The Boat Show will be [...]]]> It’s that time of year again!  The 2012 Toronto International Boat Show is upon us.  This year promises to be one of the best ever, with our much expanded booth, some great boat show bargains, and a host of fascinating authors scheduled to speak and hang out at our booth.

The Nautical Mind at the Toronto Boat Show, booth G545 in the "Mariner's Marketplace"

The Boat Show will be held between Saturday, January 14th and Sunday, January 22nd at the Direct Energy Centre in Exhibition Place.  Details about hours,  admission, and more are on their site here.  We hope to see you at our booth, #G545.

Bargains:

Our booth is always packed with great deals!  In addition to our listed, already massively reduced sale books, we’ll be discounting all our remaining 2012 calendars to clear stock, and offering surprise deals!

Authors:

This year, we’re looking forward to reconnecting with Paul & Sheryl Shard, Liza Copeland, Barb Sprenger, Mike Evans & Jayne Finn ,   Abby and Zac Sunderland, and plenty of other interesting people.  The seminar schedule is posted on the Boat Show’s site, here.  Many of the authors will also be hanging around our booth, swapping yarns and autographing books.

Sharon Green’s Ultimate Sailing calendars are by far our most popular calendars, and it’s easy to see why!  Each photo is full of energy, motion, and beauty.  This year, marking the 30th Anniversary of her calendar, Sharon Green says:

The amount of [...]]]>  

Sharon Green’s Ultimate Sailing calendars are by far our most popular calendars, and it’s easy to see why!  Each photo is full of energy, motion, and beauty.  This year, marking the 30th Anniversary of her calendar, Sharon Green says:

The amount of time and energy spent gathering these images is mind-boggling. Traveling to out-of-the-way venues, editing and shooting (not to mention waiting for the right shot ) we log thousands of hours and ten times as many miles in our quest to bring you the Ultimate Sailing Calendar.  Like snowflakes, no two shots are ever the same. Our ‘playground’ is a myriad of ever-changing shapes, color, motion, angle, and light, and this year’s selection of images proves that.

The 2012 calendar is available here.

Though I was raised in Newport, Rhode Island, I didn’t grow up sailing. All that changed when I landed my first real job, the receptionist (!) at Cruising World magazine. But it literally changed my life. I was [...]]]> Herb McCormick, author of the recently published Gone to the Sea writes:

Herb McCormick

Though I was raised in Newport, Rhode Island, I didn’t grow up sailing. All that changed when I landed my first real job, the receptionist (!) at Cruising World magazine. But it literally changed my life. I was surrounded by great, nurturing sailors and writers, and after a promotion to the editorial department, I soon found myself delivering sailboats to the Caribbean, racing to Bermuda, cruising the Bahamas, and even getting the opportunity to write about it all. It was a dream job for any sailing nut and I count my blessings every day.

“Gone to the Sea,” the title of my new book, has two meanings. It’s one of the chapters in this anthology of my favorite articles, profiles and voyages, the story of solo sailor Mike Plant’s tragic final voyage. But it’s also an apt description of my own lucky journey as a yachting journalist and sailor. For once I truly discovered the sea, well, I was long gone…

I grew up in Toronto and often made a weekend trip to the waterfront with my father who kept a record of the ships we saw in port.

After graduating from Victoria College, University of Toronto, in 1963, I got the opportunity to spend part of the [...]]]> Marine historian and author Skip Gillham writes:

I grew up in Toronto and often made a weekend trip to the waterfront with my father who kept a record of the ships we saw in port.

After graduating from Victoria College, University of Toronto, in 1963, I got the opportunity to spend part of the summer as an “oiler” on the Great Lakes tanker LUBROLAKE. The St. Lawrence Seaway was now in its fifth season and the nature of Great Lakes shipping was changing. The old ships he remembered were disappearing and, as a history major, I began to research their fates.

Pre-Seaway Salties

The Ships of Collingwood

Liberties on the Lakes

I returned from sailing to attend McMaster University and obtain a Physical Education degree and then began a 33-year career as a high school teacher.

As my marine research progressed, I began writing articles for historical journals. In 1970, I succeeded the late Capt. Geoffrey Hawthorn as author of “Ships That Ply The Lakes” in the St. Catharines Standard and, combining the two pf us, the popular feature is now in its 56th year. The following year, I wrote “Ships Along the Seaway”, the first of my now more than 60 books.

I was honoureed to be named “Great Lakes Historian of the Year” by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit in 1994. I continue my research and writing and my articles have appeared in a variety of historical, corporate and newspaper publications over the years.

Ships of the Algoma Central Corporation

Oranje Lijn - Great Lakes Pioneers

Ships in Trouble vol 1: 1850-1930

In 1995, I was invited to a lake in the Adirondack Mountains, New York. In the evening, the fog would settle on the lake. By the time I would take my hand-made wooden rowboat out on the water, the fog would be gently lifting. One day, in the mist [...]]]> Photographer Michael Khan writes:

In 1995, I was invited to a lake in the Adirondack Mountains, New York. In the evening, the fog would settle on the lake. By the time I would take my hand-made wooden rowboat out on the water, the fog would be gently lifting. One day, in the mist of the coming morning, I came across a boat so unusual and beautiful in design that I felt compelled to photograph her. Hours later, the serenity of the morning shot was long forgotten, but the image was still there. I came home and didn’t know what to do with the portfolio. I did some research and learned an old recipe for sepia-toning the photographs that I had taken that day. After working in the darkroom and testing the new technique, I came up with a selection that I sent to the magazine Adirondack Life. Not long after, they contacted me and ending up running a six-page spread of these images. The Bow of the Idem (featured here in the picture behind me) was one from that day, and it marked the beginning of my nautical photography career.

Seldom in human history has something as beautiful and functional as the sailboat been created. It is lovely and graceful yet powerful and purposeful. The romance of the sail and the potential to capture the vessel is unlimited. From this perspective, I was driven to share the art that inhibits these time-captured treasures. I created this book (The Spirit of Sailing) to celebrate the joy of sailing and salute the preservation efforts of the passionate and dedicated people who perpetuate this time-honored pastime. We love sailing for its similitude of life itself- the memories of the storms and fog soon fade when the sun comes out and the wind blows fair. I hope my photographs allow these elements to live on where they can be treasured far beyond a fleeting moment of morning.

The Spirit of Sailing, in its fourth printing, features over 60 of Michael’s dramatic sepia-toned photographs of sailboats and water. This coffee volume book is eloquently set beside quotes in praise of sailing and the sea. With his 1950’s camera, Michael Kahn travels extensively to photograph the world’s finest boats and pristine seascapes. He collects his images on traditional black and white film and then produces luminous silver gelatin prints in his darkroom.

I made a false start as a writer back in the late 1970s when I strolled into the Yachting Monthly office on my return from an extended cruise to the Americas. To my amazement, the redoubtable assembly of talent I discovered opted to encourage a tyro like me by buying a simple [...]]]>

Tom Cunliffe in hard weather aboard his pilot cutter

Tom Cunliffe writes:

I made a false start as a writer back in the late 1970s when I strolled into the Yachting Monthly office on my return from an extended cruise to the Americas. To my amazement, the redoubtable assembly of talent I discovered opted to encourage a tyro like me by buying a simple one-page article. A quarter-century and a good few miles later, I found myself anchored in a mangrove swamp in Martinique with time on my hands, so I wrote a jolly piece on star navigation and submitted it to the magazine. I wondered about its relevance to mainstream sailors even then, but they published that too.

A year or two later I sailed my ancient pilot cutter home to find YM’s editor beating the bushes in search of a likely character to head up a new seamanship initiative. The job was freelance, and it came my way. I kept it up, interspersed with too many extended breaks to go cruising, until a new editor sent back a piece I’d written about some boat-handling knack or other with the comment that, ‘There’s more in you than this. You need a column.’ Since that happy day, I’ve realised that being a columnist is a privilege. It’s one of the few areas in journalism where a writer can indulge personal thoughts. The sea is a colourful environment where characters abound. It offers a unique mirror to reflect on human nature, sometimes genuinely heroic, more often asking to be lampooned. I’m indebted to Yachting Monthly for allowing me my soapbox.

Tom Cunliffe is the author of many fine books, including the new, entertaining, and appropriately-titled Sailing, Yachts & Yarns.

Through the years, many people who have read and enjoyed our Cruising in Seraffyn books asked, “When are you going to write about your sailing adventures on board Taleisin?”  As we worked building this bigger sister to our first offshore cruising boat we finished writing the four part [...]]]> Lin Pardey writes:

Lin's boat, Taleisin Under Sail

Through the years, many people who have read and enjoyed our Cruising in Seraffyn books asked, “When are you going to write about your sailing adventures on board Taleisin?”  As we worked building this bigger sister to our first offshore cruising boat we finished writing the four part series that told of the wondrous times we had sailing on board Seraffyn to explore the far reaches of the world. At the same time we wrote two practical books on voyaging under sail.  These practical books lead to a demand from both readers and editors for ever more information on the how-to aspects of cruising. But even as Larry and I worked together on these practical volumes, I always wanted to return to the sailing narratives which spoke of the more personal aspects of our lives.  Yet for some reason, every time I tried writing another book describing the adventuresome and romantic aspects of life afloat, I found myself stalled. Then I realized the genesis of the voyages we’ve had on board Taleisin lay in the story that came to be called, Bull Canyon, a Boatbuilder, a Writer and other Wildlife. This story had to be written before I could talk of going to sea. So, though the action in this book takes place on land, I hope sailors will enjoy Noah and the Roadrunner and see it as the prequel to Taleisin’s Tales.

- Lin Pardey

Kawau island

New Zealand 2011

Usually the first questions regarding the book are “How did you get started with this idea?” followed by [...]]]> Sailor, author, and Nautical Mind alumna Vicki de Kleer weighed in with the origins of her innovative and invaluable Visual Guide to the Flags of the World.

A Visual Gudie to the Flags of the World

Vicki de Kleer (L) and the Nautical Mind Staff

Regarding the Visual Guide to the Flags of the World

Usually the first questions regarding the book are “How did you get started with this idea?” followed by “Why do you think it is particularly useful?” In answer, I will tell you that my curiosity about flags started decades ago, when I was first taught how to sail. This was in a particularly busy sea area off the south of England, close to Portsmouth and Southampton. At that time there were many trans-Atlantic liners coming, anchoring, and going. Among them the Queen Mary, Bremen, and Normandie, as well as Naval ships, fishing boats and visiting yachts. So it was fun, and easy to learn what part of the world they came from by their national ensigns. Some of these are the same as the national flag, others are a variation of that, or even completely different. Only Great Britain goes so far as to have three! White specifically for the Navy, blue for Merchant Marine, and everybody else flies what is commonly, if informally, known as the Red Duster. (Protocol is strictly observed, however one morning at our local Sailing Club, a small tent was found flaunting an enormous White Ensign! The inhabitants claimed they ‘found it’, but incidentally at the time there was a lot of Naval activity just off shore, and no further questions were asked. )

Years went by, occasionally my memory was jogged back to flags when sailing to ports in the Azores or the Bahamas. And sometimes by events ashore, such as the Olympic Games. Then in the summer of 2000 there was a Tall Ships Race around the Atlantic. I was fortunate enough to get a crew position on the barque Lord Nelson on the last leg, from Halifax to Amsterdam. The harbour was absolutely packed with assorted ships, thick with masts. And more flags, signals, ensigns and banners flying than one could count! And that was the trigger! I had been using a flag book with nations listed in alphabetical order. That involved thumbing through pages until confronted with the one that matched the one I hoped to identify. Very time consuming and sometimes frustrating! There had to be a better way! And that led to a format similar to a field guide, based on design and colour. There are a limited number of basic geometric flag designs, for instance stripes, which may be horizontal, vertical or diagonal, few or numerous. And there are limited strong colours traditionally used. So the use of the book is centered on two pages of basic patterns. Having determined that, you will be directed to pages arranged by colour. This method will enable you to identify the country of origin of a flag you have seen within about 14 seconds. And that answers the second question. It is uniquely quick and hassle free to use! This was originally written with marine use in mind- it is already aboard some training ships and many yachts. However it is also a reference book in libraries and schools. Sports communities have also been interested during international competitions. Almost indispensable for catching up with who-is-who during the Olympic parade! Needless to say it is particularly useful for travellers,- it only weighs 150 grams! And so for a few dollars that will not strain your pocket book, you will have a vexillological reference volume that will fit in your pocket! I trust that you will find it valuable.

For a limited time, Vicki de Kleer’s Visual Guide to the Flags of the World is $3.99, 70% off the regular price at the Nautical Mind.