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New Book: Marine Diesel Basics by Dennison Berwick

Here at the Nautical Mind, we have books written by all kinds of perspectives. Many of our books are by experts like Nigel Calder and are filled with technical details. Others, like the book I’m going to talk about today, are the the product of hard experience, but are written for those without advanced technical training. Marine Diesel Basics by Dennison Berwick is a brilliant book that should be part of the boat’s library for everybody Canadian sailor who has a diesel engine aboard their boat.

Dennison Berwick is an experienced Canadian sailor, and this book is borne of his hard-won experience aboard Oceandrifter. This book specifically targets many aspects of diesel engines, from ongoing maintenance, to winterization, re-commissioning in the spring, and preparation for long-term storage. It is very specifically targeted to diesel engines- and doesn’t cover other topics. But this is absolutely fine because this should be the only book on diesel engines most people should need. Frankly, it seems that if there issues you can’t address with this book, they are probably ones that you should seek professional mechanical help for anyways.

For day-to-day maintenance, and for the seasonal maintenance requirements, this book is really well laid out. It considers the diesel engine as a system. The book is divided into three main sections: Maintenance, Lay-Up, and Recommissioning, and each section contains many individual processes.

Although this book doesn’t have many photographs, each process has a number of illustrations. These, for example, show the reader what the process they’re doing will generally look like. And further, visual clues of good things and bad things to look for. When it comes to maintenance for example, it provides examples of both what is to be expected, and then lists of alternatives and necessary actions.

Although it may seem like a minor thing, each process details all the equipment needed- including for cleaning up before and after. This kind of attention to detail will make this book ideal for those who are not especially experienced and yet are entirely capable of maintaining their engines themselves

Overall, this book is highly recommended for anybody who has a diesel engine aboard their boat.

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