November 2006 - Canoeist Magazine

The Barefoot Navigator
Jack Lagan
Adlard Coles Nautical, 38 Soho Sq,
London W1D 3HB
0 7136 7429 6
2006
240 x 170mm
148 pages, paperback
£14.99
It seems increasingly as if the typical
yachtsman plugs his GPS into his laptop
and waits for it to tell him which way to
go to the next waypoint. ‘Barefoot
navigation in its purest form is a
collection of technology-free techniques
based upon observation of the natural
world’ says this book. As such, it is much more akin to the methods
used by those of us who are limited in the kit we are able to carry,
regardless of whether we wish to carry it.
The first part of the book is an admiration of the voyages of the
ancients, particularly the wide ranging Polynesian canoe voyages,
carried out without any navigation equipment and with nothing
written down, so that the charts and all relevant information were
always in the navigator’s head.
The author comments that these canoes were allowed to bend as
there was not the technology to make rigid crossmembers, a suggestion
that should be considered with the fact that Inuit kayak frames often
had bone articulating joints included to assist flexing.
The major and most valuable part of the book is no-tech navigation,
navigating without equipment by using the sun, wind, waves, stars,
clouds, birds and even water quality to give clues. Often it relates to
ocean out of sight of land but some is applicable much closer inshore.
The final parts suggest how to make your own economical
equipment and how to assemble a grab bag to take when abandoning
ship, of limited value if space on board is the criterion.
The humour is dry. ‘The resulting, now moving, build-up of water
curls over at the crest and spews plastic ironing boards and young
people who talk a strange language onto the beach...
‘For the navigator, this increased height of a series of waves can be
an indication of shallowing and, therefore, the possible proximity of
low-lying land and a bar serving drinks.’
Illustration is with black and white drawings, printable copies of
which can be downloaded from the author’s website if you wish to
adorn your boat.
Finally, it is worth bearing in mind the quotation of 1770 by
astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini, ‘It is far better to have absolutely
no idea of where one is - and to know it - than to believe confidently
that one is where one is not.’
This differs from every other navigation book and contains
important principles overlooked by the official yachting navigation
texts.
Emrhys Barrell
Adlard Coles Nautical
0 7136 7636 1
1993. 3rd edition 2006
230 x 160mm
214 pages, paperback
£15.99
The significant change for the latest edition of this book is that it is
now in full colour, many of the pictures being taken from shots closely
related to those shown previously in black and white.
28
Inland Waterways Manual
CANOEIST November 2006
Reviews of new books
and publications
Since the last edition (May 03, p38) the
cost of powered craft seems to have risen
sharply. There are few changes to the text
although there is now a section on living
aboard full time and there is enthusiasm for
night time travel. As before, it is not a book
which tells you what you should be doing
so much as one which tells you what larger
craft are doing and why their crews are
likely to behave in certain ways, ways
which may effect you.
There are fewer changes to the gazetteer
of waterways than might have been
expected, mostly a change of tense where
an anticipated restoration has now taken place.
The Adlard Coles Book of Knots
Peter Owen
Adlard Coles Nautical
0 7136 8152 7
1999. 3rd edition 2006
A5
96 pages, paperback
£7.99
The first change with the third edition of
this book is the title. Previously it was The
RYA Book of Knots (Oct 04, p24).
Because it relies on drawings it is much
easier to follow than some other knot books.
An extra colour has been added to the
drawings this time, making them clearer again. Otherwise, the
alterations are only cosmetic with no change of content, other than to
add colour photographs at the starts of chapters, ornamental rather than
useful.
As these knots, bends, loops, hitches, seizings, splicings and more are
used in a marine situation it is useful to have some nautical terms
explained. Furthermore, advice on rope materials and layups, tools and
stopping fraying of ends are further important subjects which are not
always easy to source.
Turkish Waters & Cyprus Pilot
0 85288 841 4
1984. 7th edition 2006
358 pages, hardback
Italian Waters Pilot
Rod Heikel
Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson Ltd, Wych House, The Broadway, St
Ives, Cambs PE27 5BT
0 85288 913 8
1983. 7th edition 2006
A4
453 pages, hardback
The Turkish coast is still largely undiscovered by boaters although
holiday villages (to which the author is opposed) are springing up
along the coast. Of Bodrum he says ‘the place has become a sort of
“little England”, in the pejorative as well as the literal sense, with signs
everywhere for “English pubs”, “fish and chips”, “English breakfasts”,
and everything else you would want to sail a hundred miles to get
away from.’
The Turkish book covers the Sea of Marmora, Mediterranean and
Black Sea coasts plus the whole of Cyprus, despite the objections of