Important study describes every improvement made in seafaring equipment up to the mid-19th century — from anchors, bobstays, booms, and cat-head stoppers, to a flying jib, halliards, nippers, and topsail buntlines. 218 illustrations.

This heavily illustrated reference is a treasure house of facts and figures with pages of tabular data providing specific dimensions on masts, rigging, and spars.

Whether out for an afternoon's sail or embarking on a long offshore passage, there is always an element of chance and uncertainty about being at sea. To be responsible for the wellbeing of both crew and vessel, a good skipper needs to know their limitations and ensure they are operating well within the margins of safety. Safe Skipper is a practical and thought provoking guide for yacht skippers of all levels of experience, full of invaluable advice and tips on how to reduce to the minimum the risks of mishaps and equipment failure at sea. There's a wide range of information on seamanship, preparation, seaworthiness, gear, boat handling, leadership, teamwork, watch keeping, communications, navigation, weather and emergency procedures, all delivered in a highly practical, lively, non-preachy fashion. Included throughout are useful checklists, box-outs and case studies of accidents and their causes, with survivors' testimonials and explanations of how disasters were avoided, or could have been, all of which provides valuable lessons for everyone who goes to sea.

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to building, rigging, and cruising model sailing yachts. Written in clear, simple language and full of helpful illustrations and detailed diagrams, this book is ideal for the novice model builder, and will be of considerable utility to those with a practical interest in building model boats. The chapters of this book include: “The Rating of Model Yachts”, “Building a 36 In. Model Yacht by the Carved hull Method”, “Building a Model Rater”, “The Construction of “built-up” or Planked Yachts”, “Spars and Fittings”, “Steering Gears”, “Racing Schooners”, etcetera. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned introduction on model building.

A handbook on sailing classic boats by the 'guru of gaff-rig sailors', replete with illustrations and clear descriptions of techniques that are unique to the classic boat world.

“[A] very useful little reference book . . . for members who strive to achieve an accurate set of rigging lines on their models.”—Bottleships Employing superb, clear draftsmanship, this book illustrates each and every detail of the rigging of typical period fore-and-aft vessels. The rigging of period ship models is arguably the most complex task that any modeler has to accomplish; the intricacies can be daunting, and visual references limited. The author’s first book, Rigging Period Ship Models, was a triumph of clarity for those needing to decipher the complexities of square rig and has now sold in multiple editions. This book does the same for fore-and-aft craft and deploys three typical eighteenth-century types—an English cutter, a three-masted French lugger and an American schooner. Some 200 diagrams show clearly where each separate item of standing and running rigging is fitted, led and belayed. Whatever the requirements of the modelmaker, all the information is here. This edition brings a visual clarity to the complexities of period rigging and will delight anyone with an interest in the rigging of traditional fore-and-aft craft. “This book is naturally highly commended to its target audience, but anyone with an interest in sailing ships will find it an interesting source of information that can be very hard to find.”—Firetrench “Not just for modelers but also a boon to traditional seafarers and readers of historical fiction.”—Julian Stockwin, author of To the Eastern Seas

Surveys trends in yacht design, discusses safety, modern construction techniques, spars, rigging, sails, and auxiliary equipment, and describes five good boats.