Excellent reference for recreational sailors and boaters
Knowledge gets a boat safely along its passage from departure to destination. After a lifetime in recreational power and sail boating, Ive come to respect the importance of two phrases I learned as a young man. A Coast Guard bosun on our Great Lakes icebreaker used to say, "you cant never know enough about the sea". A crewman on a Pacific fishing trawler told me one day during a galley break that his Newfoundland grandfather used to say, "you dont takes what you wants from the sea, you sneaks up on it and wiggles it away".
As the dedicated author says, this is only a brief introduction to the world of maritime knowledge, and a brief reminder for those who have taken proper courses, but it is a handy and very complete reference that found a place on my iPad very quickly. It is well-written in plain language, adheres to sound principles, and amazingly complete. Hundreds of pages cover dozens of topics. The navigation section is very thoughtfully written. I plan to right the author with only a few suggestions. There are dozens of handy calculators. Although very US-centric with a slight nod to Canada, the basic principles in this book apply to boating and sailing worldwide. There is a lot of information on marine maintenance, so its all here including the galley sink. Some of the information on computer navigation is already a little dated, but the principles in that section are still valid. The books wealth of knowledge is easy to navigate using clever lists and use of the devices memory.
I have never rated an app 5 stars, but was tempted to do so here. I held off because ideally a staff could be dedicated, if resources allowed, to keeping technical details completely current, and because of the North American focus.
ChugginAlong about
Boater's Pocket Reference, v3.2