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

"Secrets' is the modern Bowditch, written so clearly that navigation and seamanship will be comprehensible to anyone . . ."
--Dave and Jaja Martin, circumnavigators and authors of Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey

"It's a great book. The prose is simple and clear . . ."
--John Vigor, author of The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat

"The nautical tips and techniques presented are encyclopedic, yet the clear explanations demystify the topics . . ."
--Don Launer, contributing editor for Good Old Boat magazine

"It is a fine piece of work and should be read by anyone contemplating coastal cruising or blue water voyages. It definitely deserves a place in the offshore yacht's library . . ."
--Ted Brewer, yacht designer, author, and offshore racing and cruising sailor

Be a Better Skipper

In the night, wind, rain, fog, big seas, strong currents, or congested waters, when there's no time for textbook seamanship solutions, what you need are shortcuts and techniques that work quickly and reliably every time.

Distilled from the vast accumulated lore of seamanship and navigation, here are the absolute essentials--185 techniques that work without fail in the pilothouse or the exposed cockpit or flying bridge of a shorthanded sail- or powerboat. John Jamieson shows you how to:

• Set up a clipboard chart table for cockpit use
• Avoid hazards with danger bearings or a GPS grid highway
• Estimate current speeds with the 50-90-100 rule
• Track other boats in poor visibility using radar plots and bearing drift
• Sail home without a rudder or get your twin-screw boat home on one working engine
• Dock or anchor under any conditions
• And much, much more

Even in this age of electronic navigation you need to know how to eyeball your boat through any situation. Each of the techniques in this cut-to-the-chase book has shown itself to be absolutely repeatable. It will work this time, the next time, and the time a er that, in conditions fair or foul.

John Jamieson served 23 years in the U.S. Coast Guard as a navigator, instructor, search-and-rescue coxswain, and ship's conning officer. He has taught seamanship and navigation for the coast gaurd and navy and helped coordinate search-and-rescue missions from the California-Oregon border to the Yucatan Peninsula, out to 1,000 miles offshore. A nationally certified sailing instructor, he has sailed singlehanded for 13 years and has delivered sailing vessels along the U.S. East Coast. He holds master and mate licenses for power and sail and directed the seamanship and chart navigation department of the internationally renowned Charles F. Chapman School of Seamanship in Stuart, Florida. Visit his website at www.skippertips.com.