Books That Inspire
Sailors love our sport in part because of the many characters with whom we sail and who take up and make up the space around us at our marinas, clubs, race courses, and cruising grounds. Take a little time to read about the characters who have defined the edges of our sport, have made some sort of crazy history, or have taken risks offshore that most sailors would rather read about.
I firmly believe that most great stories are love stories of some kind. Each of these is a love story…of the sea, of competition, of others, of the devotion to the unwritten laws of the sea, of the heart, of duty, or of the question humans have asked endlessly since they first pushed off for an unseen shore…can I do this?
A Boat Shaped Mind
Tim Kent
With little ocean sailing experience, a thin budget and a lot of friends, Wisconsin sailor Tim Kent set his eyes on the longest race in the world for an individual: a solo yacht race around the planet. 27,000 miles alone. The story of how a 50-year-old book salesman from the Great Lakes raced solo around the world in the Around Alone Race is harrowing, funny and inspirational. And when the game was repeatedly on the line, he showed how one person’s determination to return home to his children, his friends and his anchored world can overcome fearsome challenges.
Taking On The World
Ellen MacArthur
Ellen’s account of her amazing performance in the Vendée Globe, in which she shocked the sailing world by finishing second in the toughest, longest solo race on the planet at the age of 24.
Dove
Robin Lee Graham
The first book I read about sailing around the planet on one’s own. Graham makes it all seem possible.
Godforsaken Sea
Derek Lundy
A riveting and eloquent account of the 1996/97 Vendée Globe Race. This edition of the race had been relatively easy until a storm swept the fleet as it attempted to exit the Pacific with consequences both tragic and uplifting.
Close To The Wind
Pete Goss
This account of Goss’ participation in the 1996/97 Vendée Globe includes his bravery in the face of the sailor’s imperative to save a stricken competitor in impossible conditions. Goss’ selflessness was rewarded in unexpected and wonderful ways.
A Voyage For Madmen
Peter Nichols
The story of the Golden Globe Race, the first non-stop, solo race around the world — in a world of wooden boats without GPS, satellite telephones, grib files, plastic sails or fleece mid-layers. The sailors in this true account could never have been imagined by Central Casting…bold, tragic and flawed, they take part in an unforgettable story. (My sister gave me this book as I prepared to race solo around the world in the Around Alone Race. The title says everything you need to know about her opinion of that quest.)
The Riddle of the Sands
Erskine Childers
Has everything — sailing, war, danger and great writing. (The author, a decorated British officer turned gun-runner, would later be executed for his part in the Irish revolution. A proper gentleman, he shook the hand of each of his executioners. His son would grow up to become the President of Ireland.)
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst
Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall
Written by two war correspondents about the fatal intersection of madness, obsession and the sea against the backdrop of the Golden Globe Race. One of the most captivating, odd and melancholy profiles of a man and the sea — ever. (The authors were both war correspondents. Tomalin was killed in the Golan Heights by a Syrian missile in 1973 while reporting on the Arab-Israeli War.)
The Long Way
Bernard Moitessier
The author, running away with victory in the Golden Globe Race, was depressed about the commercialization of the race and abandoned the race. He sailed on to Tahiti “to save (his) soul”, sailing one and a half laps of the world. This account of the race and his further adventures became the inspiration for an entire nation to get hooked on sailing as an existential quest.
Taking The Helm
Dawn Riley
This is the account of Dawn stepping in as skipper after the Whitbread Race began on board the Volvo 60 Heineken and the challenges, both personal and physical, that this great race presented to everyone aboard.
Two Years Before The Mast
Richard Henry Dana
Dana was a Harvard undergrad who went to sea for his health, rounded Cape Horn and traded in what is now the state of California. His return trip around Cape Horn took place in the winter. Herman Melville said “His chapters describing Cape Horn must have been written with an icicle.” Superb.
My Old Man and The Sea
David Hays and Daniel Hays
A father and son sail a 25-foot boat from New England around Cape Horn by way of the Panama Canal. Told with immense joy by both men, this is a purely wonderful story.
Swallows and Amazons
Arthur Ransome
This book and the entire series were a hit with my daughters and with me.
Fastnet Force Ten
John Rousmanierre
The archetype of an account of an enormous tragedy told with passion and care by a sailor who experienced the race firsthand.
The Proving Ground
G. Bruce Knecht
The 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race delivered a storm of biblical proportions before we had the advanced forecasting we have now. Knecht focuses on three boats to tell the story of a terrifying race for survival.
Fatal Storm
Rob Mundle
Another account of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race, in which seven boats were abandoned at sea and five sank. A wartime-style effort rescued fifty-seven sailors from their boats or from the sea. Six sailors died.
Captain's Courageous
Rudyard Kipling
The classic adventure of a wealthy child falling overboard and into the boat and the life of a fisherman, an accident that changed them both. The movie is also a classic.
Gypsy Moth Circles The World
Sir Francis Chichester
Chichester’s account of his solo circumnavigation. Another book that planted a persistent seed in my mind about sailing around the world alone.
A World of My Own
Sir Robin Knox-Johnson
The unforgettable memoir of a real first in sailing — the first person to win a solo, non-stop race around the world. It has been done many times since, but never with so few resources or such determination.
The Risk In Being Alive
Brian Hancock
All of us have a path to the places we now live. Some of them are just more interesting than others. My good friend Brian tells his amazing story with grace and humor.
Longitude
Dava Sobel
In our modern world, it is nearly impossible to consider that sailors used to die because they could not tell time at sea and could therefore not determine where they were from east to west. This is the gripping, unexpected and wholly unusual story of the pursuit of telling time at sea.
At The Mercy of The Sea
John Kretschmer
Three boats and a hurricane found themselves in the same patch of ocean with tragic results. Kretshmer, a hugely experienced offshore sailor and gifted writer, takes us on board to tell the story of these sailors and the storm that claimed them.
Maiden Voyage
Tania Aebi
Aebi set out to sail around the world to leave behind some troubled teenage years and to prove to her father she could complete something. A journey of the soul as well as of the planet, she accomplished her goals and then some.
Red Sky in Mourning
Tami Oldham Ashcraft
Like many classic adventures going back to first of campfire tales, this story begins with tragedy followed by unimaginable ordeal and finishes with the hope that is provided by simply surviving.
In The Heart of The Sea
Nathan Philbrick
Why read Moby Dick when you can read the true story that inspired the novel that has tortured students for years? Beautifully told story of tragedy and good fortune.
Halsey's Typhoon
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
Huge egos, uncertain weather forecasting, the imperatives of war, crushing loss of life and the gallantry of a few in a relatively unknown tragedy of naval warfare in the Pacific Theater.
Wanderer
Sterling Hayden
Hayden was a sailor on purpose and an actor by accident. Headstrong and introspective, he gives us his account of leaving his career, leaving his marriage, taking his children and heading to sea, illegally.