Ten years ago Tom Bottomley and 1 started talking about a tight

little book full of necessary boating facts--some that weren t vital,

but good to know about.

If you love boats and the water, you acquire knowledge about

them. Some of it is practical information, some of it is lore--facts to

yarn about on a rainy weekend. Some of the information may come

in useful someday. Some of it you work with all the time, and some

is in the back of your head, waiting to be recalled when needed.

So we talked about it, and Tom started putting it together, and

when it came out people said, "It s a natural." You can tell how

good a book is by the letters you get--people saying "You ought to

put this and this in the next edition," or "Are you sure about that?"

or "I remember one time when..." That s what they always say

about Boatman s Handbook.

The first time Tom and I went cruising together, for a long week-

end aboard the little sloop Merrywend, was a cruise just made for

this little book. We had an emergency: One of our friends aboard

got so seasick you could have named a new color, dismal green,

after his face. (See page 15 for this book s notes on seasickness.) A

couple of the crew started singing folksongs that evening. Well,

Tom didn t include a tape with this new edition, but the idea for the

Amenities chapter probably came out of that songfest.