Total Loss
A collection of 45 first-hand accounts of yacht losses at sea
By Jack Coote
Revised by Paul Gelder
320 pp. 2nd edition. March 2002. Paperback. $22.50
ISBN 978 1 57409 146 5
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Total Loss collects 45 dramatic accounts of yachts lost at sea. This updated and revised second edition features more than 20 new stories, such as the loss of Pete Goss's 120' catamaran TEAM PHILLIPS to an Atlantic storm in late 2000.
Within these pages can be found fire and explosions, exhaustion and crew failure, collisions with UFOs (unidentified floating objects), capsize, faulty navigation, dismastings, and severe storms. The subjects include such well-known sailors as Isabelle Autissier, Mike Richey, Josh Hall, Peter Crowther, Phil Weld, Frank Mulville, Peter Tangvald, and H.W. Tilman, each of whom offers his or her own moving, emotionally charged memories of surrendering a yacht to the deep. These candid, detailed accounts provide invaluable lessons and insight for readers who wish to avoid a similar calamity or who want to learn how best to behave in an emergency.
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About the Authors:
Jack Coote was an experienced cruising yachtsman who owned and sailed a variety of boats. He was a keen collector of sailing literature, and in assembling this anthology he used his own and other libraries, as well as files from yachting magazines around the world. He was the author of East Coast Rivers, East Coast Rivers from the Air, and North Sea Harbours, and compiled Down the Wind, an anthology of sailing literature.
Paul Gelder is the editor of Yachting Monthly and has sailed thousands of miles in a variety of boats. He has written two books on round-the-world yacht races, The Loneliest Race and InterSpray's Race Around the World. He is no stranger to misfortune afloat. His 30-ft trimaran, appropriately called PHOENIX, was blown ashore in a gale. It was subsequently rebuilt, despite the insurers' assessment that it was a total loss.