A comprehensively illustrated practical handbook covering essential seamanship skills – everything a skipper will need to know when the tech goes down, or when they encounter a challenge at sea.
The basic knowledge to sort yourself out when encountering problems at sea is largely forgotten. How to find your way when the GPS plotter has a blackout, how to save the life of someone in your crew when the ambulance or SAR helicopter is hours away… Too many rely on technology to navigate and run their boats, and this beautifully illustrated handbook will be a literal backup when the tech fails, as well as a bible of core knowledge – seamanship – that all skippers should know anyway, whether they're in the middle of an emergency or not.
Covering all the basics, with handy fact boxes to highlight especially important information, the authors have lent a modern, real-world approach to the subject matter, and the wonderful illustrations bring it to life. Contents include:
- Introduction
- Navigation: chart symbols, radar fact box, using the sounder, finding your position on the chart
- Seamanship: your crew, passage planning, anchoring, manoeuvering, mooring, towing, catching a buoy, heaving to
- Safety and emergencies: identifying likely emergencies (grounding, loss of rigging/mast, leaks, loss of steering, man overboard, sinking and taking to the liferaft) with self-help solutions, calling for help, equipment, VHF procedures, fire and gas, fixing an engine, knowing when help should be sought without delay
- First aid: CPR, breathing problems, drowning, shock, trauma, treating wounds, burns, hypothermia, seasickness
- Weather: sea breeze, low pressure, wind, fog, squalls, forecasting
- Environment: bird/seal protection areas, microplastics, holding tanks, old boats, bottom paint
- Appendix: rules of road,traffic separation zones, day and night signals, light characteristics, life saving signals, flags/morse
Published in Sweden by the Swedish Cruising Association, this fantastic book has sold over 30,000 copies. Read this now to give yourself the knowledge to get out of trouble and (even better) avoid getting into it in the first place.
Mike Westin is a marine journalist and in his spare time a DIY boat repairer. He has owned and worked on a variety of boats, both power and sail, so is fully in tune with what boat builders and repairers need to know when taking on projects of this nature.
Olle Landsell is an experienced sailor and illustrator. He cruised the Baltic and North Sea areas for several years, mostly single-handed, and has made a solo voyage to the Caribbean. He now sails, paints and illustrates, drawing inspiration from the beautiful Swedish archipelagos.
Nina Olofsson is a retired senior physician, specialising in general and vascular surgery, anaesthesia, intensive care, and pain management, with over 35 years of experience in emergency care. She is associate professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and has served as a lifeboat skipper since 2010. She has sailed with Pär Olofsson for more than 40 years and they undertook a six-year voyage to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the canals of Europe.
Pär Olofsson is a retired senior physician, specialising in general and vascular surgery, anaesthesia, intensive care, and pain management, with over 35 years of experience in emergency care. He is associate professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and has served as a lifeboat skipper since 2010. He has sailed with Nina Olofsson for more than 40 years and they undertook a six-year voyage to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and the canals of Europe.
