Book Review

Words of wisdom from 50 years afloat By Skip Novak Adlard Coles, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 304 pages paperback $24 Revered by sailors around the world for his numerous adventures – especially those in extreme latitudes – Skip Novak wrote an excellent column in Yachting World magazine for many years in which his shared his vast expertise on many sailing subjects. Skip has curated, edited and updated many of those original dispatches and supplemented them…

A Voyage Around the Mind, Around the World, Around the Heart By Niamh McAnally Black Rose Writing/Texas  302 pages paperback  $22.95 Finding herself unemployed, homeless and divorced in her fifties, Liamh McAnally (pronounced Nee-if Mack-an-alley) changed the course of her life by embarking on a global quest to find purpose by volunteering to work on marine conservation projects on remote islands in Belize, Vanuatu and Tonga. Exploring exotic destinations like Bora Bora, Palau, Fiji and St. Barths,…

By Andy Vavolotis and Jim Nelson Review by Dave Hemenway I have owned a 1966 Cape Dory 10 dinghy since the 1980s and have followed Cape Dory boats for many years. I also own a Greenwich 24, the precursor to the Cape Dory 25, one of Cape Dory’s most successful models. Cape Dory boats have always made sense to me and I have enjoyed sailing on several of their models. I joined the Cape Dory Sailboat Owner’s…

Exploring the Freedom of Maritime Living By Katharina Charpian Published by gestalten 256 pages hardcover $75   Boatlife, written by travel journalist Katharina Charpian and beautifully produced by the international publishing house gestalten, is possibly the most visually stunning book we’ve ever reviewed on these pages. The burgeoning “boat life” movement, described by the author as “just like van life but at sea,” is finding new adherents thanks to the growing popularity of alternative living and flexible…

Building and Sailing a 17th-Century Replica By Richard A. Stone Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot 267 pages $32.95 The restoration of Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America in 1620 and launched a nation, by the shipwrights at Mystic Seaport Museum’s Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard in Mystic, CT, has been documented on these pages, as was her historic relaunching in 2019. But there’s much more to the story….

The Complete Guide for Dinghy and Yacht Racers By Mason Stang and Udi Gal Adlard Coles, an imprint of Bloomsbury 304 pages Flexiback $35 Review by Joe Cooper The literature of sailing is well supplied with books intended to further the goals of the aspiring racing sailor, or even in some cases, the expert. Mainly they are by the usual suspects: Melges, Jobson, The Daves (Perry and Dellenbaugh), Elvstrom, and even Manfred Curry. The Sail Racing Bible…

By Raffaella Marozzini A passionate sailor from a young age, Raffaella Marozzini is the founder of a boat vacation business. She soon met her husband, Giovanni Viviani, with whom she would fulfill her dream of a life under sail. After deciding to leave everything behind, Rafaella and Giovanni set out in 2015 on their Etap 39s Obiwan for an ongoing voyage around the world. In April 2021, Raffaella’s book about the first part of their journey, from…

By Shane Granger Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot In December 2004, Shane Granger and his partner Meggi Macoun had just completed a passage from South Africa to Malaysia. Not long after making landfall and docking their historic vessel Vega, the Boxing Day tsunami changed their lives forever. In a matter of hours, unstoppable waves – many over ten meters high – demolished cities in Malaysia and as far away as Sri Lanka, Thailand, and East…

Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World By Eric Jay Dolin Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company With a publication date of May 7, Eric Jay Dolin’s latest book is an entertaining true story of survival and betrayal during the War of 1812. A chance encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig and a British warship foments a series of misunderstandings and mistrust leading to the abandonment…

By Rod Scher Published by Sheridan House, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press 312 pages hardback $29.95 Think “retired geography professor” and you might picture someone quiet pursuits in a comfortable, book-lined study, mentoring former students or perhaps presenting an occasional lecture. Marvin Creamer, however, was not the retiring type. At sixty-six years of age, Creamer was determined to do something that had not been done for a thousand years – if indeed anyone had ever done…