Seamanship Secrets: 185 Tips & Techniques for Better Navigation, Cruise Planning, and Boat Handling Under Power or Sail

by John Jamieson

Overview

"Secrets' is the modern Bowditch, written so clearly that navigation and seamanship will be comprehensible to anyone . . ."
--Dave and Jaja Martin,circumnavigators and authors of Into the Light: A Family's Epic Journey

"It's a great book. The prose is simple and clear . . ."
--John Vigor, author of The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat

"The nautical tips and techniques presented are encyclopedic, yet the clear explanations demystify the topics . . ."
--Don Launer, contributing editor for Good Old Boat magazine

"It is a fine piece of work and should be read by anyone contemplating coastal cruising or blue water voyages. It definitely deserves a place in the offshore yacht's library . . ."
--Ted Brewer, yacht designer, author, and offshore racing and cruising sailor

Be a Better Skipper

In the night, wind, rain, fog, big seas, strong currents, or congested waters, when there’s no time for textbook seamanship solutions, what you need are shortcuts and techniques that work quickly and reliably every time.

Distilled from the vast accumulated lore of seamanship and navigation, here are the absolute essentials--185 techniques that work without fail in the pilothouse or the exposed cockpit or flying bridge of a shorthanded sail- or powerboat. John Jamieson shows you how to:

• Set up a clipboard chart table for cockpit use
• Avoid hazards with danger bearings or a GPS grid highway
• Estimate current speeds with the 50-90-100 rule
• Track other boats in poor visibility using radar plots and bearing drift
• Sail home without a rudder or get your twin-screw boat home on one working engine
• Dock or anchor under any conditions
• And much, much more

Even in this age of electronic navigation you need to know how to eyeball your boat through any situation. Each of the techniques in this cut-to-the-chase book has shown itself to be absolutely repeatable. It will work this time, the next time,and the time a er that, in conditions fair or foul.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071605793
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	03/08/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Jamieson served 23 years in the U.S. Coast Guard as a navigator, instructor, search-and-rescue coxswain, and ship’s conning officer. He has taught seamanship and navigation for the coast gaurd and navy and helped coordinate search-and-rescue missions from the California-Oregon border to the Yucatan Peninsula, out to 1,000 miles offshore. A nationally certified sailing instructor, he has sailed singlehanded for 13 years and has delivered sailing vessels along the U.S. East Coast. He holds master and mate licenses for power and sail and directed the seamanship and chart navigation department of the internationally renowned Charles F. Chapman School of Seamanship in Stuart, Florida. Visit his website at www.skippertips.com.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Chart and Publication Secrets A Navigator’s Most Trusted Companion Chart Tints and Coloring Flat Beach, High Cliffs, or Soaring Peaks? How to Interpret Water Depths and Seabed Characteristics Height Measurements for Safe Passage Symbols That Shout “Danger!” and “Beware!” Solve the Mystery of Aid-to-Navigation Symbols Ranges Lead You to Safety The Five Secrets for Visualizing Any Aid to Navigation Chart Notes: Nuggets of Hidden Gold Are Your Charts Up-to-Date? Free Code-Breaker for 36,000 Mariners' Friends Free Cruising Guides to Take You Anywhere 2. Chart Plotting and Preparation Skipper’s Navigation Tools Quick-and-Easy Review of Latitude and Longitude How to Choose the Chart Scale You Need Box-Plot Your Position How to Convert Minutes, Seconds or Degrees to Miles True versus Magnetic Directions and Two Ways to Find Variation Check Your Steering Compass in Three Easy Steps Bulletproof Your Charts for Longer Life Paper Chartlets for Cockpit Ease Complete 90% of Your Navigation by Annotation Save Time with Custom Distance Scales Invaluable Copilot: The Navigator’s Log 3. Easy Calculations and Adjustments Lightning Fast Arrival Time Estimates How to Make a Speed Graph in Three Easy Steps Navigation Solutions in Less than Five Seconds Harness the Power of the 3-Minute Rule How to Select and Calibrate a New Compass How to Choose and Adjust Marine Binoculars How to Adjust a Sextant in Three Steps How to Adjust Your Radar for the Best Picture 4. Piloting Tips and Techniques DR Plotting and the Boat-Trackline Connection How to Become Piloting Sequence Savvy How to Determine When You Will Make Landfall Secrets of the Most Accurate LOP on Earth A Simple Solution to Running-Fix Confusion Longshore Piloting When Landfall Iis in Doubt How to Avoid Hazards with Danger Bearings How to Clear Hazards without Plotting on a Chart Depth Contour Secrets Magic Boat Markers for Distance Off Make a GPS Grid Highway to Avoid Dangers How to Plot a GPS Position in Lless than 5 Seconds Sail a Tacking Cone to a Windward Destination ICW Secrets: Channel Jogs and Marker Silhouettes 5. Tides, Currents, and Leeway How to Predict Tides Anywhere in the World The Secret to Understanding Tidal Currents Tap the Magic of the 50-90-100 Rule Slack Intervals: Nature's Gift to Mariners How to Measure the Effect of Current in Three Easy Steps How to Cross the Gulf Stream or Any Other Ocean Current How to Correct for Leeway Wind Drift 6. Bridges, Night Passages, and Other Tricky Navigation Situations Cracking the Mystery of Bridge Lighting Use the Secret of “Triple Timing” to Verify a Lighted ATON How to Use S.T.O.P. for Easy Orientation Range Sector Strategy Secrets Red Sectors Give Instant Danger Bearings 7. Avoiding Collision by Eye or Radar Bearing Drift: A First Sign that Danger Exists Use Sectoring to Track a Crossing or Overtaking Vessel Caught in a Ship’s Blind Spot How to Identify Motionless Contacts on Your Radar Avoiding Collisions the E.A.S.A. Way How to Cross behind a Stern-Towing Tug Identify Vessels Towing Barges Alongside or Pushing Them Ahead Quick Guide for Sailboat-to-Sailboat Situations How to Become Sound Signal Savvy How to Use the Three Factors of the Lookout Radar Scope Plotting 8. Diesel Engine Maintenance and Powerboat Seamanship A Simple User’s Guide to Inboard Diesel Engine Maintenance How to Manually Shut Down a Diesel Engine How to Stop a Runaway Engine Fighting Engineroom Fires by Remote Control Stay Safe When Hooking Up Shore Power Wake Control and Emergency Wake Breaking Decisions to Make Before Running an Inlet How to Make a Fuel Consumption Graph 9. Sailboat Seamanship The Sailing Skipper’s Eight-Component Inspection Clearing Up the Mystery of Apparent Wind How to Determine Wind Forces How to Shape the Mainsail, a Sailboat’s Main Propulsion Unit How to Shape Headsails for Power or Speed Three Easy Steps for Heavy Weather Control How to Remove a Jammed Sheet from a Winch How to Sail Home if the Steering Fails How to Prevent an Accidental Jibe How to Short Tack in a Narrow Channel 10. Docking Seamanship Single-Screw Boat-Handling Secrets Twin-Screw Boat-Handling Secrets Docking and Undocking with One Spring Line Working into a Slip under Main or Headsail How to Parallel Park between Two Boats How to Warp a Boat around a Pier or Piling How to Dock a Twin-Screw Boat with One Working Engine 11. Anchoring and Marlinspike Seamanship How to Choose the Right Anchors for Your Boat Choose the Proper Anchor Rode for Safety Horizontal Loading: The Secret to Drag Prevention The Five-Factor Guide to a Secure Anchorage How to Increase an Anchor’s Holding Power How to Rig a Two-Anchor Mooring System Secrets to Anchoring under Power Anchoring under Mainsail or Headsail How to Use Casting Kedges for Ungrounding How to Make a Snubber Bridle for an All-Chain Rode The Five Kings of Marlinspike Seamanship 12. Weather and Water Wisdom A Mariner’s Most Essential Weather Predictor Using a Weather Pattern Log Weather Information Resources for Mariners How to Predict Wind Shifts in Low-Pressure Systems Meeting a Line Squall Lightning Timing and Protective Strategies How to Predict Wave Heights for Cruising Swell Secrets How to Use Terrain Effect in Cruise Planning 13. Preventing and Handling Emergencies Fuel-Fire Prevention Techniques Galley Stove Safety Secrets Overboard Recovery and Reality Checks Use N.O.W. and Keep Crewmembers Alive and Well Handle Flooding Emergencies with M.A.T.E. How to Use Your Engine as a Dewatering Pump Other Strategies for Staying Afloat when Damaged Signs of Hypothermia and Cold-Water Shock Skipper’s Immersion Survival and Treatments Guide Appendix I. Useful Tables Appendix II. Additional Concepts and Formulas Bibliography Index