When visiting a sailing area for the first time I think that is more fun if one doesn’t know too much about it in advance. Nevertheless, prudence dictates that one should find out enough to avoid unnecessary risks. Also one doesn’t want to waste a lot of time in preliminary reconnaissance.

There are now a large number of guides to various parts of the British coastline. Without exception they prove rather expensive; one reason being that most tend to deal with a modest area. For the dinghy cruiser who can so easily flit from one part of the country to another, this means a awful lot of books if he or she wants to be able to research possible cruises during the dark days of winter.

My first review describes one of these.

South Coast Cruising by Mark Fishwick published by Yachting Monthly

This is typical of the modern publication. A large book measuring 260mm by 200mm by 30mm. It is also heavy as the paper used is ridiculously thick. It covers the coast from North Foreland to Portland Bill.

The information contained within is reasonably comprehensive. However it is often difficult to find what one is looking for due to the verbal diarrhoea from which the author suffers. An example is the detailing of the Royal Sovereign light. After a concise description in four lines of the important points, including the light shown, the sound signals, its height and appearance; he then uses eight lines to describe the living accommodation and helicopter pad!

There are masses of colour pictures; upwards of forty views of marinas alone. This would be OK, but very few give much navigational help for their approach. Useful though if you don’t know what a marina looks like. There is even a photograph of the white cliffs of Dover.

If you are seeking a moderately good pilot, which also contains interesting but irrelevant information to while away your periods at anchor, then this book at £26.95 for 320 pages may suit you. A concise pilot to the South Coast — it is probably not. However, for someone owning a yacht for the first time and based somewhere around the Solent, it could well be very useful. The reluctant weekend guests or crew could well find that there is much of interest after all, in what appears at first sight to be just a bleak watery panorama.

And now for something completely different —

The Cruising Association Handbook (eighth edition)

This book, first published in 1920, was intended for the Association’s members as well as those of the Royal Cruising Club. I first bought a copy of the fifth edition in 1971 when they decided to offer it to the public. I never regretted its cost as it covers a vast area; not only the whole of the British Isles including Ireland and the Faeroes but the whole of the west coast of Europe, from Gibraltar to the approaches to the Baltic. Even if you have no intention of travelling so far, it supplies wonderful inspiration for pipe dreams. It is worth mentioning that there is not one scenic colour photograph in the whole 434 pages!

As this book is intended for the more experienced sailors there is no half-hearted approach to its production. The harbour plans are exemplary and as is expected nowadays, in colour. No tiny chartlets these. For example; Copenhagen, Dover and the Ore and Alde, all get a whole A4 page to themselves. All are designed to be easy to read on board in difficult conditions. To really understand how good they are you have only to compare chartlets of the harbours with those of the same in the other book. Even the paper used is water resistant, although not waterproof. The only drawback is its size. In order to improve the presentation they have increased the size of the book from crown octavo to A4, although it is now slimmer. This is a pity because the chartlets would be so useful for the dinghy sailor. Nevertheless colour copying is now available in most high streets. I tend to treat such books as working copies so mine will eventually become somewhat salt stained.

For each haven there is neatly presented information: Tidal constants and heights: Approach: Signals: Entrance: Moorings: Berthing: Creeks: Anchorages — recommended and prohibited: Landings: Supplies: Tel/VHF, etc. When you buy the book you get a free pamphlet showing all the corrections to date. Each year another pamphlet of corrections is produced costing £2.50.

This desirable volume is expensive at £49.95 plus postage, but compared with the opposition, cheap at the price. Unless you are particularly fussy it will continue to be helpful for very many years; even without correction. My 1971 version with its black and white chartlets has proved useful right up to this year. But the coloured plans are so seductive — I have started dreaming already.

Published by, and obtainable from: The Cruising Association, C A House, 1 Northey Street, London E14 8BT. Ring them for postage details. Tel: 0171 537 2828.

Mate of the Caprice by Gordon Brown

Those who are fascinated by the sailing barges of the Thames should not miss a chance to read this little book. Anybody who has been aboard one of these vessels and seen the heavy gear must have felt a little sceptical about the claim that they were managed by one man and a boy; even if the ‘boy’ was a mature man. Well, this tells how it was done. In fact the skipper’s wife often took this position.

The author was on the Training Ship Cornwall when finally he was offered the berth of ‘mate’ (boy) on the Thames Sailing Barge Caprice. In fact the Cornwall was a Home Office floating Reformatory which apparently trained ‘difficult’ boys for the Merchant Navy.

Unfortunately nothing is said about his early life except one gathers that he had had a reasonable education before being committed. He spent some seven years as mate and undoubtedly would have ended up as skipper, but the days of the Thames barge were coming to an end and at the age of 23 he was unable to get a job afloat.

For those who have knocked about a bit on the east coast and can recognise the area from this different viewpoint ,this book will make a fine read. It is also a bit of social history of a time when to be unemployed meant near starvation. Much is made of the so called ‘Dunkirk spirit’ nowadays, but with certain exceptions, working men have often knuckled down and helped one another through the bad periods. It didn’t need the war to bring it out.

I have appended more detail than usual in case your local library claims that it is unobtainable.

Published in 1995 by Seafarer Books, an imprint of Merlin Press Ltd, 10 Malden Road, London NW5. ISBN 085036 444 2