Product Description

"Don't even think of buying and outfitting a powerboat for long-term cruising until you've read this book cover to cover."

--Milt Baker, trawler yacht live-aboard and founder, Bluewater Books & Charts

Written for owners of large powerboats (more than 35 feet long), this book picks up where other references leave off. It is one of the most ambitious and far-ranging references ever offered to powerboaters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220174 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

From the Back Cover

How to Select, Outfit, and Operate a Boat for Coastwise Cruising or Long-Distance Voyaging

Stapleton's Powerboat Bible is the equivalent of talking with dozens of experts: naval architects, boatbuilders, maintenance and repair professionals, dealers and brokers, bankers, insurance agents, plus experienced powerboat owners and skippers. For more than thirty years, Sid Stapleton has traveled all over the world in a wide variety of powerboats and motor yachts. The accumulated wisdom he presents in this book will make your voyage a relaxing adventure instead of a nerve-racking, expensive ordeal. With Stapleton's Powerboat Bible you get practical, no-nonsense information on:

• Shopping for, buying, financing, and insuring the right boat for you
• Choosing the equipment you need, from GPS receivers to water makers and anchors to medical kits
• Navigating and communicating
• Boat handling in routine and emergency situations
• Seamanship in coastal waters and offshore
• Long-distance and international voyaging
• And much more

Stapleton's Powerboat Bible will prepare you for the challenges and excitement of the cruising life.

"Sid has written a much-needed book for anyone who is buying a boat and wants to go cruising."--Bruce Kessler, West Marine's Passagemaker of the Year for his powerboat circumnavigation, 1990-93

"Don't even think of buying and outfitting a powerboat for long-term cruising until you've read this book."--Milt Baker, trawler yacht liveaboard and founder, Bluewater Books & Charts

Sid Stapleton has been a powerboat cruiser and marine journalist for more than three decades. In 1993-94, he and his wife, Anne, made a 15,000-mile voyage from Maine to Alaska via the Panama Canal in American Odyssey, their 49-foot Grand Banks motor yacht.

About the Author

Sid Stapleton (Winston-Salem, NC) has been a powerboat cruiser and marine journalist for 30 years and is a longtime contributing editor for Motor Boating & Sailing magazine. In 1993 through 1994, he voyaged from Maine to Alaska via the Panama Canal in a Grand Banks 49, a voyage of some 15,000 miles.

Customer Reviews

Solid book; packed with practicalities
This was the first book on powerboating I found in the bookstore. The type of boat he favors is much much too expensive to operate for someone of my limited means, though such craft can also be used as world cruisers if you are rich enough and don't mind stopping often for fuel and repairs. He seems to prefer the full on paranoia and modern comfort approach: boats that go fast and have all modern ameneties (air conditioning hot and cold running, satellite TV, radar, sonar, etc etc etc). Beyond this,he does explain the different powerboat arrangements possible, and gives instructions on everything from selecting specific doodads, to navigation, to legality in foreign waters, to boat handling, to radio management to tying knots. Good stuff: if I get a boat, this book goes with it. Amusingly, looking at the boats available in the dealerships, and in use in the marinas, his style seems to be the most popular one for power cruisers. Possibly because it represents a compromise between long range cruising ability, and weekend cruising ability.

enlightening
I am one builduing a passagemaking vessel and this boat helped me a lot in reviewing some basic concepts. These concepts are in constant change and of course new gimmicks are always coming around but the basics are always the same.
Thoroughly enlightening.

Finally what I've been looking for in a book!!!!
Sid Stapleton has written the book I've been looking for. Sid goes through all the required equipment you need for off coastal cruising and doesn't hestitate to give his opinion. He doesn't forget a thing. Everything from negoiating for the best vessel to what equipment is overkill.
This book is definately not for people looking to stay near coastal and cruise on weekends. This book lays out everything you would need to live on a powerboat for weeks, if not, months at a time. Besides Sid's excellent experience, he is a great writer and made this book so addictive I couldn't put it down. For those out there curious on what it takes to cruise continent to continent or what kind of budget it takes to live the ultimate lifestyle, read this book. A+!!