DaySailer.org Forum

As the season has come or will soon come to a close for many here, now is a good to time to look at the question:

What is your favorite nautical boating magazine, other nautical reading or viewing material?

Let's make one post per suggestion, with the name in the subject line, so each can be easily located. A link and or picture for each would be great.

I'll make a start with some of my favorites (there are many more). Feel free to add your own.

This slim, ad-free magazine is like the Consumer Reports for all things sailing. Much of it may be specific to bigger boats (like reviews of marine toilets) but a lot of it is either of general interest, or directly applicable to those of us sailing smaller boats. Topics include paints, cleaners, ropes, rigging hardware, fuel stabilizers, gear and clothing. All of the information tends to be in-depth and backed up by their own tests.

Apologies for not locating a smaller image, but that way you can see a typical list of contents.

https://www.practical-sailor.com/

This is a UK publication and generally focused on sailors of larger boats (with an occasional interloper from the motorboat side). Has a big hands-on section with detailed descriptions of boat projects, but also information on destination cruises in British or European waters that few of us will have a chance to visit. Plus reviews of various boat designs from decades past. I find it very entertaining reading, even, and especially, the section on extremely local news. Just fun to see what gets people all excited or up in arms in a different place.

Also often features sailing techniques - framed in terms of larger boats, but I've always found I can learn something nevertheless.

https://www.pbo.co.uk/

Small craft advisor's passion is obviously small boats, with, it seems to me, some emphasis on home-built ones. They commissioned their own design for a small cruiser (the SCAMP) and sell boat kits on their website. Many things discussed are fairly directly applicable to maintaining and cruising a DS.

https://smallcraftadvisor.com/

This magazine focuses on boats from earlier decades, with trip reports, reviews, and other articles. I think, one year they also had one on the DS.
In my view, it makes for excellent reading if you are interested in sailing / cruising more generally and don't mind learning how things work on other types of boats.
Refreshingly absent is any attempt at trying to sell the latest mega yachts - which is usually the reason why I would elect to skip some magazine.

https://goodoldoat.com

To mix things up a bit after all the magazine suggestions, here's a link to a video blog that I've enjoyed watching.

There are so many of these now, it's hard to choose, and all of them might help, particularly this year, to substitute a bit for trips we are unable to take.

The couple behind these videos both studied architecture. I think if you watch their videos you'll find a lot of ways that the combination of visual arts and practical talent that characterizes that discpline shows up in not only the interior re-design of their boat, but also their cinematography as it develops over the run of the series.



https://www.sailinguma.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/sailinguma

Sample video: A Minimalist Life on the Water

Here's something that's a bit different: a handy spiral-bound collection chock full of tips and reminders for all things racing. Covers rules, tactics, strategy, sail trim, tides and wind.
I'd recommend that as a quick guide to anyone new on your boat, or as a handy reminder for yourself.

Tim Davison, Skipper's Cockpit Racing Guide for Dinghies, Keelboats and Yachts, ISBN 978-1-4729-0031-9 (or as eBook).

And last (for now), but not least, some nautical fiction: the incomparable small-boat action classic by Erskine Childers. Modern readers will find the first chapter a bit slow, with lots of stage setting, but once the narrator joins his friend on a small boat in German waters a decade before WW1, the story moves right along and never stops. Published in 1903 it is sometimes credited with having been the first thriller, and it certainly has the elements of that formula as our sailors try to solve the riddle of what the Germans are up to. WW1 is definitely looming on the horizon.

Erskine Childers, Riddle of the Sands, includes charts of the area, so you can follow along. Available as paperback from a number of sources.



There are a number of movie and TV adaptations of this.

I agree with GL, the SmallCraft Advisor is wonderful (and I'm a subscriber). I also read the "East Coast Version" from Maine's Wooden Boat School - Small Boats Monthly:

https://smallboatsmonthly.com/

As they describe themselves: "Each issue of Small Boats Magazine includes two in-depth boat profiles, as well as rich coverage of gear, technique, adventure and travel narrative, and reader-built boats." And that's exactly what they offer in each issue - pretty boat designs to dream over, a few trip reports, some gear reviews, and a few tips and techniques for the workshop. I love it!

Great Book! I think I first read it when I was 12ish and have re-read it every 10 years or so. An old favorite

I just want to Chime in. I made it a must for everyone on my boat to watch Peggie Whiting guide to sailing on Amazon Prime. Not only is it a video about sailing but it goes through terms of the boat. tying knots. ect ect ect... Its a little outdated and a bigger sailboat but it still works.

Sailing Magic Carpet

this is a you tube series of a young couple who sail and explore, Maya and Aledeno,they met while sailing and now sail on a rebuilt boat "magic Carpet" Maya is also a musician, Alendeno trained as a shipbuilder. Maya is a wonderful storyteller, and a very calming voice. they are in the Netherlands right now. Its my favorite, with Sailing Uma a close second. here is a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69YdL5qnHrg

The Aubrey-Maturin series for me. (Made more famous by the film Master and Commander some years back). It's the best genre fiction, and often the best fiction, I've encountered. I'm giving the series a 2nd read through about a decade after I read it the first time and I'm enjoying it even more.

My personal advice is to listen to the audio books as narrated by Patrick Tull, as opposed to the physical novels. Tull's performance is flawless and absolutely puts you in the novels.

The film is excellent, but it barely touches the surface depth of the books.

I agree with @Anstigmat about the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.

The first book is the one that gave the film the title. Master and Commander. Here's a cover image:



The film will be double the fun if you've read the first few books in the series, because it combines some narrative elements from them and also provides a nice and realistic illustration of what all of that may have looked like. Do yourself the favor and get the companion volume that helps you distinguish between real and imaginary places and provides some needed background.

More encyclopedia than dictionary, this book is invaluable in understanding nautical terminology as it applied to tall ships. Includes capsule biographies of famous British admirals, and short description of major naval events. It's fun reading by itself, but it comes into its own when you are reading Patrick O'Brian's books, or the Hornblower series and come against a not-so-familiar term.



There are many editions, the one pictured is the 1994 edition, which I prefer over some of the more recent ones.