also sections on sailing cruiser equipment, the ‘Domestic economy’, ‘Maintenance’ and ‘Seamanship’, and ‘Desirable East Coast anchorages’ – just the stuff to read while waiting for the tide, or in peaceful moments at home, if there ever are any…

Have I persuaded you it’s a good buy yet? I hope so! If not, there’s more information at the Lodestar Books website including this pdf including samples from the book.

PS – I’m reminded that the wonderful compendium of George Holmes’ writing and drawing that Lodestar published in 2009 been reprinted. See a review here.