Brilliant Boats

Sail the high seas in this picture book featuring playful art, animal sailors and a brilliant picture dictionary.

A charmingly illustrated selection of thirty-six iconic boats and the remarkable stories surrounding them. Whether it be on a humble fishing boat, a canvas kayak, or a racing yacht, the allure of navigating across a brilliant blue sea is a pleasure that many dream of experiencing. Notable Boats presents thirty-six small crafts and the inspirational journeys that made them memorable, celebrating the beauty and craftsmanship of each vessel. From an eleven-foot micro-cruiser that was built on an apartment balcony then set sail around the world, to the seven-day voyage that would change John Lennon’s life, this book is an absorbing read that will engage the reader in the romance of maritime adventures. Featuring beautiful color illustrations, attractively styled statistics, and gripping text, Notable Boats is a delightful read for anyone who appreciates the art of sailing, showing a range of everyday crafts such as the canoe and the fishing trawler, boats of historic interest, fictional ships, and more. Each boat is illustrated in detail, including the aerial view of its deck, a map of its course, and a written description of the boat and what it is famous for. The stories cover the globe, with compelling tales from all the world’s waterways, from the Nile to the poles and from the Spanish Main across the seven seas. Notable Boats offers an intimate window into a world of sailing and pays homage to some of the world’s most unforgettable boats, adventurous sailors, and amazing voyages.

From a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, a brilliantly conceived and illuminating reconsideration of a key period in the life of Ernest Hemingway that will forever change the way he is perceived and understood. Focusing on the years 1934 to 1961—from Hemingway’s pinnacle as the reigning monarch of American letters until his suicide—Paul Hendrickson traces the writer’s exultations and despair around the one constant in his life during this time: his beloved boat, Pilar. We follow him from Key West to Paris, to New York, Africa, Cuba, and finally Idaho, as he wrestles with his best angels and worst demons. Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved fishing cruiser, to exult in the sea, to fight the biggest fish he could find, to drink, to entertain celebrities and friends and seduce women, to be with his children. But as he began to succumb to the diseases of fame, we see that Pilar was also where he cursed his critics, saw marriages and friendships dissolve, and tried, in vain, to escape his increasingly diminished capacities. Generally thought of as a great writer and an unappealing human being, Hemingway emerges here in a far more benevolent light. Drawing on previously unpublished material, including interviews with Hemingway’s sons, Hendrickson shows that for all the writer’s boorishness, depression, and alcoholism, and despite his choleric anger, he was capable of remarkable generosity—to struggling writers, to lost souls, to the dying son of a friend. We see most poignantly his relationship with his youngest son, Gigi, a doctor who lived his adult life mostly as a cross-dresser, and died squalidly and alone in a Miami women’s jail. He was the son Hemingway forsook the least, yet the one who disappointed him the most, as Gigi acted out for nearly his whole life so many of the tortured, ambiguous tensions his father felt. Hendrickson’s bold and beautiful book strikingly makes the case that both men were braver than we know, struggling all their lives against the complicated, powerful emotions swirling around them. As Hendrickson writes, “Amid so much ruin, still the beauty.” Hemingway’s Boat is both stunningly original and deeply gripping, an invaluable contribution to our understanding of this great American writer, published fifty years after his death.

A handbook on sailing classic boats by the 'guru of gaff-rig sailors', replete with illustrations and clear descriptions of techniques that are unique to the classic boat world.

"When a family is stranded at sea, there is only one rough, tough tugboat that can save them. Blue Boat!"--

David C. "Bud" McIntosh was a designer, builder, and sailor of large and small wooden cruising boats for more than 50 years, and wrote about it for over 10 of those years. He made his home on New Hampshire's Piscataqua River, where he was teacher and friend to both amateur and professional boatbuilders.

A toy boat gets separated from its owner and has an adventure on the high seas.

The step-by-step guides in this series provide readers with all the information they need to master the art of drawing. All titles in the series include information on materials and techniques, with step-by-step drawings and advice on composition and perspective.