Posted by alan truelove on January 25, 2008 at 19:03:41 from 209.183.34.48 user atruelove.
In Reply to: Re: Puffin picture books - Sailing posted by Owen Roberts on January 25, 2008 at 00:11:27:
Thanks for info -- I got it from abebooks (from a US dealer) for $10, For US TARS,It's always worthwhile to try Canada also on their advanced search.
We had a nice chat some time ago on Riddle of the Sands (1 of the books on the houseboat in WH?) and the sequel by Sam lewellyn... (also known for the sequel to Guns of Navarrone)
I hadn't realized he wrote a whole slew of (sailing) books [they are all avail. on Abebooks for $1], until I picked up a copy of Deadeye in a Toronto used book store-- In this one He really crams in all kinds of sailing .. Scotland, and even Lake Geneva!
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see http://www.samllewellyn.com/thrillers.html
( I have added this below to save you the trouble)
'As you have probably worked out by now, the sea is one of the ruling passions of my life. While cruising and racing in boats ranging from dinghies to megayachts, I noticed that they have a kind of pressure-cooking effect on the emotions. It might be the trivial fury of someone whose last chocolate biscuit has been stolen when she is two thousand miles from the nearest shop. It might be the thwarted ambition of a man who has invested millions in a giant yacht, and has been cheated in a race. Or it might be the usual levers - greed, jealousy and spite - beefed up when surrounded by water.
So I wrote a series of sailing thrillers, set in and around the fishing village of Pulteney, on the southwest coast of England. Pulteney is a village once inhabited by fishermen, since bought up by bankers. It is the place you keep your boat for the winter, probably to have it refitted under the benevolent guidance of Charlie Agutter, local yacht designer, whisky drinker, and occasional detective. Pulteney is a place where you meet people who will be the other side of the world next week, and hear their stories. The object of these books is to give you all the thrills of yachting with none of the excess moisture, and to keep your heart in your mouth long past your bedtime.
* Dead Reckoning
People lose their cool on boats. I had always wondered whether this ever went as far as murder. In this, the first of the Pulteney books, I decided to make it happen.. Charlie Agutter has designed a revolutionary boat. Then his brother is killed sailing one, and the design is blamed. Griefstruck Charlie knows better. With the Captain’s Cup races approaching and fortunes hanging in the balance, Charlie suspects sabotage. He needs to find out who has done it, to win back his good name, his livelihood, and to win the race. Oh, and to save his sister-in-law’s life...
* Blood Orange Multihulls are the fastest things on water. After a trip across channel in a racing catamaran that left me deeply excited but with two black eyes from green water coming across the foredeck at thirty knots, it was obvious that I had to write a catamaran book.
French multihull sailors are the Formula One drivers of the sea, with the nerve, the power, and the temperament. They do not take kindly to British sailors horning in on their circuit. So when a man is washed off the trimaran Street Express in an Irish anchorage, the police know where to look. But appearances can be deceptive...
“Sam Llewellyn sends the salt spray flying”
The Sunday Express
* Death Roll
Death Roll
I once ran the day shift in a bar in Spain's Costa del Sol. Here I met two brothers from East London, one of whom could knock out a donkey with his bare fist, and the other of whom did stuff that I cannot mention, except to say it was very illegal, indeed. There are a lot of boats there, huge amounts of money, and not much extradition.. The stories just fall into your lap.
When an elderly boatyard owner suddenly decides to go visiting on Spain's Costa del Crime, there are those who say it is perfectly natural. His wife is not among them. She says it is right out of character, and asks her friend Martin Devereux, a twelve-meter sailor full of nothing but bad attitude, to investigate. And very soon after that, Martin is wishing he had never started....
* Deadeye
The west coast of Scotland is Europe's finest and loneliest cruising ground. The same year I went there for the first time, I met a fisherman who had discovered the secret of the steady income, so much sought after by fishermen.. When he occasionally trawled up a WWII naval mine in his nets, he received big-scale compensation for lost fishing time. So in his shed he had started a collection of these mines, rusty, lethal, and sweating nitroglycerine, for use on slow fishing days. You will understand that this was too hot to ignore. What happens when a divorce lawyer sailing in the North of Scotland picks up a man who has fallen overboard from a ship in the middle of the night? For one thing, nobody thanks him. For another, his life seems to be in danger. But then it turns out that there is a lot more than his life at stake. Things like unexploded mines, and toxic waste, and the his ex-wife, and his future with the woman he loves....