The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice & Enjoyment of Boating

by L. Francis Herreshoff

Book Overview

Famed yacht designer & author L. Francis Herreshoff takes us on family-style cruises in American waters, during which all sorts of boats & boating skills are explained while they are used. He tells about the adventures of the crews of the catboat Piscator, the ketch Viator, & the engineless whaleboat-style ketch Rozinante. There are anecdotes & examples & a wide variety of boat lore in each chapter, as well as adventures, races, coastwise cruises...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0911378057
• ISBN13: 9780911378054
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Sheridan House
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.61 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Now I have a better understanding of the term "classic"

I thought this was a wonderful book. It tells a simple story of people meeting up and going sailing, including a cruise of several days. In the process of telling this story, the author imparts a continuous stream of sailing knowledge throughout. I just completed a review of "Sea Steading", by FitzGerald, and just realized that these books have the same philosophy on sailing and opinion on powerboats. But, this book is more of a joy to read. The Compleat Cruiser is a bit dated, written in the 50s I believe, which adds an interesting historical aspect. But, it is also a shame that the story isn't updated to reflect what we would find today in the locales described in the book. Read the book and then find a kid to give it to, you might create a sailor out of him or her.

entertaining and educational

this is a fun travel read that also explains fine points of cruising and boat handling for several boat types from a master of simplicity and directness. the dovetailing of the information with the story is brillant and a LF Herreshoff masterpiece - as elegant as a rozinante!

Great Insight and Opinions

The primary purpose of the book is cruising advice and L. Francis Herreshoff shares some inginuity while covering topics such as cooking, exercise, ground tackle, paint, wood treatment, workshops, tenders, piloting... Also like many great cruising yacht designers, Herreshoff is full of opinions. Here are a few examples: On Exercise: "...the young American is too lazy to paddle...if they had taken a moderate ourdoor exercise like paddling, their nerves would be much more at rest and they would enjoy life more, and live longer." On Power Boats: "We don't hate all power boats, only those modern freaks that look like the result of a collision between an automobile and a dining car...The motor boat designers have to design craft down to the taste of foolish and uncouth individuals...It's a shame that they are not compelled to anchor away from the yacht club for they spoil the looks of the waterfront." Class: "...vacationing women whose desire to look risque had taken the place of wholesome feminie beauty." I learned much from this entertaining book and will read it again.

The Compleat Cruiser

Originally written as a series of articles for THE RUDDER magazine during WW II, the abridged book-version is classic Americana. LFH manages to present a treasure chest of timeless yachting skills, while introducing the reader to the pre-multi-culti New England of his early 20th Century youth, a culture of genteel Yankee community in symbiotic relationship with a maritime inheritance of unpresendented abundance and beauty. If you want to learn the basics of pre-plastic messing about in good boats, while embarked on a time-capsule voyage to a bye-gone New England, still firmly in Yankee hands, this book will take you there. You will return with a ditty bag full of Herreshoff's life-experience, and eyes wide open, a budding student of the art of low-tech, high-touch cruising, a curiously-Yankee spiritual path of a transendant nature.

A look into the soul of cruising

This book is written as a story, but the plot elements really only exist in order to string together pieces of information in a fashion which is entertaining to read. Topics covered include how to make a proper chowder, how to launch a boat off the beach, binoculars vs. telescopes, a good bit of boating history, anchoring, and many, many others. Herreschoff is quite opinionated, and this book is definitely an antique, but it is good reading and much of what he writes still applies today.