One glance will convince you that this is not at all your usual boating book. It's quirky-funny in some chapters, serious in some, and quite over the top in others. And yet, as experienced boaters will realize, it's really a book about safety at sea, supplemented with plentiful advice about how you can improve your odds of survival in various circumstances.Some of it may not be standard advice, of course. Vigor's famous denaming ceremony, for instance, doesn't look like boating safety advice at first glance. But it is. It protects you from bad luck at sea, and sailors the world over have recognized this. The ceremony is the most-requested article on several Internet Web sites and has been translated into several foreign languages. But Vigor's fertile imagination doesn't stop there. In this book he also introduces us to 19 other prayers, rituals, and ceremonies that boaters might need at some time-even the rites for burying a person at sea. John Vigor, a freelance writer and editor, is the author of 10 boating books, including Twenty Small Sailboats to Take You Anywhere (Paradise Cay), and numerous magazine articles. He is a sailing and navigation instructor qualified by the American Sailing Association. He has worked professionally in Europe, South Africa, and the United States, and for nearly 20 years he wrote a daily humor column for major metropolitan daily newspapers. He was a member of the editorial board of The San Diego Union Tribune before becoming managing editor of Sea magazine in Irvine, California. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest, and sails his Cape Dory 27 sailboat, Sangoma, in Puget Sound. Used Book in Good Condition