The Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation publishes pilotage information through books and a range of media acessible through its own website www.rccpf.org.uk.
Reviews of the most recent RCCPF Publications and other books written by RCC members are shown below.
Skip Novak on Sailing: Words of Wisdom from 50 Years Afloat is a fascinating collection of articles contributed to Yachting World between 2014 and 2023.
A Cruising Adventure and How-To Guide by Nicholas Coghlan
Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation Balearic Islands 12th Edition, David and Susie Baggaley
Andrew Wilkes reviews Marek Jurczynski's publication
Skipper Lynam developed his love of the sea and sailing as a schoolboy at King William’s College on the Isle of Man becoming, in time, a successful canoe sailor.
Review of Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation publication ‘Norway, Mainland coast, fjord and islands, including Svalbard and Jan Mayen’ 4th Edition
Bermuda, Azores, Madeira Group, Canary Islands and Cape Verdes:
Editor: Jane Russell, RCC, RCCPF Publisher: Royal Institution of Navigation, 2020. Available as a free download
Nigel Wollen reviews Mark Fishwick's West Country Cruising Companion
An excellent pilot by Madeleine and Stephan Strobel updated May 2020.
4th Edition. By Rod and Lucinda Heikell. A Review of this welcome update by Will Pedder
This practical guide deserves a place of honour on the chart table of any sailing yacht venturing to the Chilean channels or, as Bill Tillman referred to them, ‘the magical place of the unknown’.
"The book is a triumph, and represents a significant raising of the bar. Jo is to be congratulated, and I do hope readers will be enthused sufficiently to cruise the South China Sea."
This book is a very practical guide to long distance ocean sailing, compiled by a very accomplished and experienced practitioner and aimed at the would-be ocean sailor.
This meticulously updated 8th edition invites the cruising sailor to safely explore numerous exquisite locations, reassured by the author's wealth of experience.
Our review of September 2019 updated to include CCA review as a download. This book is not a “how to do it” manual, more a compendium of the most important issues.....
"I commend Christopher and the RCCPF team on producing an excellent book that will be an invaluable resource to anyone making this trip (Trinidad to Tobago) for the first time"
Reviewed by Peter Bruce who says: "This Second Edition is thoroughly comprehensive and gives those with it a huge advantage over those without."
Reviewer Jay Devonshire writes: "An up to date Pilot Book is an essential, and this latest publication is to to be recommended."
For many a sailor, crossing the Atlantic Ocean is their holy grail, the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest for a climber. Both are immense challenges and preparation is key.
The RCC Pilotage Foundation has recently brought out a fourth edition, published by Imray, of their extensive guide to The Baltic Sea and its Approaches.
‘Gibraltar and the five Mediterranean costas of Spain form the subject matter of this pilot.’
Paul Heiney's lavishly illustrated book warrants a well-deserved place in the chart table and has plenty of general interest for those seeking inspiration for their next cruise.
This is a beautifully produced and extremely well structured guide to this very long and diverse cruising ground. Reviewed by Katharine Ingram
The Canary Islands Guide is very much a guide for tourists rather than a pilot book, but as such it has the information for a touring yachtsman to enjoy these islands.
For such a small country The Netherlands has an amazing 6,000km of navigable waterways and there is something there for everyone.
The revised edition of the Arctic and Northern Waters Pilot is a compelling volume that takes the reader into waters that few will travel, for those who go there it is essential reading.
Reviewers Katharine & Peter Ingram write: "This RCC Pilotage Foundation book is a beautifully produced and extremely well structured guide to the vast cruising area that is the Pacific Ocean."
The 3rd Edition of this very useable cruising companion is brought right up to date (2016) by Derek Aslett. Published by Fernhurst Books and available through Imray and many local chandleries.
The newly published third edition of the RCC Pilotage Foundation Norway pilot book by Judy Lomax is reviewed below by Madeleine Strobel
A Sixth Edition of the RCCPF Atlantic Islands Pilot has just been published by Imray. It is reviewed by Alan Spriggs (RCC) below.
This is the 7th edition of this well-known and popular book. There is much that is new in this edition, all beautifully explored and explained.
French maths teacher Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, known as VDH, is without doubt one of the most accomplished solo racing yachtsmen the world has seen. Over 40 years he has completed 6 solo circumnavigations which have resulted in 5 podium places. He has rounded Cape Horn 12 times and crossed the Equator 17 times. He still holds the record he set in 2004 for circumnavigating the world the wrong way, east to west, in 122 days. His sixth round the world race was the 2019/20 Golden Globe Race, which he won at the age of 73. The race was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Golden Globe Race (GGR) in 1968/9, won by Robin Knox-Johnston in Suhaili and it had to be carried out “as in 1968” with old-fashioned heavy displacement boats – sturdy but slow – and without any modern aids to navigation or communication.
The Last Sea Dog is VDH’s autobiography but focussing on the 2019 GGR. The book starts with an account of the knockdown during his GGR, resulting in rig failure some 2000 nm northwest of Cape Horn which, had it not been for VDH’s incredible courage and perseverance, would have put him out of the race. The next chapter suddenly takes one back to his early childhood in Amiens. Thereafter the chapters gybe rather confusingly between the race, and earlier periods in his life which formed the character necessary to become one of the most successful solo yachtsmen.
Notwithstanding the stop-start narrative, it does lead the reader grippingly into the mindset of the successful sailors who have to push themselves and their boats to, and occasionally beyond, their very limits; fatigue and discomfort being their constant companions.
Whilst all of VDH’s adventures have been perilous, it is his organised mathematical mind that enhances his chances and reduces the risk as far as possible by meticulous planning, and anticipation of the unexpected and unlikely. A lesson for all his readers.
Interestingly, what weighs on VDH most during the GGR race is the solitude – not because it takes much longer than modern races (220 days vs less than 80 days) but because the rules restrict all the competitors to 50-year-old technology and that does not allow any communication with one’s base team, other competitors or loved ones at home. A very different sort of pressure to modern racing circumnavigators who have to cope not only with yachts travelling at incredible speed, but also with the need to conduct daily video press briefings.
(As the race is celebrating the Golden Globe Race of 1968, comparison is inevitable with VDH’s compatriot Bernard Moitessier and his book The Long Way. Whilst The Last Sea Dog is a fascinating glimpse into the life and achievements of one of the world’s greatest sailors, and is most definitely worth reading, it does lack the beautifully crafted narrative that has kept my very well-thumbed copy of The Long Way on my bookshelf for the last 50 years. It is available from Fernhurst Books at £14.99) As the race is celebrating the Golden Globe Race of 1968, comparison is inevitable with VDH’s compatriot Bernard Moitessier and his book The Long Way. Whilst The Last Sea Dog may not quite match the beautifully crafted narrative of Moitessier’s book it is nonetheless a fascinating glimpse into the life and achievements of one of the world’s greatest sailors and is most definitely worth reading. It is available from Fernhurst Books at £14.99
T J B
