Anchoring & Mooring Techniques Illustrated

I loved this book. It is very well written, sometimes almost quiant, having been tranlated from French. And even though the topic is basically technical in nature, the book includes many personal anecdotes as well as historical passages from ancient books. It is unfortunate that most of the technical information is uselessly out of date -- anchors, depth sounders, chart plotters, etc. have made amazing progress in the past 25 years. It is hard to recommend this book to someone just learning about anchoring (the intended audience), but I enjoyed the book very much and learned from it too, and definitely recommend it for the exposure to the author's extensive first-hand experience and for the historical perspective it provides (both a quarter center ago when it was written and 100-200 years ago in the Age of Sail). CONTENTS Part 1 ANCHORING EQUIPMENT Anchors: Types - Choosing an anchor Anchor chains and warps: Length, strenght, joints - Secondary ground-tackle - Stowage of anchoring gear Anchor trials: Setting up - Presentation and analysis of results The forces acting on anchor and cable: Windage - Current - Wave forces Anchoring equipment: Bow fittings - Anchor lights - Depth sounding equipment Part 2 ANCHORING TECHNIQUES The search for shelter: Problems - Preparation Manoeuvres of anchoring: Anchoring under sail - Use of a buoy Anchoring in strong winds: Length of scope - The fork moor - Doubled anchors - Backing an anchor - Taking a line ashore Special cases: Emergency anchoring - Narrow waters - Use of the dinghy - Tidal waters Stories Weighing anchor: Preparation - Under power - Under sail Drying out: How - Where - When Permanent moorings: Equipment - Layout - Sinking the mooring Conversion Charts