SHAKEDOWN CRUISE

Nigel Calder Adlard Coles, $25 Few sailing writers are as knowledgeable or as adventurous as Nigel Calder, SAIL’s longtime technical guru. Never afraid to stick his boat’s bow where others fear to venture, Calder has earned his stripes as a cruising guide author as well as a systems expert. If you’re ever lucky enough to spend cocktail hour with him, you’ll hear some tales that beggar belief—but they’ll all be true. Shakedown Cruise is a sort of potted autobiography in which the author of the Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Handbook relates the stories of his earliest cruising adventures and misadventures. From being run down by a freighter in the North Sea to close encounters with sandbanks of all kinds, this collection of anecdotes and sage advice is an engaging and educational read.— PN