A terrific book for sailors or those fascinated with the idea of sailing, or of cruising, and long voyages as well. Published in 1985 just before the overwhelming internet gobbled up everything, praising whom it deemed the best while reducing others to obscurity, Pinchot’s account of sailing is well written and accessible by sailor and […]
Gipsy Moth Circles the World by Francis Chichester
When 65-year-old Francis Chichester set sail on his solitary,eastward journey around the world in 1966, many believed he wouldn’t return alive. But when the old man returned in his 53-foot ketch Gypsy Moth IV nine months later, he had made history’s fastest circumnavigation. Gipsy Moth Circles the World was an international best-seller when it appeared […]
A Full Cup – Sir Thomas Lipton’s Extraordinary Life and his Quest for the America’s Cup
“A Full Cup” is a delightful biography of Sir Thomas Lipton, businessman, sportsman and character. Born in Scotland of Irish parents, Lipton spent much of his life crossing between Britain and America where, with his bow tie and yachting cap, he became as much of a fixture as he did at home. Known as the […]
Down Channel
McMullan’s descriptions of his cruises, the conditions, problems and pleasures he encountered, his observations on the trials and tribulations of cruising, and of his feelings and emotions are authentic and easily identified with by anyone who has cruised in a small yacht. The cruises described were made in seven yachts; Leo – 18ft and 2 […]
Two Years Before the Mast
Sailing to California from Boston around Cape Horn, ‘Two Years Before the Mast’ is both an adventure and an eloquent account of life at sea in the early nineteenth century. Richard Henry Dana is only nineteen when he escapes the patrician world of Boston and Harvard for the arduous voyage. The result is an astonishing […]
