Seamanship Secrets

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 after that, in conditions fair or foul.

“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

“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