The Practical Encyclopedia of Boating: An A‐Z Compendium of Navigation, Seamanship, Boat Maintenance and Nautical Wisdom

The title and sub‐title of this encyclopedia give a fair summary of its contents. The author, a maritime journalist with considerable experience of sailing in several parts of the world, aims to produce “a comprehensive guide that will solve many everyday boating problems both in power and sail”, and (as far as this landsman can tell) he has succeeded in doing so. The topics covered in about 500 articles range through the naval architecture of yachts (the interactions of their centre of gravity, centre of buoyancy and centre of wind effort); seamanship (how to place a rope); electrical and mechanical...