( 6 reviews )
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Posted: Dec 18 2007
Astounding stories well told. Stories of delusional, niave, and competent sailors taking small (very small) craft to sea. Covers mostly those who survive these undertakings.
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Mar 28 2007
I was tickled to discover a couple of weeks ago that our 1980's voyage from Miami to Australia with 18' "Pere Peinard" made mention in Longyard's excellent compendium. I was suprised and grateful for the "1/15th second of fame" since it's mainly remarkable for being unremarkable! Nothing broke at all except the wallet and a world record (26 days, under 25' LOA) for the Galapagos-Marquesas crossing in 26 days, 1983. Is this still standing? (Ok, after 6 great years, the marriage broke up too, but hey. Not the friendship! No regrets!) We made every intended destination (except Sydney, had to settle for Brisbane. At 3 knots bare-pole:) Our 5 yrs under sail were remarkably easy and beautiful, thanks to a really solid boat, careful work, and the grace of god/dess. In oceanic terms, even the Titanic is but a Speck on the Sea. So, I very much appreciate the respect Longyard has conveyed towards the WHOLE spectrum of small boat sailors! Isn't that what we all are, really? On this planet? In this universe?
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( 3 of 3 found this review helpful ) Posted: May 31 2006
Okay, so there are no stories of trans-oceanic voyages on soap bars in this book; just needed a catchy rhyme for the title. But this fascinating seaman's yarn covers just about every other buoyant contrivance that went to sea, at least those twenty feet long or less. This limitation is my only slight quibble about the book. Although in the beginning some boats are covered which exceed the twenty-foot benchmark established by the author, it does seem a bit arbitrary. Why not include Josh Slocum's marvelous circumnavigation in a 37-footer that was already a century old when he obtained her? It should be noted that solo circumnavigations are covered by the 1974 book by Tod Holms (unfortunately long out of print and hard to obtain). That said, Longyard has provided a delightful compendium of seamanship in Lillipution craft. Many might be written off as publicity stunts and gimmicks, which they were. None could be duplicated by anyone other than the most intrepid and hardy sailor. Even then, the voyager turned up half dead, if he survived at all. This is not a dry technical manual on small boat seamanship, although there are a lot of nuggets for the sailor in the tales. Human interest predominates. There are tales of cruelty and chicanery as in the story of Voss's seagoing canoe, and those invoking great sympathy as in how Andrews enticed an advernturesome young New Jersey farm girl to join him in a transatlantic stunt which ended in the disappearance of both somewhere beneath the tempestuous waves. All in all, brisk and delightful reading cover to cover.
