This is an important book for dinghy cruisers, as it is one of the few written actually for us, and for those we hope will join us. There is a wealth of clear illustrations, many drawings, with helpful suggestions about fittings and gear.

I would criticise the book mainly for what it leaves out, or treats only sketchily. To give a true picture of dinghy cruising I think more needs to be said about coastal cruising grounds, and about working the tides, and the peculiar kind of navigation which dinghy cruisers discover - map reading rather more like that of the mountain walker in some ways than that practised by bigger boats making open sea passages. This side of the activity is dealt with rather too cursorily.

I also find one or two points on which John Glasspool is dogmatic. From my point of view, his allegiance to efficient oars puts him on the side of the angels - but why go on to say "without a motor a cruising dinghy would make poor showing in that calm period during the morning in anti-cyclone weather”? As he shows himself, one should be able to row comfortably for hours - which is one very important advantage of a dinghy over a small cabin boat. If one uses ones tides properly - as one always should - there should never be any need for an engine.

This reinforces my point that the need for planning every cruise or day sail with a tide table could have been stressed more clearly. Related to this is the need to sleep aboard rather than in a tent ashore. There is often no choice - when one dries out on the Essex mud, for instance.

His account of how he leaves his mainsail set but flapping in squalls alarms me somewhat - a sail which will come down on the run feels safer. However, he has tried it, so I suppose experience tells. In this connection, I find that his cover illustration gives rather a hairy impression. The boat still seems to have a sizeable area of sail set too. We don't have to get caught out in such weather - but perhaps he prefers to be given a challenge, while I prefer a quiet life. This might explain why he leaves the choice of rig, low aspect or tall Bermudan, more open than I should do.

He is rather brief about anchors. A fisherman should surely never be carried unstocked if it is the anchor one relies on. "Stockless" anchors could be taken to include the useless articles sold to hold canal cruisers still in the mud. CQR, Danforth, etc. should be specified. The idea of an anchor coil tied up with line when it may be needed in a hurry upsets me. It could be stowed in a bowl, as one member suggested to me recently. Nothing is said about the length of warp, or about the need for two anchors aboard even a dinghy when cruising.

Perhaps these points seem less specific to dinghy cruising than others he had made, but it seems to me that the newcomer, or racing dinghy sailor changing over to cruising, needs to be told about them. When all criticism has been made, this remains a lucid and useful handbook, from which I should think everyone of us could learn.