Sailing Big on a Small Sailboat
Cardwell, Jerry - SAILING BIG ON A SMALL SAILBOAT 3rd edition. Sheridan House 2007 ISBN 978-1-57409-247-9 US$19.95 240 pages. photos
It is truly amazing that this book has gone into 3 editions (the latest edited by Dieter Loibner) as it seems to have no obvious audience. It is clearly written for someone who has no experience with sailing and had deep enough pockets to buy a brand new boat. The book is a bit of an illustrated catalogue for US manufactures of boats from 22 to 26 feet: Catalina, Com-Pac, Etap, Hunter, MacGregor, Rhodes, and Schock Santana.
Most first-time boat buyers look to the used boat market as there are thousands of excellent boats out there at a reasonable price. Cardwell seems intent on showing how your trailerable boat can be just as comfortable as a bigger boat but it seems as if he doth protest just a bit too much because most of the book seems to dwell on the "just like a real one" approach. Rather then celebrating the benefits of a small boat the book tries to show how you can cram the same livability into a smaller craft. This is not a book about sailing it is a book about furnishing a boat
One particular irritant is the insistence Cardwell has that female members of the crew have to be patronized and are aboard to make life more "homey" for the captain. For example when discussing curtains for the cabin(!) he advises the skipper to "wait for the right moment to ask the first mate if there's interest in an off season project that does not require sanding, painting, or varnishing."
There is nothing in this book that can't easily be found elsewhere. It's not filled with useful tips or tricks its simply a list of things that one should buy for one's brand-new boat so it will be "just like a real one."
I regret having wasted my money on this book. I strongly recommend you buy Stan Grayson's Sailing Small instead.