The popular texts would have us navigate our small boats using the same techniques found on an aircraft carrier. But these elaborately precise methods just don't work in the bouncy, wet, cramped cockpit of a typical pleasure craft. This is the first book to teach small-boat navigation the way most people actually navigate, combining electronic aids like radar, GPS, and Loran with commonsense visual piloting and seat-of-the-pants chartwork. It explains in plain, simple language exactly how to find where you are and get where you want to go with a minimum of fuss, and contains many useful but relatively unpublicized methods specifically designed for use aboard the nation's 20 million small power- and sailboats.

Chapman Piloting : Seamanship & Boat Handling (Chapman Piloting Seamanship and Boat Handling, 63rd Ed)

When Chapman Piloting lands on your doorstep--all 656 pages of it--it's easy to feel daunted. Have faith, sailor. Now in its 63rd edition, Charles Frederic Chapman's masterpiece is a boater's bible. Indeed, one Amazon.com customer raves, "if you could take a class called Boating 101, this would be the textbook." It's more than just a basic text, however; it's a complete curriculum of nautical knowledge, from knots to navigation, docking to distress calls, plus etiquette, protocol, and terminology for powerboaters and sailors alike. Accessible to the beginner, Chapman Piloting is an essential reference for even the most experienced sailor. A necessary component of any nautical library. Highly recommended. --M. Stein

: The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

First launched in 1983, Annapolis remains the sailor's bible, a comprehensive chapter and verse guide to all aspects of seamanship from the simplest ABC's to the most advanced skills and latest electronics. And while much of the original edition has been left in dry dock to make way for the many changes on the water since 1983--like multihull vessels, satellite tracking, and the reality that while all ships remain "she," there is no longer the assumption that it's a "he" at the helm--Rousmaniere still emphasizes what he's stressed from the first tack: the importance of mastering sailing's fundamentals. This means knowing every inch of your boat and how to handle her, understanding the importance of safety on the seas and preparing for all emergencies, reading the weather, learning to navigate, knowing essential boat maintenance, and being aware of the traditions every sailor steps into whenever he or she sticks feet in a pair of topsiders. Clearly organized and presented, cleanly and smoothly written (given how much technical information he presents, Rousmaniere's prose is blessedly jargon-free), and thoroughly illustrated with photos and drawings, Annapolis is as essential as a good wind, perhaps the one volume no sailor should leave port without. --Jeff Silverman