The Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge, 2nd Edition: 460 Sea-Tested Rules of Thumb for Almost Every Boating Situation

I purchased this book to broaden my knowledge of my basic maritime skills. I began reading, set the book down to mow the lawn, and when I finished, I could not find the book. My 11 year old son had picked it up, and is completely engrossed in it. Now my 13 year old daughter has informed me that she would like to read it when her brother is finished with it. Both of them have only ever been out on our boat a few times. I am now very interested to read this book!

Anybody who has an interest in sailing or the sea will find this very interesting. The passages are very short and to the point and I think that is the beauty of this book. You can flip to any page and start reading. The more you read the more you realize you don't know. Everybody who has the curiosity to pick it up finds interesting facts and everyday knowledge. No star charts or tide tables here just knowledge that was common in the 19th century and has almost been forgotten. I would have given it 5 stars but specific information is hard to find when you need it. So it's not a reference but just a darn good book to have on the coffee table or on board your boat.

This book is a delight to read - chock full of everything nautical!~

Well written with lots of well organized tips and information that could be handy to any one just thinking about buying a boat and getting on the water or getting ready for the next adventure. The spectrum of topics covered is vast from sea sickness to fog and how it can effect your senses as well as calculating cost of living aboard and other equations any carious individual would like to figure. ill be keeping this one on the bridge.

Clever book and easy to read. There's something for every boater in here. A friend of mine had a copy, and I definitely wanted one in my "marine collection" of books. Highly recommend the Practical Mariner's Book of Knowledge!

I'm a huge fan of John Vigor and an avid reader of marine/sailing books... This is a good work.. but left me slightly disappointed. Parts of the text are dated and other areas are missing the concise, detailed, enlightening style that you typically associate with Vigor's work. I read through it occasionally, but mostly it sits on the shelf..Don't get me wrong - there are some truly great resources in the text such as the rules of thumb to calculate loads/sizes for sheets, halyards; propeller efficiency and shaft sizes; saving a submerged outboard; ginger beer recipes etc. If you're into the old boating superstitions and traditions, then you will have more to enjoy but personally, i just find there's just a lot of fluff in between the real meat.I was a little miffed at the section regarding the meaning of flags... its great and detailed and tells you the intended message being conveyed by each flag... but doesn't give you a quick reference on visual key of the flags.. Of course i remember the alpha flag, but sometimes i need a refresher as to what the Mike and Oscar flags are... I know you can get that from a simple google search... but i got this book with hopes of going to it as the first reference.. especially when unplugged.. and not a reference to review and then go to another reference to get the supplemental information. Maybe i'm just being too picky..For any other author, it'd be a good or great book... for Vigor, its just okay...If i was buying one text by Vigor I'd buy Vigor's text "The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat" over this.. For a similar style book to this, i'd recommend "Seamanship Secrets" by John Jamieson if you want fewer but more practical rules of thumb.

If your have a boat and use it in big water you will enjoy this book. It has a bit too much "sailing" information for my taste but overall lots of good stuff.

Anything by JOHN Vigor is GREAT his seaworthy test is legendary!Do NotDO NOT BUY “Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere “ and expect to be happy on dry land ever again!!!!!!

Excellent book, clearly and well written and easy to understand. The author makes a complicated subject much less intimidating. Highly recommend this book if you're interested at all in learning celestial navigation.

Most of the information provide would be difficult to find, Lots of information in one place. It would be greatly improved if it include some diagrams to explain some of the more difficult text to visualize. Some of line items have been added to just make up the numbers. 460!! I am still wadding my way through it but I imagine it will be a good quick reference book to keep at hand for the future.

The information is gained over many years and I appreciate the efforts of John Vigor but it is mostly opinions and not knowledge and unfortunately some of the opinions are dated. Having said that I did enjoy reading the book and it got me thinking about things.I did like the anecdotes that are woven into the rules and I certainly would buy other books by this author because I did learn some unexpected rules. When you consider that almost one million people are out cruising on boats at any one time and yet there are few books on the topic of modern seacraft then you can see the importance of this book.The old statement that says if you learn just one thing that is important in a tricky situation then it is worth buying the book - is true in this case, but don't expect all the opinions to be relevant to your boat or situation

This is such a fun fact filled book that is sprinkled with humour that I would recommend it to anyone.

its interesting