The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge, 2nd Edition: 460 Sea-Tested Rules of Thumb for Almost Every Boating Situation - Softcover

Vigor, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071808280 ISBN 13: 9780071808286

Verlag: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Is this an entertaining book? The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge is either the most useful boating book ever designed to entertain or the most entertaining book ever designed to be useful. In its alphabetical organization that juxtaposes wildly disparate entries, you can read about the derivation of fi gureheads where you turned to for recommended thicknesses of fiberglass hulls. In between the whimsy, however, is the essence of centuries of seafaring experience distilled into a concise reference for sailors and powerboaters. There may be no substitute for a lifetime of experience, but this book is the next best thing. It should be kept at the navigation station and on every boat. Inside you will find information that is otherwise scattered through dozens of volumes. If you can't find what you want quickly from the table of contents, there's an exhaustive subject index. If you need more precise data than a rule of thumb can provide, you may very well find it among the 16 appendix tables, which are also indexed. You'll find rules of thumb for: Changing a boat's name Towing the safest way Burial at sea Preventing wood rot Hull thickness Anchoring rights Jib size Curing mast vibration Time taken for boat tasks Survival rations And a lot more: open it up and get lost in the sage advice and witty wisdom that will make you long for the sea. "The perfect, practical gift to give or receive." -- The Ensign ". . . reads like a lively conversation with a friendly, seasoned pro." -- Lakeland Boating

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Vigor (Bellingham, WA), a journalist for 35 years and former managing editor of Sea Magazine, has sailed more than 15,000 ocean miles. He is the author of The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge (IM, 1994).

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The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge

460 Sea-Tested Rules of Thumb for Almost Every Boating Situation

By John Vigor

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2013 John Vigor
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-180828-6

Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Abandoning Ship
Aground
Air Pressure, on Sails and Rigging
AIS as a Safety Aid
Albatross, Superstition Concerning
Alternators
Anchors and Anchoring
Ballast
Barometers
Batteries
Bearing
Binoculars
Boats
Bulwarks
Buoys
Capsize
Charts
Cleats
Compass
Currents
Decks
Diesels
Dinghies
Dock Lines
Electrical
Engines
Fear
Fiberglass Construction
Fire
Flags
Fog
Fuel
Galleys
Halyards
Horsepower
Hulls
Hurricanes
Keels and Keel Bolts
Knots
Leaks
Lifelines
Lights
Mainsails
Maneuvering
Masts
Miles
Multihulls
Names
Navigation
Oars
Ocean
Outboard Motors
Overhangs
Paint and Painting
Planing
Propellers
Radar
Radio
Rigging
Rope
Rudders
Sail Area
Sail Cloth
Seamanship
Seasickness
Seawater
Singlehanded Boats
Singlehanded Voyagers
Speed
Stability
Tacking
Teak
Tidal Streams
Tides
Varnish
Ventilation
Water
Waves
Wind
Wood
Appendix: Useful Tables and Formulas
Bibliography
Index

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

A

Abandoning Ship The rule of thumb is never to abandon ship until you have tostep up to your liferaft.

Unfortunately, this is much easier said than done. There is often greatpsychological pressure to escape from the responsibilities, physical labor,decision making, stress, and sense of failure that accompany a sinking situationin heavy weather. Many sailors suffering mental and physical exhaustion after aknock-down or a holing find the thought of drifting off in a rubberliferaft—and thereby abdicating all decision making and physicallabor—immensely appealing. But, all too often, the partially waterloggedyacht is found still floating, months or even years later, while the liferaftand its occupants are never seen again.

Aground See: RUNNING AGROUND, FIRST ACTION TO TAKE

Air Pressure, on Sails and Rigging The force applied by wind to a boat's sails,or to its rigging and superstructure while at anchor, varies with the density ofthe air.

Cold air is denser than is warm air, so a sailboat heels more (with the samesail area and wind speed) in higher latitudes than in the tropics, or more inautumn than in summer.

The force of the wind also increases as a square of its speed, which means thatif the wind speed doubles, its force increases four times.

See also: APPENDIX: HORSEPOWER GENERATED BY SAILS, APPROXIMATE; AND APPENDIX:WIND PRESSURE ACCORDING TO WIND SPEED

AIS as a Safety Aid The automatic identification system (AIS) is a moderndigital, VHF-radio-based transponder system that broadcasts an electronic chartof your area marked with all ships of at least 300 tons gross, plus allpassenger ships. The AIS automatically and continually shows these ships'present positions, speed, compass headings, and much more information.

Yachts and other vessels less than 300 tons are not required to carry full-functionClass A AIS transceivers. Less expensive transceivers that consume lesselectricity and transmit at 2 watts, instead of 20, are available for pleasurevessels. In addition there are receive-only units specially designed for smallcraft. These receive-only units will not alert other ships to your presence butwill provide information to you about their speeds and courses, which, likeradar, could add greatly to your safety at night or in limited visibility,especially in crowded waters. For a free trial run showing vessels in real timein your own area, go to http://marinetraffic.com/ais.

See also: CARD, USES OF; PERSONAL SAFETY, SOME GUIDELINES; entries under RADAR;RESCUE AIDS, ELECTRONIC

Albatross, Superstition Concerning It was widely believed by European marinersthat an albatross housed the soul of a dead sailor.

It was therefore very bad luck to kill one, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells usin The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Alternator, Power Absorbed by It's easy to regard the alternator as a source offree power, just spinning away as the engine runs. But, in fact, it takes asurprising amount of power—and therefore fuel, which could affect a boat'srange—to turn over an alternator.

The rule of thumb is that the horsepower drain on the engine is twice the numberof kilowatts produced. If, for example, a 100-amp alternator is charging a 12-voltsystem at full capacity, it's producing 1,200 watts or 1.2 kilowatts. So,it steals 2.4 h.p. from the engine's output.

Alternator, Sizing Rule Your alternator should have a recharging capacity inamps of between 25 and 40 percent of the total amp-hours in your battery bank.

This presupposes you are using a modern, multistep regulator that won't allowovercharging, particularly when the batteries become warm. If you don't have amulti-step regulator, the rule of thumb for long battery life is that you shouldlimit the charging rate in amps to 10 percent of available amp-hours. But,because this takes so long, most boaters don't heed this rule, preferring tocharge at about 20 to 25 percent and to buy new batteries more frequently as aconsequence.

Anchor, Best Type to Use Once you understand the idiosyncrasies of yourparticular anchor, you can...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071808280
• ISBN 13: 9780071808286
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar