Within these pages is the real meat of core information that you need to be a safe and competent boater. It's presented in an easy reading salty tale format. I'd like to think that this book will offer the pleasure boater a unique perspective on his sport.

After spending over forty years with boats and ships of all kinds, I feel that traditional boating texts are too dry, long and hard to read. I've been across the North and South Atlantic Oceans with the USCG and worked commercial tugboats from Canada to Texas. All the while, I've been active with pleasure boats. This includes participating in OpSail 76 with a Chesapeake Skipjack and sailing the South of England with a British friend.

Each different class of marine interest has a different way of doing and looking at things. I have married a combination of these approaches as my own method of approaching the sea. It's a practical and non-theoretical approach. There are no cumbersome calculations that you'll never bother with here. You will find suggestions that are doable for real life situations that you'll see in day-to-day pleasure boating. Many of my methods will be shorter and easier than "conventional wisdom". At other times, I may go into more detail on a topic than you are used to. There's method to my madness, this information will help you. Whether conventional or not my advice is based on sound sea-sense and years of experience. So get comfortable, sit back and let's go armchair sailing.