Offers advice and recommendations on equipment, including books, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, and accessories, and provides tips on first-aid, food, and supplies

The Whole Backpacker's Catalog

Sports & Outdoors

Vigor, John

Sobey, Edwin J. C.

Hiking & Camping

McGraw=Hill

Between these covers is the essence of centuries of seafaring experience, distilled into a concise, alphabetically organized reference for sailors and powerboaters. You'll find rules of thumb for hull thickness, bottom paint coverage, estimating distances, when to hoist and lower flags, predicting weather, which colors are unlucky, rope size and strength, anchoring rights, making a rum punch, and a lot more. This is either the most useful boating book ever designed to entertain or the most entertaining book ever designed to be useful. Open it to any page and browse awhile. You'll see.

The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge: 420 Sea-Tested Rules of Thumb for Almost Every Boating Situation

History

Americas

International Marine division of McGraw-Hill

This quick-reference guide is an on-board data bank, compiling in one place all the facts, figures, tables, and graphs to which a cruising sailor must occasionally refer. In 17 chapters ranging from deck gear and electronics to spars, rigging, and navigation, it groups information logically; an extensively cross-referenced index acts as a search engine when needed. The amount of data a cruising sailor needs at fingertip reach can be staggering: recommended anchor sizes and types, cleat sizes for specified lines, winch sizes and power ratios, fender sizes, electrical wire sizes for specified amperages, solar panel outputs, GPS accuracy, VHF radio ranges, strength of fiberglass panels, fastener types and pilot hole sizes for various applications, electrical power consumption calculations, fuel consumption, propeller pitch and diameter, refueling procedures, sources of non-stock hardware, nautical rules of the road, navigation formulas, pressures of various wind speeds, coverage of paint, recommended adhesive-sealants, drinking water requirements, cooking fuels, safety equipment, safe working loads for shackles and rigging, and a thousand others. Most of this arcana is buried in one book or another, but now it's all in one place and easy

The Sailor's Assistant: Reference Data for Maintenance, Repair, and Cruising

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

Intl Marine Pub Co

Most owners of cruising sailboats wonder whether their boats are suitable for an offshore passage, be it across the Gulf of Maine or the Pacific Ocean, and if not, whether they can be made suitable. This preoccupation arises partly from a latent spirit of adventure and partly from the desire for a seaworthy boat. We all want to believe that our boats can go anywhere and stand more of a beating from wind and waves than we can. Who knows when we might get caught out in the open by bad weather? It's enough to worry about our own responses without also having to suspect that the boat is fundamentally unsafe. Similarly, every potential buyer of a cruising sailboat is told that the boat is capable of sailing around the world. It's very difficult to get good advice and trustworthy facts, and that's where this book comes in. Focusing on production fiberglass cruising sailboats, the book explains, feature by feature, what makes a seaworthy boat. The book leads with an interactive questionnaire that tells the reader whether his/her boat possesses enough of the fundamental design/construction attributes of seaworthiness to make it a worthy candidate for offshore sailing. Having established whether the goal is achievable, Vigor then tells the reader how to get there, covering structural modifications and reinforcements as well as rigging, fittings, engine, systems, and gear. The final chapter outlines techniques for handling a boat at sea in adverse conditions, including heavy weather. This book will interest every owner and potential buyer of a cruising sailboat.

The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat

This quick-reference guide is an on-board data bank, compiling in one place all the facts, figures, tables, and graphs boat operators need. In 17 chapters ranging from deck gear to electronics to rigging and fuel calculations, it groups information logically for both power- and sailboat owners. The amount of data a boat owner needs within fingertips reach can be staggering: recommended anchor sizes and types, cleat sizes for specified lines, fender sizes, GPS accuracy, VHF radio ranges, electrical power consumption, propeller pitch and diameter, and multitudinous other arcana. Boatowner's Handbook puts all this information in one place, boils it down to its most accessible form, and makes it easy to retrieve.

Boatowner's Handbook: Reference Data for Maintenance, Repair, Navigation, and Seamanship

International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press

"An invaluable resource. [Vigor's] practical wisdom gives you the know-how and confidence to prepare your boat for the sea."--Cruising World. Here is the book that answer the sailor's fundamental question--"Can my boat take me offshore safely?"--then shows how to make it happen.

Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat: A Guide to Essential Features, Handling, and Gear

Water Sports

"Vigor is one of the finest boating writers of our time."Cruising World Boating encompasses an impressive array of disciplines, and every sailor or powerboater worth his or her salt is, by turns, a seaman, navigator, mechanic, electrician, painter, carpenter, meteorologist, medic, cook, and even, on occasion, a diplomat. Which is why it is so surprising that, until now, there has been no single-source reference to which a mariner could turn for practical, up-to-date information in all these areas. The Practical Encyclopedia of Boating is the first guide to all practicaland many theoreticalaspects of recreational boating under sail and power. From seamanship to maintenance, navigation to boat design and construction, nautical lore and esoterica to the science of how things work, this handy reference gives sailors and powerboaters quick access to just the right amount of information needed to answer most questions and solve most problems.

The Practical Encyclopedia of Boating: An A-Z Compendium of Seamanship, Boat Maintenance, Navigation, and Nautical Wisdom

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

“Vigor is one of the finest boating writers of our time.”--Cruising World 
“You name it, it’s in here. Covers every boating situation. This book is both informative and entertaining.”--Latitudes &amp; Attitudes 
“John Vigor is the answer guy if you’re having onboard arguments about nautical terminology or the science of sailing in general, and his new book lives up to the promise in its title.”--Good Old Boat 
Whether it’s boat maintenance, navigation, boat handling in all kinds of weather, or the physics of how boats function, every sailor and powerboater needs a comprehensive go-to source for specialized information. Now you have it with The Practical Encyclopedia of Boating: 
<ul>
<li> Addresses virtually every aspect of powerboating and sailing in 500 entries </li>
<li> Covers seamanship and boat handling, navigation, routine boat maintenance, boat design and building, and nautical reference data </li>
<li> Ranges from vital techniques--such as recovering overboard crew and measuring distances off--to essential concepts like reading the water and sky and evaluating a boat’s seaworthiness </li>
<li> Includes numerous cross-references and an exhaustive index to direct you quickly to the right entry and to unify related topics </li>
<li> Makes delightful browsing as well as a source of sound guidance for practically any boating situation </li>
</ul>

The Practical Encyclopedia of Boating: An A-Z Compendium of Navigation, Seamanship, Boat Maintenance, and Nautical Wisdom

Business & Money

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

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:
<ul>
<li>Changing a boat's name </li>
<li>Towing the safest way </li>
<li>Burial at sea </li>
<li>Preventing wood rot </li>
<li>Hull thickness </li>
<li>Anchoring rights </li>
<li>Jib size </li>
<li>Curing mast vibration </li>
<li>Time taken for boat tasks </li>
<li>Survival rations</li>
</ul>
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

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

While their father is away at a medical conference, Sally, Peter, and Andy Grant set up camp at the edge of a lagoon on Crab Island and become involved in an adventure involving a wounded dolphin and drug smugglers.

Danger, Dolphins, and Ginger Beer

Children's Books

Atheneum

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Books by Vigor, John