January 14, 2014

An on-board data bank


ANOTHER VOLUME of mine that International Marine published has a title that is very simple and to-the-point: Boatowner’s Handbook.

This quick-reference guide is actually an on-board data bank, compiling thousands of facts, figures, tables, and graphs that, sooner or later, you’ll need if you own a boat. There are practical, easy-to-find timesaving tips and golden rules to provide information on everything from buying paint and adhesives, drilling pilot holes, showing navigation lights, and rigging a boat, to provisioning for a cruise, sizing a propeller or oars, and choosing a dinghy.

The well-known boating author and consultant, Don Casey, once told me he was astonished at the amount of information I had managed to cram into the book while still making it easily accessible.

Incidentally, the hard-cover version, now out of print, was titled The Sailor’s Assistant and formed part of International Marine’s Sailboat Library.

Ø  Here’s a review from Ocean Navigator magazine:

“Helpful and comprehensive . . . Vigor presents an incredible amount of information in a very clear way.”

Ø  And one from Ensign:

“Well organized and easy to read. It should be on every vessel. It is a must for any cruising sailor.”


Today’s Thought

In a world where the time it takes to travel (supersonic) or to bake a potato (microwave) or to process a million calculations (microchip) shrinks inexorably, only three things have remained constant and unrushed: the nine months it takes to have a baby, the nine months it takes to untangle a credit-card dispute, and the nine months it takes to publish a hard-cover book.

— Andrew Tobias, “Hot Leads and Lead Time,” Savvy, May 80


Tailpiece

“Who gave you that black eye?”

“My wife.”

“I thought she was out of town.”

“So did I.”


(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

2 comments:

perfent said...

Absolutely love your blog. I can see it turning into another book. Speaking of books...why don't you release your titles as edooks? I find that I'm buying more and more in that format. I enjoy the convenience of the iPad. Of course anything essential, I sail with a REAL book.

John Vigor said...

Perfent, you are very kind. Some of my books are in fact available on Kindle, but I haven't yet got organized enough to do anything about the rest. I have what I think is a great manuscript about Napoleon and the remote island of St. Helena, where I spent three months researching, and maybe I'll turn that into an e-book because no agent or publisher I've contacted has been smart enough to recognize the glory of the writing, the wonder of the inherent emotion, the superb handling of the editorial content
. . . or anything, really, the bunch of incompetent slobs.

Cheers,

John V.