Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat: A Guide to Essential Features, Handling, and Gear

I found the book was a good basic summary of most things that make a boat capable of safe offshore passages. While nothing "groundbreaking" it is exactly the kind of book you need to read before you go buying your first offshore sailing boat. The really good thing is that it won't have you spending thousands on unnecessary gadgets and dispels a lot of hype and trends; just easy to understand down-to-earth advice.While I actually bought it after I purchased a small cruiser, it at least confirmed the boat will make a perfect pocket offshore passage maker (which the design has an established reputation) and has pointed me in the direction of a few necessary modifications on a sensible budget.

I purchased this book for my Kindle and my advice there is DON'T. This book is technical and difficult for a beginning sailor although the information therein is outstanding. If you do not have a nautical background you will find yourself either baffled at times or running for your nautical dictionary (you do have one, don't you?) Mr Vigor knows his subject well and you will learn a great deal if you stick with it. I believe that this is an outstanding book and well worth your investment if you are serious about offshore sailing (and surviving it). Having said that, I wasted my money buying the Kindle version. As I said, this book can be quite technical and it is replete with drawings and charts. The Kindle version does not reproduce the drawings and charts at all well and this is quite frustrating. Moreover, the formatting is absolutely awful with line breaks seemingly inserted at random and nonsense symbols substituted for symbols such as the pound sign and so forth. Often one is left guessing at what was actually meant. In short, do not waste your money on the Kindle version unless you just plan to read the book for fun. If you are planning on using the book to plan an actual voyage or just make your boat better for near-shore sailing, spend the money on the hard cover version. You will be happier.

Highly recommend for anyone interested in sailing blue water. So much information I read it twice to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Having read several books on sailing offshore (hopefully one day I will) this book distinguishes itself by giving mathematical formulas and engineering approximations of what is required in terms of loads, thicknesses, weights, lengths and demands. I down loaded the Kindle version, but I think I will also get the printed version because there are several formulas and tables that I want to use as references. The other unique area of this book is a case study of a Catalina 27, which is a coastal cruiser not really suited for offshore work, having been modified to better serve in an offshore role. My boat is also a "coastal cruiser" and not really built to take the fury of the sea, so it gave me several things to think about.

This book is packed with superb detailed descriptions of what constitutes a really good (and not so good) offshore boat! The text coupled with the illustrations, the clever wit, and the stories of the ocean adventures and challenges made the book a riveting read for me! I recommend this book for every sailor, no matter what their nautical interest, as an informative and educational guide......and a great set of stories to boot!

Well written, technical yet not overwhelming, friendly. A great refernce book to have on-board if you already sail. Perhaps a bit premature if you just want to learn about sailing. To me this is the next step to Steve Sleight's Sailing Manual.

A stellar insightful examination into what makes one boat more seaworthy than another.Offers a practical scoring system to rate boats in term of seaworthiness.In addition it is well written with wonderful anecdotes from the author as well as other sailors.For a sailor without much blue water cruising experience this book offers a life times worth of knowledge on boat design in regard to blue water cruising.

This book is full of usefull information for the transitional sailor. Lots of good stuff for someone thinking of heading out. Some what dated but good to know none the less.