Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical, 5th ed.; £7.99
Publication Date: 2007
The 5th edition of the ever-popular Reeds Skipper’s Handbook completes nearly fifteen years of service for this aide-memoire of common boating questions and answers. This concise small pocket-sized volume is packed full of the basics of seamanship and author Malcolm Pearson, a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor, continues to draw heavily on the wealth of RYA course material and publications. The diagrams and sketches are very clear and understandable given the small size of the publication and the colour-coded page margins and comprehensive indexing makes finding the desired topic very easy.
Updated for this edition to include more on electronic navigation, it achieves a fair standard of modern boating techniques and technology and only falls short of the state of the art when relying on the traditional sources of weather information and overlooking the, by now, widespread used of GRIB forecasts.
Recommended as being useful for power or sail, motor boaters could benefit a little more from the expansion of techniques for mooring and handling to include, for example, bow-thruster tactics and sliding fender knots.
In all fairness, such minor criticisms can always be made of any “complete” work on the subject of seamanship and this compact treasury of boating wisdom justifies its space aboard any vessel making coastal passages or those conducting forays inland on Europe’s waterways. - DB