Reviews for The International Marine Log Book

The average rating for The International Marine Log Book based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-21 00:00:00 Christina Gram Larry Pardey, a highly-respected figure in the sailing world, died three weeks ago, and what a loss to the sailing community that is. He and his wife, Lin, have been sailing and writing books about sailing and boat-building since the late 1960's, and I've always liked their writing because of Lin's clear and honest approach to explaining what they did that worked, and what didn't. Together, they built two wooden boats, circumnavigated in each, and as a consequence of spending so much time at sea, they learned a thing or two. What follows is probably of interest only to sailors or those who like reading about the details of sailing, so you are forewarned. Lin and Larry have convinced me, by their research and through stories of theirs and others' first-hand experiences, that the best approach to riding out a storm is to heave-to. While I have practiced heaving-to, I've never executed that maneuver in a storm, though I can think of at least one time when, in retrospect, I probably should have done so. Lin and Larry meant, by this book, to counter a modern, racer-inspired, tendency to favor running before a storm. Racers, by their nature, hate losing time, and heaving-to is about nothing if not making the boat stationary (a relative term in high winds and waves). Lin and Larry did a counter-intuitive thing in researching this book; they threw out the accounts of yachtsmen from the 1960's and later, and went back to the accounts of the sailing captains of the great age of sail from the late 1800's and early Twentieth Century. Those captains were serious men who were first and foremost dedicated to completing their voyages with cargo intact and all hands safe, and they did not hazard their ships through risky storm tactics. Modern racers like Bernard Moitessier, were interested in other things, including winning races. Moitessier, though an excellent sailor, was a single-hander and was only responsible for himself and his beloved boat, Joshua. He and his fellow racers advocated running, and dragging lines or chains rather than heaving to, and he did it successfully several times in the godawful conditions of the Southern Ocean. But he was also one of the most skillful sailors who ever lived, so one might say he had an unfair advantage when it came to hand-steering the boat for hours while careening among massive waves. The Pardeys already had a sneaking suspicion that most sailors, even very experienced sailors, could not reliably imitate the elite racers' tactics. In reading the accounts of the old sailing captains, they confirmed that they universally recommended heaving-to to ride out a storm as the best tactic. Lin and Larry began to wonder if the cult of the heroic mariner running in the Southern Ocean had caused modern sailors to forget good seamanship. The Pardeys studied many famous disasters at sea like the 1979 Fastnet Race, where winds rose to at least Force 10, and out of 303 boats that started, 75 were capsized, 24 were abandoned, and five sank. Nineteen people died, and the UK and Ireland mounted the largest peace-time rescue operation in history to save those on disabled vessels. In this and other disasters, the Pardeys found that among those yachts that ran, with or without drogues or lines/chains trailing, many came to grief by broaching or pitch-poling, while none of those who were hove-to capsized. Worse, the captains who ran often reported that everything seemed fine, right up until it wasn't. The first notice many of them had of impending disaster was the sound or sight of a massive wave breaking astern or on their beam. The Pardeys (and many other sailors) report cases of lying hove-to in winds even above 80 knots, while calmly (well, maybe not calmly) cooking eggs below in the galley. When the boat is balanced for the sideways slipping to lee that is the secret of heaving-to, it creates a slick in its wake to windward that miraculously (or, actually via physical laws of fluid dynamics) defeats waves that would otherwise break over the boat. As Lin Pardey says, it really has to be seen to be believed. But the most convincing part of the book is the amassed data that shows reliably safe outcomes from properly heaving-to. The book is a wonderful compendium of checklists and recommendations, and it is only slightly dated. It is well worth reading if you sail and intend to be well out to sea where, when storms happen, you have to deal with them with what you have on board, and the skills you have already learned.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-01-26 00:00:00 Daniel Callahan I read this book a couple times before embarking on multiple offshore voyages in the Pacific. Having implemented the tactic recommend by the authors, the parachute and bridle system, I have to warn sailors from relying on it. The ocean can present life threatening situations where the system will fail. Chaotic seas can arise where heaving-to consistently on a single tack is impossible, where no amount of tweaking or adjusting will prevent the bow from being slapped through the wind every so often. If this happens while hanging off a bridle like the Pardey's advocate, the bridle can become tangled in the rudder (ask me how I know). Instead of this book, I would recommend new sailors form their storm tactics around the advice offered by Hal Roth or John Vigor. Next time I find myself in dangerous seas, instead of the Pardey parachute off the bow with bridle system, my tactic of last resort will be a Jordan series drogue off the stern. It is a more robust method, tested extensively by the US Coast Guard and confirmed effective. The Pardey's do mention the Jordan series drogue though they prefer their system because the series drogue is said to be hard to collect after seas subside. I'll take hard to collect over not working when it matters most. There are schemes using a block and windlass or winch to help bring in the drogue. Even if one cuts it loose after, if it saves vessel and crew, it's a grand well spent.