Greenwich Sail & Power Squadron

This is one of those exquisite books rarely seen in today’s world of digital printing. You’ll want to remove the dust cover and place it proudly on your coffee table, where, instead of gathering dust, it will beckon to be picked up and relished time and again. For this is not the mere telling of a how the Paine twins, Chuck and Art, grew up in Jamestown, RI, but, in a sense, the reader will find their own stories as they turn the pages.

Throughout the telling, Chuck admits to being lucky. “By the time I was ten years old, I could freehand the profile of a yacht...for 40 years I had the good sense never to stop.” He gives credit to those who, along the way, participated in his luck: Bill Berky, who took the twins under his wing and introduced them to sailing at the East Greenwich Yacht Club; Charles (Chick) Street who mentored the boys, teaching them everything he knew about boat designs; his years working for Dick Carter where he learned that, “if you design racing yachts, you have to be able...

Muscongus Bay, Maine
Pemaquid Point to Marshall Point

By Al Trescot Foreword by Robert Ives
Published by Rocky Hill Publishing 144 pages
hardbound $30
Review by Lucy Alexander

Al Trescot is much more than a local photographer, he is a storyteller, capturing the beauty of Muscongus Bay and snippets of life in strong, vibrant color – a strength and vibrancy belonging to the people as much as the land and water. With the exception of a few words by the author and the forward by Robert Ives, this is a simple book of pictures…telling a powerful story.

Published by Tilbury House 160 pages
Hardbound $34.95

For many, the maritime history of Newport, RI centers on fast racing boats and luxurious yachts owned by the very rich, but it was the humble catboat that put food on the town’s tables, trolling for bluefish off Brenton Point, harvesting shellfish in Narragansett Bay or the Atlantic, or serving as water taxis in the bustling port.

Although catboats were built and used in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and elsewhere as early as the 1840s and ‘50s, author John Leavens (1907 – 1987) maintains that those built in Newport were superior in rough conditions, citing Captain A. J. Kenealy’s book Boat Sailing in Fair Weather and Foul, written in 1905:

Photographs by Benjamin Mendlowitz Text by Maynard Bray with a foreword by Joel White and a new afterword by Roger Angell Published by W .W. Norton & Company 175 pages paperback $19.95

This captivating book, produced by marine photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz and marine historian Maynard Bray, was first published in 1996 as a hardcover edition and it’s now available for the first time in paperback. Mendlowitz has produced the gorgeous Calendar of Wooden Boats since 1983. Bray has written the text for the calendars every year, as well as for six books featuring the photographer’s work.

The book is divided into sections by boat type, with descriptive illustrations of the various rigs. Each page is devoted to a single boat, and you’ll find stunning images and informative text about timeless designs from Sparkman & Stephens, Burgess, Fife, Concordia, Crocker, Crosby, White and many more including, of course, Herreshoff.

By Michael J. Tougias
Published by Simon & Schuster
214 pages Hardcover $24

Non-fiction books about rescues at sea are always compelling, and this reviewer found Overboard! especially so because the boat in the story sailed fromWind- Check’s homeport on Long Island Sound in May, 2005. Captain Tom Tighe of Patterson, NY, who was well known for his popular “Bermuda Bound” bluewater sailing seminars, kept his 45-foot Hardin ketch Almeisan in Black Rock Harbor in Bridgeport, CT. Tighe, who completed 48 passages between Connecticut and Bermuda, enjoyed sharing his love of sailing with others. A strong proponent of safety at sea, he wrote a 300-page safety manual for his boat that was required reading for everyone who sailed to Bermuda with him.

First mate Lochlin Reidy of Woodbridge, CT, who along with Tighe was swept off the Almeisan when a huge rogue wave rolled the boat in the Gulf Stream, recently joined author Michael Tougias for a poignant lecture at the Milford Public Library in Milford, CT. Reidy said he’s certain his life was saved by the bulky Type I PFD that Tighe required each sailor...