The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice and Enjoyment of Boating

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 382 pages
• Published by: Sheridan House April 1987
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0911378677
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0911378672
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.3 pounds

Product Description
Famed yacht designer and author L. Francis Herreshoff takes us on family style cruises in American waters, during which all sorts of boats and boating skills are explained while they are used. He tells about the adventures of the crews of the catboat Piscator, the ketch Viator, and the engineless whaleboat-style ketch Rozinante. There are anecdotes and examples and a wide variety of boat lore in each chapter, as well as adventures, races and coastwide cruises and historical harbors to visit.

Back Cover Copy
"Inspired by Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, this book is accurately subtitled The Art, Practice and Enjoyment of Boating. L.F. Herreshoff presents his own highly individual prescription for happy voyaging under sail and power, as exemplified in an imaginative narrative he tells about the adventures of the crews of the catboat Piscator, the ketch Viator, and the engineless whaleboat-style ketch Rozinante. If there is one Herreshoff keynote, it is that simplicity afloat is the surest guarantee of happiness." --Dolphin Book Club

"This charming classic is the only book around on enjoying the minutiae of cruising of the sort that most people do--gadding about one's local bays and islands, ideally with a couple of boats separating for adventures and rejoining at anchorages, indulging in anything-goes races, just messing around. It can be a high art, proves this aristocratic tale." --Next Whole Earth Catalog

"a delightful 370 page monologue about shoal versus deep draft, accommodation plans, the proper fish chowder, rowing techniques and the blessings of a head equipped with a cedar bucket, among other subjects." --John Rousmaniere, Yachting

Reader Reviews
This book is written as a story, but the plot elements really only exist in order to string together pieces of information in a fashion which is entertaining to read. Topics covered include how to make a proper chowder, how to launch a boat off the beach, binoculars vs. telescopes, a good bit of boating history, anchoring, and many, many others. Herreschoff is quite opinionated, and this book is definitely an antique, but it is good reading and much of what he writes still applies today.