Public access

Publisher: Seafarer books, £9:95
Publication Date: 2007

The title could well have a comma after the"Ice" but "Ice bears" also refers to polar bears - it is subtitled "Rowing on top of the world",and there is a fair share of ice and even visits from a polar bear.

Kotick is the name of the 17 foot open boat that Peter and his friend Shaggy - both Royal Marines - rowed and sailed to make the first open-boat circumnavigation of Spitsbergen, an Arctic island the same size as Northern Scotland. The boat was an Oselvar,built at Os near Bergen. These boats date from Viking times and are light and swift built with 3 broad planks and a solid thwart with a hole for stepping the mast.

Kotick was a "faering" which means 4-oared with a square mainsail and balloon jib. The mast was unstepped and stowed inboard when they were both rowing unless they were "motor-sailing", a term they used when one rowed and the other tended the sails.

All this happened 16 years ago and Peter who has had a varied and adventurous life since then, has only just written the story. It makes fascinating reading, how they stowed all their gear, mast and sails and how a powerful rifle was most important to scare off bears and, as last resort, to shoot if attacked.. They erected trip wires to set off flares when asleep on the shore or ice but sometimes they slept alternatively in the bottom of the boat while just one rowed.

There was no darkness in the Arctic summer so the days routine was arbitrary. It was predicted that the circumnavigation -1,100 Kms and 30 days - would fail owing to ice but they cleverly overcame all these hazards. Two-thirds was spent rowing and one-third under sail. Most intriguing were the descriptions of stowage, navigation, sailing, avoidance of ice and bears, and description of the environment but also of the interaction between Peter and Shaggy. My only very minor niggle is that there are rather a lot of rhetorical questions.

There are 12 pages of beautiful colour photos and the text is interspersed with line drawings, all of which make it a very reasonable buy for a small paperback of 240 pages. I think this adventure will appeal to a wide readership and I can thoroughly recommend it. - Norman Tricks

Publisher: Wiley Nautical, £14.99
Publication Date: 2008

Subtitled 'The Handbook of Traditional & Emergency Navigation' this paperback volume assumes the modern yachtsman to be helpless in the event of failure of his GPS and reduced to constructing makeshift navigational devices from sticks and string in order to find his way home. Whilst the demise of traditional navigation is recognised this somewhat overstates the case. A competent skipper in a well found yacht should be able to continue navigating in these circumstances without needing to make a sun dial or employ a bent coathanger to find his latitude.

Having said that, the book does provide a wealth of interesting boy scoutish navigational tricks based on little more than homemade devices and a sharp eye, and, perhaps should be enjoyed on this basis. Great use is made of the sky (did you know that a line through the horns of the crescent moon, projected to the horizon, gives you due south?). Basic astronomical navigation as well as techniques of plane sailing that the older among us learned in our day, traverse tables, doubling the angle on the bow, and so on are resurrected. Much of it, though not all, is directed towards the longer distance sailor far from land.

The book is a quality production, liberally illustrated in full colour. You probably won't need it if the GPS goes on the blink halfway back from Cherbourg, but if you were to find yourself in a lifeboat in mid ocean, without recourse to the GMDSS, you might well be pleased to have it with you. - BMF

Publisher: Fitzroy Press, £8.99
Publication Date: 2008

To reflect on 50 years of small boat handling is probably best left for roaring winter evenings: slippers towards the fire, whisky at elbow. For many, relating a lifetime in a three-tale memoir might tax resolution almost as much as the original experiences; what not to include becoming the first test.
Here, however, the author has produced an easy-to-read three-part argument for simplicity and self-sufficiency in small sailing vessels. His philosophy, to avoid both unhandy ships and crewmates, was born of being shipwrecked on the barque Endeavour II off New Zealand in 1971. He begins with that account and its extraordinary recall of detail and compulsive way with words easily held me for a single sitting.

Then the writer develops his theme by describing his entry in the 1974 Trans Tasman Yacht Race during which he survives a tumbling capsize – again vividly described – by dint of his stout craft and personal fortitude.

In the final story, complete with philosophical musings and saucy doggerel, he works his junk-rigged, engine-less Corribee from Burnham to Plymouth to enter the 2006 Trans-Atlantic Jester Challenge. Heading weather, calms, poor visibility beset him the whole way until, 14 days out of Plymouth, he turns for home only to endure further frustrations as he sails his little ship back to the Crouch.

The volume is nicely presented in soft back with an arresting cover illustration of a square-rigger forging powerfully into the camera. I take the point about using monochrome illustration to 'minimise cost and ecological impact', but the production would have been greatly enhanced by colour. – Edward Cartner

Publisher: Mystic Seaport and Cruising Club of America
Publication Date: 2006

Revered today as one of ocean racing’s sternest trials, the Bermuda Race began modestly in 1906 when three cruising yachts left New York simultaneously to race to Bermuda. Their route, and that of subsequent races, took them through waters notorious for their climatic and oceanographic complexity, and requiring a close understanding of ocean currents and weather patterns.

John Rousmaniere’s centenary history traces the impact of this, the earliest of all ocean races, on the design of large yachts. Various strategies are examined for crossing the Gulf Stream, straddled by the route of the Race. Eminent skippers, including Rod and Olin Stephens, generously shared their experiences of the Race in ‘Yachting’ magazine, one of the principal sources for this text.

The year 1926 saw the first British entry, when George Martin sailed Jolie Brise across the Atlantic in 48 days to join the Race in gratitude to America for creating ocean racing and inspiring the Fastnet Race. Six years later the crew of Jolie Brise entered again and saved crew from another competitor on fire, earning world-wide attention for the Race and medals for her crew.

John Rousmaniere has sailed seven Bermuda races and writes feelingly about the privations endured by participants, and the keen sense of fellowship. Interspersed into his text are profiles of eminent skippers and Race officials, with tips on ‘How to win a Bermuda Race’. The Rosenfeld photographic collection at Mystic Seaport provides many of the excellent illustrations. Sources of information are listed, and there is a comprehensive index. -
JCR.

Publisher: David Bateman, £30
Publication Date: 2007

Another book on the America's Cup! It's amazing there's anything left to say about competing for this most prestigious of yachting trophies. In 2007 veteran yachting correspondent Bob Fisher published, in two massive volumes, what must be the definitive account; yet here we have another new contribution to the genre.

But wait a minute. The title conjures up distant memories of an excellent launch party for a book with a very similar title thrown by none other than - Ranulf Rayner and Tim Thompson. Is it an updated version of the one published over 20 years ago? No sign of it being called revised or updated edition in the book's prelims, but some of the early text has a dated ring about it, confirmed by the remark that designers are still trying to achieve a breakthrough in 12-metre design. I don't think so! Time
to check on amazon.com. This lists under Thompson's and Rayner's names not
only The Paintings of the America's Cup, 1851-1987 but three others which
have the same title as the present edition, covering the periods 1851-1992, 1851-2000, and 1851-2003. Quite an industry! Rather naughty of the publishers not to have come clean about the book's past.

Does it really matter? Not a scrap, for Tim Thompson¹s ravishing paintings of each challenge, beautifully presented in landscape format, are worth every penny of the purchase price. Maps of the courses, vignettes of the more interesting challengers, and black-and-white line drawings of the sail plan of every competing yacht add to the interest, and there are also enlarged details of each of the paintings that reveal the artist's incredible attention to detail. Buy and enjoy. That is, if you don¹t already have an earlier edition. – ID