Single-Handed Cruising.

COOKE, Francis B.

$600.00

Item Number: 115637

London: Edward Arnold, 1919.

First edition of this essential early manual on single-handed cruising by one of the greatest yachting writers of the 20th century. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. From the library of James Stephen “Steve” Fossett with his bookplate to the front pastedown. American businessman and record-setting aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in 2002 in his 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom. He completed the 2002 trip in 13 days, 8 hours, and 33 minutes and set records for both the Longest Distance Flown Solo in a Balloon and Fastest Balloon Flight Around the World. Fosset was also one of sailing’s most prolific distance record holders set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships with a Zeppelin NT in 2004. He received numerous awards and honors throughout his career including aviation’s highest award, the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which he was awarded in 2002. Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007 while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. In very good condition.

One of the earliest and most prolific writers on single-handed cruising, English merchant-banker Francis B. Cooke was first published in 1883 and still writing into the early 1960s. Single-Handed Cruising contains a selection of articles that initially appeared in the pages of Yachting World, each of which details a singular aspect of the endeavor including the ideal size and type of boat to be sailed, lights and navigating instruments, equipment and care of sails, and the rules of seamanship.