Another book report

[lustyslogger]

Finishing up on another book. "Jagular Goes Everywhere". This book is available through SCA. Pamperin is hilarious to say the least and its nice to see I am not the only one who's launching and a Marx Brother's film are remarkably similar!. Several of the chapters were previously published in SCA in the past but they are still fresh. I am not sure I would keep a boat that had as little faith in my sailing abilities as Jagular seems to have in his but you must admit he is the voice of "reason".

If I had any complaint about the book it would be that it centers mainly on "sailing on the edge" adventures. Most of the stories concern near capsizes and white knuckle sailing. If I were a neophyte I may look twice at sailing if I thought my life were going to be in danger half of the time. This was a complaint many had about the big ticket sailing magazines in the past, most stories concerned storms at sea and the like. Not a good way to attract new comers to the sport.

However, having vented that, I would highly recommend Mr Pamperin's book if you want a good chuckle. I do think we have all "been there, done that" for most of his adventures and that is what makes the book so real.

[Charlie P. (NY)]

One of my favorite sailing reads is "Voyages of the Damn Fool" by Tom McGrath.

And of course: "Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling.

Which is free off Project Gutenburg. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2186

[Peter E]

One of the adventures in sailing around the world is one I have been following for the last two years. Right now they are in the middle of the Atlantic on their way to North America. There was a piece in a news paper I get about a former city administrator and his son going on this trip. So I book marked the site and get up dated by E mail. It is interesting if you start from the beginning.

http://dragonsbanevoyage.com/2015/01/01 ... g-forward/

I watched the movie on U tube thanks Lusty

[JohnT]

The Riddle of the Sands was the prototype for many subsequent "spy" novels. I particularly enjoy the chapter on navigating a dinghy in the fog.

A somewhat lighter (sometimes hysterical) Edwardian boat book is Three Men In a Boat (not to mention the dog).

[lustyslogger]

I have finish Jagular. Its almost like Pampelin was reading over my shoulder and the next two chapters were much less sailing on the edge. His sailing abilities vastly improved! Truthfully, I think he is a much better sailor then he would have had us believe in the first part of the book! He described one landing that was spot on and very seaman like. I remember doing that myself once and the pride I felt in bringing the boat along side the dock under sail alone and barely kissing the dock when I made the lading. I also looked like I knew what I was doing.

Of course the next time I tried it I fell off the boat when I kicked it out from under me climbing on the dock!!

All in all, This is a very worthwhile book and will keep you laughing throughout its pages.

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Read another I would highly recommend:

Me, The Boy, and the Cat. Written by Henry Plummer about a sail down the InterCoastal in 1912/13 in a 24 foot catboat.

[wdscobie]

Read another I would highly recommend:

Me, The Boy, and the Cat. Written by Henry Plummer about a sail down the InterCoastal in 1912/13 in a 24 foot catboat.

yes! a very enjoyable read. be sure to have out your atlas so you know the places being discussed.

[lustyslogger]

I am in the middle of the new book offered by SCA about Albert Strange and his boats. One interesting comment was that he designed boats for "men of modest means" This phrase was used several times. The one boat he gave a price for was a boat in the 25 foot range that was built for about 100 pounds. Sounds cheap but I thought I would see how that translated to current dollars. This was around 1900. The pound to dollar ratio at that time was $8.00 to the pound so this boat would have cost $800.00 in the US. The median income in 1900 was around $450.00 per year. So this boat would have taken 21 months labor to pay for assuming no interest payments etc. Today's median income in the US is $52250.00 or $4354.17 per month. Therefore this boat in current dollars would have cost $91,437.57. The least expensive "cruising" style new boat I saw at the Annapolis boat show last October was in the $120,000.00 range. Add the taxes today and you can see boats in 1900 were cheaper than boats today for the "man of modest means" although I am not sure that even a person of "modest means" can run right out and buy a $120,000.00 sailboat.

Just a thought.

Interesting book by the way. Although his cruises were in the 1890's they could have been written by a contemporary writer. The sea never changes. A lot of drawings of his designs, he was quite fond of canoe stern boats and they do look a lot more pleasing to the eye than those wedges we see being designed today.

[wdscobie]

... he designed boats for "men of modest means" This phrase was used several times.

back around 1978-80 (the 'golden age' of the fiberglass sailboat) there were a lot of options in the 25' range. the MacGregor 25, Neptune 24, Catalina 22 & 25 come quickly to mind. growing up i sailed, and learned to sail, on each of these boats.

in 1900 i think that a person 'of modest means' would be one of wealth in comparison to 'the common man'. cruising boats were also rare in 1900 (Slocum had just gone around the world 'as a cruiser' a few years prior) ... most were 'day boats' or 'racing boats'. the cruising boat as we know it didn't really come around until after WWII, and became popularized in the 1960s with 'cheap fiberglass'.

boats are just more expensive to build now than in the 1970s. everything costs more: resin, glass, gel coat, standing & running rigs, lines, lights, etc. the 'small cruiser' market (ie, boats like listed above) under 30' is really dead. customers want very fancy boats with HUGE interior spaces and amenities.

the electrical systems alone are a staggering change. A Mac25, Neptune 24, Catalina 22, etc. had basic electrical systems in comparison to a modern boat. a '25 foot boat' in 1980 had a battery around the size of a group 24 and a four switch master panel: cabin light(s), running lights, anchor light and accessories (and the accessories were a VHF and depth sounder). 110V ... unlikely. the 'fancy ones' had an alternator on the outboard motor to charge the battery.

the 'average' sailboat sold over the past few years is 42' long. these boats have 2/3rd the living space of my apartment! a catamaran is larger than my apt ... and nicer! none of this is a surprise in the 'McMansion Era'.

i hope more folks realize that sailing smaller and simpler can be more fun than in a large 'gin palace' (one of my favorite terms used by Tristan Jones).

[lustyslogger]

... he designed boats for "men of modest means" This phrase was used several times.

back around 1978-80 (the 'golden age' of the fiberglass sailboat) there were a lot of options in the 25' range. the MacGregor 25, Neptune 24, Catalina 22 & 25 come quickly to mind. growing up i sailed, and learned to sail, on each of these boats.

in 1900 i think that a person 'of modest means' would be one of wealth in comparison to 'the common man'. cruising boats were also rare in 1900 (Slocum had just gone around the world 'as a cruiser' a few years prior) ... most were 'day boats' or 'racing boats'. the cruising boat as we know it didn't really come around until after WWII, and became popularized in the 1960s with 'cheap fiberglass'.

boats are just more expensive to build now than in the 1970s. everything costs more: resin, glass, gel coat, standing & running rigs, lines, lights, etc. the 'small cruiser' market (ie, boats like listed above) under 30' is really dead. customers want very fancy boats with HUGE interior spaces and amenities.

the electrical systems alone are a staggering change. A Mac25, Neptune 24, Catalina 22, etc. had basic electrical systems in comparison to a modern boat. a '25 foot boat' in 1980 had a battery around the size of a group 24 and a four switch master panel: cabin light(s), running lights, anchor light and accessories (and the accessories were a VHF and depth sounder). 110V ... unlikely. the 'fancy ones' had an alternator on the outboard motor to charge the battery.

the 'average' sailboat sold over the past few years is 42' long. these boats have 2/3rd the living space of my apartment! a catamaran is larger than my apt ... and nicer! none of this is a surprise in the 'McMansion Era'.

i hope more folks realize that sailing smaller and simpler can be more fun than in a large 'gin palace' (one of my favorite terms used by Tristan Jones).

Its like cars. I had a 1965 VW Beetle that I could keep running with a whacking hammer and a phillips head screwdriver. I also had a 2001 New VW Beetle that required a live in mechanic to keep on the road. After two years the battery went dead. Had that happened in my 65 Beetle I would have just pushed it off to get it started, drove down to Sears and bought a new battery. The 2001 model required a tow to the dealership because a dead battery meant the erasure of all the programs to run the car. I couldn't even open the sunroof!! So, the $30.00 fix on the 65 cost me over $200.00 on the 2001.

After looking at the boats at Annapolis I could but wonder how many of them actually went more than 100 yards from the dock? They don't look seaworthy to me but are nothing more than floating party platforms.

As far as the catamarans go, that huge one at Annapolis was larger than the destroyer I served on while in the Navy. Nothing like having enough money to spend a million dollars on a platform just to have a gin and tonic. I will never know, we will just have to ask Josh!