Waterstones A New History of Yachting
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Price: £49.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: An overview of the history of yachting in its social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Shortlisted for the Maritime Foundation's Mountbatten Award 2018 This book, by a leading expert in the field, is the first major history of yachting for over a quarter of a century. Setting developments within political,social and economic changes, the book tells the story of yachting from Elizabethan times to the present day: the first uses of yachts, by monarchs, especially Charles II; yacht clubs and yacht racing in the eighteenth century; the early years of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes and an analysis of the America Cup challenges; the pioneering developments in Ireland and the exporting of yachting to the colonies and trading outposts of the Empire; the expansion of yachting in Victorian times; the Golden Age of Yachting in the years before the First World War, when it was the sport of the crowned heads of Europe; the invention of the dinghy and the keelboat classes and, after the Second World War, the massive numbers of home-built dinghies; the breaking of new boundaries by risk-taking single-handers from the mid-1960s; the expansion of leisure sailing that came in the 1980s with the use of moulded plastic yachts; and current trends and pressures within the sport. Well-referenced yet highly readable, this book will be of interest both to the scholar and the sailing enthusiast. MIKE BENDER is an experienced yachtsman and qualified Ocean Yachtmaster, with some forty thousand miles, mostly singlehanded, under the keel. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in History at the University of Exeter. Waterstones A New History of Yachting - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9781783271337
Delivery cost: 0.00
ISBN: 9781783271337
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Author: MG
Rating: 5
Review: For those interested in how sailing has developed, and as importantly where the pastime is currently going, Mike Bender's near academic study makes an important contribution. The book looks in depth at the way we engage with sailing as society changes, and the period from the 1960's to the present day makes fascinating reading. His pessimistic conclusions on the future of leisure sailing are insightful, as we move into a world where ownership and slow relaxation ( two fundamental elements of leisure sailing over the last 50 years) are being replaced by a demand for many varying experiences, renting equipment and staying in touch). This is clearly going to be a classic and is up there with works such as Adlard Coles's Heavy Weather Sailing and Robin Knox Johnson's A World of My Own.
Author: Ginny
Rating: 5
Review: This is a carefully researched and detailed, comprehensive history of [mainly] British yachting. Mike Bender is a really engaging writer, with a subtle wit and discerning eye for all sorts of important aspects of yachting. There are masses of details, as well as all sorts of reference resources. Mike has earned a Ph D in yachting history and/or literature from the University of Exeter and England, and it is more than well deserved. Some might think that that entails nothing more than reading a few texts and periodicals, but you will get a better appreciation for the depth and breadth of his research and writing if you consider that the very detailed bibliography is 37 pages and the index is 22 -- all in fairly fine print. This is not a book for the faint of heart and it is not a book that you should plan to plow through relentlessly although it is very readable. Rather (in my humble opinion) it is a book to dip into and read through a topic or a period of time, then taking some time to sit and ponder that for a bit before proceeding onwards. In fact, while reading about -- for instance offshore and ocean racing -- you might wish to compare that activity in different time periods, or you might wish to read about a specific race, or boat, and all the citations, foot notes, and reference material encourages one to proceed laterally as well as moving forward. I can't praise this book highly enough although I could wish that it also included American yachting. Perhaps he would like to earn an American Ph D -- perhaps at MIT - in conjunction with the Hart Nautical Museum...............
