Sailing Uphill

Sam McKinney has spent many of the best parts of his life on the water -- sailing a dory along Canada's west coast, crewing on the deck of a river steamer, shipping out deep-sea in freighters across the Atlantic. In the middle of his life, when he sold the hull of an ocean-going sailboat which had absorbed two years of his love and labour, he looked at his boat-building shed and thought, "Hmm. With all this lumber, I could build a boat and go across the continent, instead". So he did. In the Gander he travelled up the Columbia and Snake rivers, down the Missouri, up the Mississippi and Illinois and on, ever eastward, to New York City. It took him four summers and three Ganders, one of which had to be abandoned in the mud of the upper Missouri, but he made it. This is a lovely and evocative memoir by a perceptive and thoughtful writer.

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Physics of Sailing

Breaking down the complicated concepts of speed, acceleration, torque, fluid mechanics, and surface physics, Physics of Sailing provides a lively, easily accessible introduction to the basic science underlying the sport of sailing. It illustrates the many ways physics can be used to understand the principles of sailboat propulsion and how a scienti

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Something Always Happens When You Go Sailing

This book is a candid and humourous account of the author's adventures in sailing. It begins with his first experiences as a teenager with rowing boats in the North East of England. Later he describes the joys of sailing dinghies and cruisers in the South West of England. These adventures range from smooth idylic sails in good weather to a full on ship wreck in storm conditions. His tales of learning to sail expand to yacht racing on the Swan River in Perth and in the Indian Ocean, Western Australia. His lively and candid descriptions of fellow yachtsmen and women he met while sailing add wit and pathos to his abiding love of the sea. The book should appeal not only to experienced yachtsmen but also to the 'arm-chair sailor' who likes to read about sailing. The title of the book is in reference to a comment made by his wife, Anne, when their sailing dinghy sprung a leak during their sail together.

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Discoverers and Explorers

In diesem Buch finden sich alle bedeutenden Entdecker und Entdeckungsreisen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts wieder. Dazu zählen unter anderem die Fahrten von Columbus, Marco Polo und Amerigo Verpucci. Hierbei handelt es sich um eine englischsprachige Ausgabe.

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Building a Billion

John McCarthy MBE, of McCarthy & Stone, is a self-made multimillionaire. He and his family have been long-term members of The Times Rich List. One of the best examples of the self-made man, John started working life at fifteen as a "chippy". Every venture he has embarked on, he has achieved with drive and success. His legendary reputation is as the most successful builder of retirement homes across Europe. He has also built and skippered winning ocean-racing yachts. He has owned and run a top polo team. He became a big game hunter and avid game bird shooter, underwater diver, skier and squash player. He makes other septuagenarians look really old. In this book John McCarthy recounts his fascinating life story so far. But these are not just the interesting memoirs of a successful man. John's tussles with bankers and lawyers, planners and politicians, Government red tape and political autocracy, competitors and recalcitrant employees tell a story that has real relevance to all aspiring entrepreneurs in whatever field of endeavour. John McCarthy's rules of engagement and how to build a billion pound company are as topical now as they were when he did it.

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Discoverers and Explorers

Reproduction of the original: Discoverers and Explorers by Edward R. Shaw

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The Summer Isles

In an old wooden sloop, Philip Marsden plots a course north from his home in Cornwall. He is sailing for the Summer Isles, a small archipelago near the top of Scotland that holds for him a deep and personal significance. On the way, he must navigate the west coast of Ireland and the Inner Hebrides. Bearing the full force of the Atlantic, it is a seaboard which is also a mythical frontier, a place as rich in story as anywhere on earth. Through the people he meets and the tales he uncovers, Marsden builds up a haunting picture of these shores - of imaginary islands and the Celtic otherworld, of the ageless draw of the west, of the life of the sea and perennial loss - and the redemptive power of the imagination. Exhilarating and poignant, Marsden's prose has been widely praised. Bringing together themes he has been pursuing for many years, The Summer Isles is an unforgettable account of the search for actual places, invented places, and those places in between that shape the lives of individuals and entire nations.

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The Adventures of the Circumnavigators in their small Sailing Boats

Within a few miles of my home in suburban Portland, Oregon, there are perhaps two dozen small ships all sailing vessels of thirty to forty feet in length in various stages of construction, with the ultimate purpose of carrying their owners and builders on world voyages. The shipyards are old barns, backyards, temporary sheds of wood framing and plastic sheeting. Even at the small moorage on Multnomah Channel where I keep my sloop, there are four such vessels being built in a corner of the parking lot, and there is a waiting list for the space. I am sure that similar activity can be found at every seaport of every maritime country in the Free World where the political, social, and economic status is sophisticated enough to stimulate the natural human urge to escape to a more simple life, or to indulge one's curiosity and restlessness by travel to faraway places. And for every ship abuilding there are perhaps a thousand or more secret dreamers (many of whom live hundreds of miles from the nearest salt water) who spend their leisure hours marking ads in the classified sections of metropolitan newspapers and boating periodicals, or prowling the marinas, yacht clubs, and small boat harbors searching for a ship in which to make their escape at a price within their dreams. Most of them, of course, will never get beyond the ad-marking stage; or if they do, most of their ardor will have been dissipated by the actual physical activity and the reality of inquiry. There is nothing new or unusual about this. Civilized man has endeavoured to escape to sea at least since the time of the Minoans, circa 1500 B.C. Daydreams like this are what help many over the small daily crises, the frustrations of the job, and that state of mental rebellion that Henry David Thoreau was trying to define when he wrote that most men lead lives of quiet desperation. Some of these owners, builders, and searchers have announced their intentions in advance, and are already savoring the heady stimulation of publicity and small notoriety which they hope to earn later. Others hold it as a secret ambition and will not talk about it, or if they do, they are vague about future ports of call and even departure dates. A few are building only what they refer to as "retirement boats," for which they have no conscious plans other than living aboard when the ship is finished and launched. These are the cagey ones. This book is about the adventures of some of these circumnavigators.

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Beyond the Periphery

This selection of short stories probe the reciprocity of human nature—how different personalities are motivated to perform during stress or under at times comical, often adverse, and profoundly dark situations. As in the case for snowflakes, there are no, as far as I know, two like situations ever assimilated to define in the human condition. Hope that defines a set of short stories that punctuate the frailties of we the people.

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Annoying The French Encore

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR Bonjour cher reader, Ever since European history began, we Brits have been happily engaged in our national pastime - annoying the French. And the past couple of years have shown that this annoying never stops. To give just three examples: After a mid-Atlantic collision between French and British nuclear submarines, France's Minister of Defence seemed to blame the accident on ... shrimps. When French political superstar Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York, France's establishment was outraged. It soon emerged that sexual harassment was regarded as a basic human right by the country's male élite. (This theme provided so much excellent material that I decided to include it in the plot of my soon-to-be published novel, The Merde Factor.) And when David Cameron walked out of a Eurosummit, a French politician accused him of being 'like a man at a wife-swapping party who refuses to bring his own wife.' Yes, a very French image, and it just one of the many anti-Anglais insults that came flying across the Channel. You will find all this, and much more, in Annoying the French Encore! Because, for the French, the merde never ends. Yours historically, Stephen Clarke, Paris, August 2012 ‘Tremendously entertaining’ Sunday Times ‘Relentlessly and energetically rude’ Mail on Sunday

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