5 comments about Surviving the Storm: Coastal and Offshore Tactics.

1. A great way to finally understand the in's and out's of the various sails and sail plans available and their use in various weather conditions. A great read and an easy way to gain some knowledge on a lot of the options available in many kinds of weather and sea states. Fits in nicely as a companion book for "Mariners Weather Handbook"

   The multitude of first person accounts and expert opinions make the options outlined in the book very beleivable. I'm a costal sailor but feel sure I will be able to use and apply a lot of the ideas that I picked up from reading this book.




2. If there is one book you should study before heading to sea it is the Dashew's Surviving the Storm. Rather than taking a dogmatic approach to storm tactics, they cover every imaginable tactic, and how it is used in a variety of boats and conditions. The book starts with a thorough analysis of the problems encountered by a variety of boats heading between the islands and new Zealand in 1998. There are some sad stories as well as successes - we learn from both. They go on to make an elaborate explanation of preparation and equipment, anmd then cover tactics in detail.

   The Dashew's repeat over and over that there is no magic bullet to heavy weather. You havew to be prepared to use ansd try different tactics as conditions change.

   What we liked most was the intervioew format used extensively throughout the book. There must be 70 or more of them. Half of these are with professionals and their comments are very informative. The interviews with amateurs are also worth reading. Some did things the right way, others made mistakes, from which we can all learn.

   This book has received great press and while I was at first skeptical of the price and the reviews, having read the book now I can say it is the best investment I have yet made in my plans to go cruising.




3. With the advent of popular movies about horrific storms at sea that deal more in fiction than fact it is both refreshing and gratifying to read a book written for us ocean voyagers from someone who has actually lived it!. There are few sailors and even fewer authors that have the experience and dedication of the Dashews. In Surviving the Storm they combine their extensive experience at sea (over 200,000 miles cruising offshore) and their background in boat design and building (perhaps some of the finest sailing boats made) with other experts to separate the hype and fiction from the facts.

   After reading this book I had a totally different outlook on most of the major storms we've all heard about and more importantly how to prepare and deal with heavy weather when and if I get caught in it.

   As with all of the Dashews' books I've read, Surviving The Storm is written in an easy to read, conversational style with lots of real-world examples and there are plenty of illustrations and photographs to help you see what is going on. No detail is left out - I found this book to be an extensive, in-depth reference of the hows and whys of storm tactics and survival. At just shy of 700 pages it contains a ton of information. I especially like the summaries and numerous side-bar references - they really help.

   If sailing is your passion as it is mine I'd suggest a few other Dashew titles as well.

   Mariner's Weather Handbook is a great companion to this book and covers every aspect of weather for the sailor. Let's face it - it is better to stay ahead of nasty weather than get caught in it!

   The book that turned me on to the Dashews was their massive reference: Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia - it saved me from wasting thousands of dollars and an equal amount of time readying my boat for offshore. It is an incredible book covering everything a cruiser needs to know BEFORE going offshore. I've read (and studied, over and over again) these 3 books and I hardly recommend them to anyone who likes sailing - it is money very well spent!




4. An encyclopaedic covering of various tactics for surviving storms at sea, the dashews succinct writing and cogent organisation drives this hefty book forward. while powerboats are nominally covered, this book is more squarely aimed at the community of ocean going sailboats. Anyone sailing into deep blue water should read this book. A few notes: 1. the conclusions are mature: there is no single right answer, but the best strategy is to experiment with all the tactics in moderately heavy seas before you eventually get caught out in the big one. 2. active strategies (beating in and running off) shine a little brighter under the dashews' light than heaving to or sea anchors/drogues; fair enough. 3. consequently there is a nice treatment of heavy weather sails 4. the book is full of instructive black & white photos that make one sufficiently happy to be drinking tea at home. 5. numerous interviews with salty sailors make for instructive case studies, though several times key details (size of boat, location, crew experience, etc.) are left out. 6. the only weakness is that its numerous interviews and articles largely focus on experienced sailors who have been doing everything right for so long that it's difficult to get them to remember the episodes that taught them. The book is quite thin on disaster stories -which are frequently the most instructive -- and instead spends a lot of time interviewing 100,000 milers who can't remember the last time they were scared. Thus `surviving the storm' tells you merely how to do everything right, not how to avoid doing the wrong things... for those many of us who find the fear of failing (or drowning) particularly motivating from an instructional standpoint, this is a lacuna in an otherwise fine book. Two other sailing books, "MayDay!" and Coote's "Total Loss" admirably fill this gap, but if the dashew's had hit this final nail on the head I'd petition amazon for a 6-star review. At the end of the day, it's a must-read. Rock on steve and Linda, I've got dockage in fort Lauderdale if you ever want to visit.



5. This book had some interesting stories, lots of interesting ideas, but I came away more confused then reassured. I was definitely more comfortable about what might lay ahead after I watched the Pardeys Storm Tactics DVD. But maybe it is good to have lots of ideas stored in the back of my head for that day when we have to face real storms at sea.

1 comments about Satellite Meteorology: An Introduction (International Geophysics).

1. This is a very good book for atmospheric science and meteorology students and researchers. It includes many topics that are very useful for both educational and research purposes: the orbits of satellites, the instruments they carry, the radiation they detect, and, most importantly, the fundamental atmospheric data that can be retrieved from their observations. I first read this book when I was a graduate student in atmospheric sciences. Most books I have read are concerned with dynamics or physics, which are the classical fields. Very few of them discuss the practical yet not so established topics like satellite meteorology. This book is the most comprehensive one I have ever read that covers this whole new field.

5 comments about Jane's Battleships of the 20th Century.

1. Read the next 2 reviews; they're right on point on "missing" ships and classes of ships. The Author is also disppointed with the book; he complained that the book is a "committee" effort driven by graphic artists and a publisher who are targeting a mass audience (at an affordable price). The book has glossy pages, is well illustrated with photographs, Tony Gibbons' famous color drawings (I prefer line drawings; Gibbon's drawings are like paintings), and has only basic data (doesn't include gun length calibers, discussion of armor scheme, etc.). Bernard Ireland, the author, writes unique prose, but he seemed handcuffed by the publishing handlers. Ideal for "young readers" but all collectors will be disappointed.



2. Seapower competition is history of strategic gambles and capital ships were the instruments to achieve control of sealanes. This volume presents a review of the most important units and classes that were the mainstays of fleets. Unfortunately this work is not organic because the author provides only a limited description of design and costruction evolution of battleships and battlecruisers.

   The review of ship characteristics falls short of expectations since it fails to produce a good assessment of seakeeping features and of operational capabilities. Limited facts are reported to explain technical improvements implemented during ship life span to match the neverending changes in strategies. Just few hints are shown to reveal topmost aspects and defects of each design with some information on consequential wartime limitations imposed during active service. Interspersed with descriptions of most important naval engagements and with summaries of most significant doctrines for naval warfare, this work gives only a superficial insight of opposing requirements that had been involved in planning, designing and building a battleship; in facts a short study for each class is presented without giving details of research and innovations in naval architecture that earmarked the field. A missing part is a wide overview of naval artillery. Since guns were among the leading specifications in launching a new class, it is odd that a better explanation of armament development is not covered.

   Good points in this book are the nice color profiles, sometimes completed with plan and bow views. Unfortunately no scales are indicated, so being of limited use for modelers.




3. GREAT BOOK. SUPERB ARTWORK WITH MANY DOUBLE PAGE AND 3 VIEW (TOP, FRONT, AND PROFILE)ILLUSTRATIONS OF THESE GREAT VESSELS. I BOUGHT IT FOR THE ARTWORK ALONE BUT THE TEXT IS ALSO HIGHLY INFORMATIVE THOUGHT NOT AS "DEEP" AS SOME OTHER BOOKS.



4. Not ground-breaking by any means, but did have some unusual photos, i.e. the Nevada after being A-bombed, battlecruiser casualties at Jutland, etc. A good survey or gift for a budding battleship nut.



5. This is my favourite reference book on battleships, just because it is so attractively balanced. Coloured diagrams of most classes mentioned, together with plentiful photographs, supplement very readable text descriptions. Before the end of the contents, the reader has been thrilled by photographs of Royal Sovereign, Resolution and Revenge (seen from the next ship ahead in line), the pre-dreadnought Agamemnon, and Malaya in company with Alabama and South Dakota off the coast of Norway.
   
   The layout is a bit capricious, with some classes being relegated to brief mentions or telescoped into the sections on similar ships. Now and then, the author sees fit to pop in a "feature" - for instance the account of Heligoland Bight and the Falklands that appears opposite the text on the Invincible class battlecruisers. These are welcome, although they sometimes break up the logical progression of designs through the years.
   
   I am not qualified to judge the book's accuracy, so I cannot dispute or confirm any statements made on this score. At least there were no errors gross enough to leap off the page at me.

No comments about Marine Engineering Economics and Cost Analysis.

5 comments about Isaac's Storm: The Drowning of Galveston.

1. Isaac's Storm, published in 1999, is the story of the most horrible hurricane in American history. While reading, I wondered if Hurricane Katrina had outstripped the Galveston hurricane described by Larson. It did not. The Galveston hurricane claimed at least 6,000 lives and the entire town. Hurricane Katrina, however, claimed less than 2,000 lives according to most estimates. While Katrina is the most tragic natural disaster of our age, our forebears experienced even worse. The Isaac of the title is Isaac Cline, the U.S. Weather Bureau's chief observer in Galveston. Larson weaves meteorological details of the storm with the story of Isaac and other Galveston residents as well as the bureaucratic failures that left the city vulnerable. The story is touching and, at times, horrifying. Larson clearly conveys the fear residents felt during the storm and the way it changed the lives of survivors forever. I cannot imagine living through such an ordeal. This is a wonderful precursor of Larson's later work, The Devil in the White City. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed that book.



2. Erik Larson has documented an extraordinary narrative of an epic storm which killed over 6,000 people and wiped out the City of Galveston, Texas.
   Here we find Isaac Cline employed as the resident U.S. Weather meteorologist failing to warn the residents of Galveston of an epic hurricane which was larger and more powerful than Hurricane Katrina which happened 105 years later.
   It's rather incredible that hardly any warning was given. Isaac Cline was a good man. He just made a great mistake. This is a gripping true tale. Larsen wrote a great book. Five Stars!!



3. I totally enjoyed this book. I read it for a book club and didn't expect to like it so much. I spent a lot of my childhood in Galveston in the 1940's and there were people there at that time who had lived through the storm and still talked about it. It is very well researched and I found myself picturing exactly where things were happening and feeling a part of it. Next weekend I'm planning a nostalgic trip to Galveston to see what it looks like after hurricane Ike passed through.



4. Isaac's Storm is a wonderful book, well-researched and well-written. The attention to detail and accuracy is excellent. The scientific and historical detail on storms, hurricanes, and weather forecasting was fascinating. It was particularly interesting to get to know Isaac Cline. However, the story of the hurricane and the people of Galveston was the best part of the book, so exciting that I could hardly put the book down. I can whole-heartedly recommend the book.



5. The only give I gave two stars is because the storm itself is so interesting. The writing itself deserves one star. The style of the of the book is annoying. By writing short sentences and making assumtions that cannot be backed up with evidence, he tries to bring drama to a story that already has enough drama of it's own. This shoddy writing style makes me question his scholarship.

1 comments about High Speed Sailing: Design Factors (A Study of High-Performance Multihull Yacht Design).

1. This book was published in 1979 and since that time high speed sailing technology has exploded with new materials, designs and equipment.
   
   Still this is still one of the best technical primers on the physics of high speed sailboat design. Get it if you can.

No comments about The Development of the Rudder: A Technological Tale (Studies in Nautical Archaeology, No. 3).

1 comments about Yacht Designs II.

1. This beautiful, large-format book showcases dozens of this legendary naval architect's best designs. The vessels include racing and cruising sailboats, some remarkable large motor sailers, high-speed motor boats, able trawlers, and even a 151' steam coastal crusiser. Each chapter focuses on one vessel, with Mr. Garden's unique perspective and extremely humorous comments accompanying the line drawings. Had William Garden not chosen naval architecture, he easily could have been a successful writer or artist. Boat owners will find themselves grinning as they read, and those who hope to custom build their yachts could do no better than listen to the man responsible for so many classic yachts.

No comments about Luftwaffe Profile Series No.12: Focke-Wulf Ta 154 (Luftwaffe Profile Series, 12).

No comments about Handbook Of Ellipsometry (Materials Science and Process Technology).