thedailychannel.com — recommended books

Books about boats and boating

Away All Boats

This 'guide for the small boat owner' has the best description of the great and infinite depth of the ocean I have ever read. And in just one paragraph! Far more than a guidebook, it details a true enthusiast's life on the sea, remembered in rich and variegated detail and vitality. By mere coincidence it just happens to include his personal experience with just about any small boat you might be thinking about.

For years John Cole and his family lived in and around Brunswick Maine, so his descriptions of the sea and the sea life there were doubly interesting to me as a new resident.

This book is out of print now, but is well worth ordering anyway. You may be able to get quite a good deal now. Visit Amazon.com and buy Away All Boats

First You have to Row a Little Boat

Richard Bode claims that you can actually get the boat that you want. It just might take a while. More than that, though, this book is filled with sailing life wisdom. It's one of the books that the boatbuilder apprentices take turns reading to each other at The Carpenter's Boat Shop in Pemaquid, Maine.

If you're interested in a similar experience, you might start by paying a visit to Amazon.com and buying this book.

Ready All!

by George Yeoman Pocock

This modest memoir by the founder of crew racing in America is actually an extremely well-constructed tour de force. It's essential reading if you're rowing a pair in the Olympics; unfortunately it's out of print.

Pocock founded crew racing in America (he was in charge of the boathouse at Eton, which had over 600 boats) more or less by accident. He came to British Columbia, was recruited to coach crew in Washington, then ended up building most of the racing shells in use on the west coast as collegiate rowing grew. His small boat company built wooden pontoons for Boeing flying boats during the war, and there's a great photo of an eight being ferried to the Olympics inside a jetliner, courtesy the Boeing Aircraft Company.

Pocock wrote extremely well, so if you or someone you know is interested in crew racing, you should pay a visit to Amazon.com and ask them to find you a used copy of Ready All! They can do it!.