Boatowner’s Mechanical and Electrical Manual

Nigel Calder

Adlard Coles Nautical

3rd edition 2005

UK recommended price £45

ISBN 0 7136 7226 9

Nigel Calder has attempted to deal in one single volume with all aspects of installation, maintenance, and repair of the various systems that operate on a modern cruising yacht. This is best described in the book’s subtitle “How to maintain, repair and improve your boat’s essential systems.” Not surprisingly the author starts with perhaps the most difficult and frustrating subject on most of the current power-hungry yachts: electricity consumption and generation. The book deals in great detail with batteries, chargers, alternators, alternative sources of energy, and gives invaluable tips on troubleshooting and dealing with both emergency and permanent repairs. Diesel engines, which are the author’s specialty, and to which he has dedicated an entirely separate book, are dealt with more succinctly, but all that needs to be known or done, has been covered. Other major subjects that are comprehensively discussed are propellers, refrigeration, airconditioning, heating, watermakers, winches and windlasses, rigging, spars, reefing and furling gears, steering systems, including autopilots and wind vanes. All subjects are well illustrated with photographs, diagrams and drawings. Troubleshooting tips are clearly displayed in easy to follow tables.

It is quite remarkable that the author has managed to compress into 800 pages all that a sailor needs to know about equipping and maintaining a cruising yacht.