World Voyage Planner
By Jimmy Cornell

Jimmy Cornell has sailed more than 200,000 miles on all the oceans of the world, has circumnavigated three times, and began rallies to safely get lots of other sailors across the Atlantic or around the world. And he’s still helping sailors, this time with the release of the soft-cover version of his World Voyage Planner, which outlines the best route and time to leave to get to your particular paradise. The book sections the different routes by oceans, with chapters on the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and Indian oceans, with the final chapter covering around-the-world voyages. There are three options for going from Canada or the U.S. to Europe; a northern latitude route in June or July to northern Europe and then a trip south to the Mediterranean in the fall; Bermuda and on to Gibraltar, especially for those sailors starting south of the Chesapeake; And finally sailing south to the Caribbean for the winter and heading to Europe in the spring. The book begins with planning the trip, including which boat is best (it depends, but a comfortable cockpit and a hard dodger are good), crew (healthy, add one or two on a long passage), finances (from $10,000 to $60,000 a year, but upgrade the boat before leaving, carry spares and stay out of marinas and marine stores) and weather. This book is an ideal planner for a trip anywhere in the world.

The Practical Mariner’s Book of Knowledge, 2nd Ed.
By John Vigor

This book by marine journalist John Vigor, a dinghy racing champion in South Africa who know lives in Bellingham, Washington, offers an eclectic mix of the useful and the whimsical on boating – everything from sizing an anchor to figuring out paint coverage or a colour-scheme for running rigging. With no graphics or photos or even colour on the page, the book manages to be interesting enough to prompt you to pick it up at different times to while away hours testing yourself on boat knowledge. It’s organized alphabetically, and offers more than 400, soup-to-nuts nautical theories, definitions and terms. Vigor sailed his 31 ft. sailboat more than 7,000 miles from Durban, South Africa to the Caribbean and up the Florida coastline to “escape” South Africa’s problems. He’s written for newspapers and sailing magazines and gained lots of boater knowledge, which he is now sharing with others. By the way, in answer to the above-raised questions, to paint the topsides you need to calculate the length on deck (in feet), plus beam, multiplied by 2 and multiplied by the average freeboard; A 35 ft. sailboat should have a 12 lb. Danforth anchor and/or a 25 lb. CQR; And a jib or genoa line should be blue, red for a spinnaker sheet, green for topping lifts and orange for lines for vangs and travelers. Dive in to the mix and enjoy.

Paul Elvstrom Explains The Racing Rules of Sailing
Edited by Soren Krause

Author and winning Olympic sailor Paul Elvstrom says the racing rules for sailors are “among the most complicated of any sport” but it’s easy to stay out of trouble and “preserve friendships” and promote racing by sailing against others the same way that you would like them to sail against you. “It is great to win…but only if the other competitors join in the pleasure,” Elvstrom says in the introduction. His book goes on to explain the latest changes made to the rules of racing completed by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), which mixes things up after each Olympics. Some new rules, to be in effect until 2016 ensures skippers give “wiggle room” to others to change course on a run whether they are on the same or an opposite tack, improves the definition of “mark room” and allows more latitude to help crew in danger by, say, falling overboard. The smaller-format book comes with a plastic sleeve, to protect if from water in the cockpit and small, along with plastic boat models to show the racecourse transgression to others, or explain the new rules. There are helpful, colour graphics with interpretations on the new rules and changes, and the back cover shows racing signals and flag combinations for skippers and crew.

The Rules in Practice 2013-2016
By Bryan Willis

This 8th edition is a larger-format book with colourful graphics to help the reader through situations in which the new racing rules would apply. It’s more graphical than Paul Elvstrom’s book (see above review), and a little easier for the novice to understand. The author, Bryan Willis, has been chairman of the jury and chief umpire for events like the Olympics and America’s Cup, and has been a member of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) racing rules committee for 25 years. So, there’s little doubt that he knows his stuff. He says there’s satisfaction in going into a mark rounding in second place and coming out in first — more than sailing faster on a run. That comes with knowing the rules. With the help of layout artists, the author offers sailors a great resource to keep them out of trouble, or to argue their case when trouble finds them. A graphic on a given racing situation is offered, with boats close together on the course, followed by explanations on the various rights and obligations of skippers in the various boats, along with the rule numbers needed to argue your case before the umpire. Different scenarios are offered, such as during a gate start, rounding the windward mark, the finish, and on a reach. The back section spells out the ISAF racing rules.