Total Loss: A Collection of 45 First-hand Accounts of Yacht Losses at Sea with a Summary of the Lessons to Be Learned

Total Loss is an anthology of selected accounts by some 40 people who have survived the loss of a yacht at sea. The stories are grouped under the principle causes of loss and each is followed by an analysis of the lessons to be learned.

Paul Gelder is Deputy Editor of Yachting Monthly magazine and has sailed thousands of miles in a variety of boats. His sailing assignments have taken him from above the Arctic Circle, to Tahiti and Bora Bora in the South Pacific, Mexico's Sea of Cortez, and much of the Caribbean and Mediterranean. He has written two books on round the world yacht races (The Loneliest Race and InterSpray's Race Around the World) as well as sailing 5,000 miles as crew on one race leg to Brazil. As editor of Yachting Monthly's Confessions and Sailing Skills sections, he is no stranger to misfortune afloat. His own boat, appropriately called Phoenix, is a 30ft trimaran which was rebuilt after being declared a 'total loss' by the insurers when she was blown ashore in a gale in Chichester Harbour.