About the Book
For one hundred years members of the Cruising Club of America have been sailing far and wide on the oceans of the world. The CCA is an amateur sailing club without a clubhouse--but that does not mean the members are not communicative. They have written, photographed, and talked about their adventures. They have passed along adventures, disasters, great pleasures, and useful information for those who sail in their wake.In "Adventurous Use of the Sea" Tim Murphy, an experienced ocean sailor and professional sailing writer, and Sheila McCurdy, deeply experienced sailor and former Commodore of the CCA, recount the experiences of CCA members who will be familiar to sailing readers and some that should be: Bill Nutting, Olin Stephens, Jeanne Socrates, John Alden, Carleton Mitchell, Rich Wilson, Roger Swanson, Irving and Exy Johnson and many more.Each chapter has fascinating details on their sailing adventures, technical information on their boats, and historic and modern photographs, drawings, charts and boat plans that bring their voyages to life for both the experienced and novice sailor.
About the Author :
Marine journalist Tim Murphy has been steeped in the literature of the sea and the practice of seamanship for all his life. He served as a Cruising World magazine's staff editor from 1991 to 2006 (Newport, Rhode Island), where he directed the magazine's Boat of the Year program. Since 2006 he has worked as an independent editor and author of books and articles, as well as a graphic designer. He's the co-author of a marine-trades textbook, Fundamentals of Marine Service Technology (ABYC, 2012), and editor of Voyaging With Kids (L&L Pardey, 2018). Recipient of many writing awards, Tim is a BoatUS Magazine contributing editor, a Cruising World Editor-at-Large, and a Cruising World Boat of the Year judge. Sheila McCurdy is a past commodore of the Cruising Club of America. She has sailed over 125,000 miles on the oceans and seas of the world and is a training expert in safety at sea. She has contributed to maritime publications as a writer and photographer for 35 years. She holds a Master of Marine Affairs degree and a 100 ton Merchant Mariner license.
Review :
Every sailor worthy of his or her salt possesses two things: a boat and a story. For many, including me, the literature of the sea -- those stories -- remain almost as alluring as the act of venturing out upon it. And when it comes to vessels and their masters, of course, some are more epic than others. However, that's not necessarily the case with Tim Murphy's Adventurous Use of the Sea, a sumptuous, weighty, wonderful collection of 18 distinct profiles of noteworthy members of the Cruising Club of America and their crafts over the last hundred years. Here, every tale is rich and detailed; every boat fits the manner and style of the mariner who commands it. Fleetwood Mac once wrote a song called "Heroes are Hard to Find." Not in Murphy's fantastic, well-written tome. Page after page, chapter after chapter, so many of mine are right there.--Herb McCormick "Executive Editor, Cruising World magazine"
Just as the finest of Western literature celebrates the short but glorious era of the American Cowboy, Adventurous Use of the Sea celebrates the rich history of those early nautical pioneers who dared. Those that cast their lines into the untamed blue waters of the world in search of wild personal freedom and a more meaningful connection to our planet had and have a poignant tale to tell. And tell it they have, elegantly, through the pen of the life-long sailor and gifted writer, Tim Murphy. This contribution to the annals of cruising under sail deserves to be nestled on every boat's bookshelf between Moitessier and Slocum.--Alvah Simon, Author ""North to the NIght""
Tim Murphy's book about Cruising Club of America members and their yachts is a great read. He captures the very essence of 100 years of CCA history and the reader will be inspired to head offshore to make "adventurous use of the sea". Each voyage is unique and the locations are special, but the best part is getting know the people who have enjoyed remarkable lives on the water. A good collection of excellent images enhances the narrative. Every sailor should read Tim's book....you will return to it often--Gary Jobson, Author, film maker, America's Cup sailor
#1 This isn't merely a wonderfully written, surpremely interesting book about small boat voyagers--these are my heroes, the very sailors who made me who I am today. I have a deep, direct, personal connection on every page. This is the most riveting marine book I've read in the last decade--perhaps two. #2 This book is utterly amazing--as if autthor Tim Murphy removed my skull, peered into my brain, and then wrote a book about the sailormen whom I've spent my emtire life aspiring to be. I'm totally gobsmacked--well-researched prose about my sailing heroes, beautifully written in an internet age of wortthless dribble. #3. I grew up on a 1924 Alden schooner. My first cruising vessel was an Atkins-design. My father used to read me as a child, in a forecastle that reeked of its tarred hemp anchor rode, stories of Uffa Fox, of Carleton Mitchell, of Irving Johnson. I've sailed the Bermuda aboard Olin's Stormy Weather, trod the decks of both Finnisterre and Caribe. On my 62nd year of living aboard, this book is like a who's who of my salt-stained childhood, a pocket biography of all my sailing heroes. Excellent job! #4 I'd forgotten--in this internet age--that such delightful, insightful books could still be written. These are my sailing heroes brought to life, skillfully illuminated by one of the best salt-stained inkslingers alive today. Excellent, and an instant classic in its field. #5 After 62 years of living aboard and ocean sailing, I'm not merely interested in boating, I'm deeply passionate about it--I'm all-consumed by it. Why? The answer shines through every page of this remarkable, inspiring book. Superb job!--Cap'n Fatty Goodlander, Editor-at-Large "Cruising World magazine"
Bravo to the Cruising Club of America (CCA) and bravo to Tim Murphy! Adventurous Use of the Sea, a compendium of selected past and present CCA members, is both an excellent read and proof positive that the spirit of exploration is alive and well in the modern era. Mr. Murphy's meticulous research, and his ability to tease out "just the good stuff" from a cast of characters spanning the last 100 years of sail, has resulted in a bona fide page-turner.--Bob Muggleston, Former editor at Cruising World and Points East magazines.
The Cruising Club of America or CCA is a hundred years old, and no better present to them is Tim Murphy's Adventurous Use of the Sea. Technological advances and a "war to end all wars" during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries began shaping a renaissance of sailing vessels and how people chose to use them that stretches to this day. To thoroughly log all the influence of the CCA over the last century would take many thousands of pages, but Murphy gives us essential and pertinent stories about the designers, builders and sailors who've notably steered it, from Alden and Stephens to Irving and Exy Johnson and Rich Wilson. These stories reveal just what a gift the CCA has bestowed on all sailors today via the development of design, offshore racing, voyaging, education, and an attitude that sailing is more than a sport but a way of life, giving rise to perhaps one of the last nomadic, or at least semi-nomadic, societies, those whose home is as much offshore as on. Having messed about in boats for a majority of CCA's existence, and thinking I was fairly well read in the maritime history department, and even having met some of the sailors Murphy profiles, I was reminded by Adventurous Use of the Sea of how much I still did not know while delighted by the personal stories of lives afloat. Anyone interested in modern maritime history will find things of interest in these pages.--Steve Callahan, longtime voyager and author of the best-selling Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea.
