Similar Book as Zen and Motorcycles Maintenance about Sailing ?

[Blue Crab]

[QUOTE=roverhi;896481 Met Moitessier when he was living on Ahe in the Tuamotu's. [COLOR=darkorchid]He wasn't the typical yacht club sailor.[/[/COLOR]QUOTE]

Indeed. What a splendid understatement. One of the reasons I don't really mind being older than the oceans themselves, is that I have experienced and/or read about some truly epic stuff that younger folks can't even imagine and are not interested in.



callmecrazy: thanks for that super link to the MOQ and Pirsig's essay(s). It should be required reading for all who say they're going to buy a boat and sail away.

[mrohr]

Hi all, I'm no expert on zen ,but have these books mentioned above are on my list; maybe they will explain why I find sailing so transcendent.

Nirvana is beckoning with spring arriving early this year in the N.E. U.S..

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Met Moitessier when he was living on Ahe in the Tuamotu's. He wasn't the typical yacht club sailor.

I envy you that meeting. Moitessier was a complicated man, to say the least. I would have liked to have met the Smeatons and the Hiscoxes for similar reasons.

"Tamata" was indeed a bit preachy, but just like an atheist moved by the religious passion of a Martin Luther King, you could get something out of it even if you didn't necessarily buy the entire premise.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by callmecrazy

The Water In Between - Kevin Patterson

Not quite as deep as Pirsig, but he basically translates a lot of other philosophers into sailing throughout the book. Really good read.

Eventually, it was a good read. I found it a bit self-pitying and whiny at first, but the author bucked up in time after the sea gave him some perspective!

[sailorladd]

Originally Posted by Viilettaja

Hello all,

Would anyone happen to know is there a book which would look into sailing and traveling in same logical and philosophical manor as this Robert M. Prisings classic on motorcycles. Im now in a process of reading this classic again and remembered how much it gave me on my motorcycle travels around Europe, Alps curvy roads and mind numming autobans in Germany.

I think in this forum there are many of you who have read good sailing books and would love to hear from them.

Thank you in advance

Yes as a matter of fact I have just finished a very nice non fiction book that was written as a novel in which the author, Jonathan Reid (Days of Deja vu on amazon's Kindle) describes in plain English how he and his wife built a sail boat in their back garden in South Africa in the mid seventies, during the revolution, and how they learnt to sail it on a large fresh water lake a hundred miles away, and then later after trucking it a thousand miles down to Cape Town where the real fun started. He sails all across the Atlantic, the Pacific etc, has a lengthy chapter or two on single handing and talks all the time of how to do things, the why's and the better not's etc... a great read at a very cheap price...

[Wireless1]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

Moitessier's "The Long Way" or "Tamata and the Alliance" are arguably in the same spirit and share a lot of the mindset of "Zen".

Wow! This is getting a wee bit cosmic for me now. When I got my old dog-eared copy of "Zen and the Art..." off the shelf, (as I said I would in a previous post) what do you think was a few books down that I ALSO pulled off the shelf? I thought; maybe I should suggest this one also? It was my first edition of Moitessier's "The Long Way". It's a hard copy and it even has the old torn paper jacket still on it. I briefly thumbed through it and immediately remembered how cool I thought it was that Moitessier started out writing pretty much a litteral book about his sailboat race, and the longer and farther he went the more this work becomes VERY spiritual. As S/V Alchemy suggests I believe this would be a great read in addition to "Zen...."

[Danosimp3]

Originally Posted by roverhi

Pirsig used some of the profits from 'Zen' to buy a Westsail 32. Never heard if did any extensive sailing or cruising with the boat.

This what wikipedia had to say:
In the years following the publication of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance he has been solitary and reclusive. Pirsig has traveled around the Atlantic by boat, and has resided in Europe and in various places around the United States since 1980

[chris_gee]

Yes callmecrazy got the right link. Well done. Perhaps it is a useful check for those contemplating cruising to tropical islands as an antidote to their existing lives.

[captain58sailin]

The tropics cannot cure all your ailments, you carry your garbage with you; but it doesn't snow there!

[callmecrazy]

You won't know until you go!

[captain58sailin]

Been there, done that, work there 66% of the time, am now looking to live there full time and say good bye to the 10' + snow falls. For those of us who suffer from S.A.D. it makes a huge difference in out look and attitude.

[Wotname]

Might I also suggest "The Snow Leopard" by Peter Matthiessen.

[Viilettaja]

Thank you all on your suggestions.

Started to write today my own "book" on how young man gets into sailing and ends up buying a boat from Holland (signed contract this week). Looking forward on sailing it back to Finland and writing all experinces down from the perspective of a novice sailor. Also looking forward on all spare time to dive into these books and see how you can write about ocean

Ou yea and the boat 36 feet Van De Stadt.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

Moitessier's "The Long Way" or "Tamata and the Alliance" are arguably in the same spirit and share a lot of the mindset of "Zen".

I second this one...

[Randy]

Thanks for this discussion, I'd been thinking of reading "Zen and the Art..." for awhile and just downloaded it. I'm on a working ship and need these sorts of books to maintain my sanity.