Details of the Lerwick book launch, a talk where it all began 50 years ago, and all about how we measured distance run at sea aboard The Aegre.
The Voyage of The Aegre book will be launched in Lerwick, Shetland, just before the Tall Ships Festival on Tuesday, 25th July, in the Lerwick library at 5:30 pm, where I will be ‘in conversation’ with local ocean voyager Andrew Halcrow. The Shetland Times bookshop will have copies of the book on hand for sale.
I’ll be in Lerwick all week, then on Saturday 29th July, travelling to Scourie, on the west coast of Sutherland. Julie and I lived and worked in Scourie from February to July 1973 while local boatbuilder Bob Macinness decked The Aegre, and we conducted sea trials. We sailed away on 24th July 1973. Fifty years ago this month. I’ll be giving a talk on The Aegre voyage in the Scourie village hall at 7:30pm on Saturday 29th July. Iona Shaw, in Scouriemore, has copies of the book for sale. Half the proceeds from book sales in Scourie will go to the local school.
People in Scourie gave us a lot of help back in 1973, elderly local boatbuilder Bob Macinnes particularly so. He and I had many long discussions about our proposed voyage and every aspect of it, which is how he came to lend us a precious antique from his boatshed. Read about it in a new page I’ve added to the ‘Artifacts’ tab on the website about the book, titled ‘Measuring Distance Run at Sea’
Where to buy the book: in the UK from good bookshops and Central Books; in the US fromAmazon. In Australia and NZ contact Nicholas Grainger
The book is now available in the UK/EU, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and many other countries. A Yachting World magazine review of the book will be out in mid-July.
In the UKand EU, The Voyage of The Aegre book is now available through good bookshops and online from Central Books and other online stores. In bookstores, you’ll probably have to order it until stocks arrive.
In the US and Canada, The Voyage of The Aegre is available on Amazon. There are two versions available. They have exactly the same content. One is printed in the US and is available with a local P&P fee (or Prime) and a relatively quick delivery time. The other is the original edition printed by Gutenberg Press and published in the UK. To bring that one into the USA/Canada costs much more in freight and takes longer. Check the source, freight fee and delivery time to distinguish them. The small differences between the books are detailed below. The US version is not available in the UK.
All regions have access to a Kindle version on Amazon. For less than the price of two coffees, the Kindle version has all the content, the maps, diagrams and photos.
Sorry folks, in Australia, New Zealandand many other countries, while both the UK and US versions are now available on Amazon country websites, all currently incur international freight charges, raising the price and leading to longer delivery times. I will bring into Australia a limited number of the UK version in mid-August and mail them directly to purchasers in AU and NZ. Please contact me to reserve one. We may do a short print run in Australia if there is enough interest.
Small differences between the US and UK versions of the book.
Both are 6″x 9″ paperbacks with 271 pages and have the same content, including all maps, diagrams and photographs.
The UK version has cover flaps that open out to reveal charts of the Atlantic and Pacific with the course of The Aegre marked. The US version doesn’t have cover flaps but has the same maps one page in at the front and back of the book.
The UK version is on creme paper, the US version on white paper.
The UK version has a sewn binding, the US version has a glued Perfect Binding.
Both are lovely books.
If you buy the book through Amazon, please post a review after you have read it. This helps the profile of the book, and more people will see it.
Yachting World magazine review of the book
Watch out in mid-July for Yachting World magazine. The August issue, out mid-July, will contain a review of the book by yachting journalist, sailor and author Tom Cunliffe in his ‘Great Seamanship’ column.
Good News! The Voyage of The Aegre book is now available. An eBook can be downloaded from Amazon. A Print on Demand (POD) version is coming.
The book The Voyage of The Aegre – From Scotland to the South Seas in a Shetland boat – has been printed and will very soon be available from the UK distributor Central Books.
An eBook (Kindle) version has been created and is available from Amazon now.
A POD (Print on Demand) paperback version will soon be available in North America.
Printing progress, eBook, Yachting World review, Book tour, and navigation charts that survived.
Printing of the book of the voyage of The Aegre is complete. Yes finally!
The book will soon be in Central Books, the distributor in the UK, and available from them online. Bookshops will soon be able to source it from Gardners (book wholesalers). More details of where and when you can buy a copy in the UK very soon.
eBook
For readers outside the UK (and in), an eBook and paperback will soon be available on Amazon. Details coming.
Yachting World review
Well-known sailor and journalist Tom Cunliffe has written a review of the book, which will appear in his ‘Great Seamanship’ column in the August edition of Yachting World magazine, out mid-July.
Talking about the book
In late July and early August, I’ll be in the UK to help promote the book.
Lerwick (Shetland), 25-28 July (during the Tall Ships Festival)
Scourie, Sutherland (where we sailed from), 29-31 July, with a talk on the 29th of July.
Falmouth, 1-4 August.
London, 5-9 August.
Other places to be confirmed.
Back in Australia, I’ll be talking at the Wooden Boat Association Victoria meeting on 20th September.
Charts added to the book website
Luckily for us aboard The Aegre, a number of our navigation charts survived the capsize and swamping of The Aegre mid-Pacific. I’ve added examples of them to the Artefacts section of the book website with notes explaining them, including a tattered Pacific Pilot chart of the South Pacific, a sister of the one we used to plan and track our course to Samoa after the capsize. Also, the chart of our approach to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas (after sailing 4,200 miles from Panama) with my position fixes still showing, and more.
Visit the Navigation charts page in the Artefacts section on the website to see them.
Publishing update as at 25 May 2023. plus Before the Voyage: the Boat’s story, and all about the Dream Ship
Good News – the book is with the printer.
The book is finally with the printer. All being well printing of The Voyage of The Aegre book will be completed by mid-June. Then we’ll start sending out advance copies for review. On track for the launch and publication in late July.
The Aegre departing Ardmore, NW Scotland
Cut it to 250!
At first writing, The Voyage of The Aegre book had about 350 pages. ‘Too long!’ said the first publisher to take a serious interest. ‘Cut it to 250’. It was hard. It wasn’t a matter of re-arranging a few paragraphs. 100 pages had to go. It was a blood bath. A rewrite, then another. But the book is the better for it. However, lots of good stuff ended up on the floor. For instance, I’d written supporting notes on every chapter (a good 30 pages) and added appendices (another 30 pages), and then in the harsh light of the editing room, I had to accept that some of the stories I’d included just weren’t central, but a diversion, and they had to go too (30 pages of them), which together with thorough editing left 261 pages.
But all was not lost. I resolved to publish selected chapter notes and appendices to the story on the book website as background for the ardent reader. Here is one.
The Boat’s story
This is all about the boat, The Aegre, before Julie and I bought her. It’s quite a story, told in previous owner Andy Bryce’s own words, with characters like Big Jim from Swona, the Laverne, and many a pint after a hard day’s sail across the Pentland Firth where the tide can run at 16 knots, and on a good day the wind is merely a full gale.
I started this backgrounding with the story of the Nelly Bly – now I’ve expanded ‘About The Aegre’ into six pages. Don’t miss them.
The Cruise of the Dream Ship by Ralph Stock – 1921
One of my favourite cruising books, the one I pull out on a cold wet Sunday afternoon ‘cos it always makes me smile.
Stock writes of his wartime dream in the trenches of France, to sail away to the South Seas on his own boat. A fanciful and extraordinary idea in 1917 for a man of relatively modest means. But somehow he makes it come to pass, and heads off with his sister Peter (sic) and good friend Steve, aboard a 47ft Colin Archer sloop built in 1908. With no paid hands but a piano below. Across the Atlantic and much of the Pacific. Common today, but not so in 1919. His writing is a delight to read with his dry English humour. I’ve created a page on the website under ‘Lesser know inspiring reads’ which is under the Artifacts tab. Here: The Cruise of the Dream Ship.
Publishing update re the Voyage of The Aegre book; Storm sails for The Aegre; Not in the book: The story of Nelly Bly; Dinghy cruising in 1963, a little gem; and more on curraghs.
Publishing update – The Voyage of The Aegre
The book, The Voyage of The Aegre, is about to go to Gutenberg Press in Malta to be printed. We’re on course to launch the book in Lerwick, Shetland, in late July 2023, during the Tall Ships Festival. It’ll be exactly 50 years since Julie and I set sail from NW Scotland, heading south in our little Shetland boat.
Storm sails for The Aegre
Bob Macinnes, the Scourie boatbuilder, inspects our new flax storm sails. March 1973. The story behind them is in the book.
Not in the book: the story of Nelly Bly
Julie and I bought The Aegre from Andy Bryce in NW Scotland in 1972. He’d had her built in 1966, based on his experience with another Shetland boat, Nelly Bly. I’ve added the story of Nelly Bly, as told me by Andy Bryce, to the website as an introduction to the ‘About The Aegre‘ page.
Small boat cruising books
On a recent Dinghy Cruising Facebook page, readers were asked to nominate their favourite small boat cruising book. This got me thinking because I’ve got a few that are gems. Books like Lone Voyager – The story of Howard Blackburn who sailed across the Atlantic alone, twice, in the late 1890s; The Wind Calls the Tune – the story of the 20ft Nova Espero sailed by Stanley Smith and Charles Violet across the North Atlantic from Nova Scotia to England in 1949; and the 1938 Pocket Cruisers by Francis B. Cooke which I found for $4.00 in a small New Zealand 2nd hand bookshop. And lots more. To share them, I’ve started another heading under Artifacts on the website. The first little gem I’m looking at is Dinghy Cruising, by Ian Nicolson, published back in 1963. See Lesser known inspiring reads.
More about curraghs
Following the curragh story in the last post, an old friend wrote to me about his 94-year-old neighbour in NZ who had written about curraghs in the very first edition of ‘Afloat’ magazine in 1994. I’ve added his notes to the bottom of the curragh story on The Aegre website.
The Voyage of The Aegre book is almost ready for the printer. And more on one of the origins of the voyage idea, the passage of a cloth-covered curragh from Ireland to Iona off NW Scotland in 1963.
Publishing progress
This week, the page maker, Dr Digby, is finalising the details with Gutenberg Press in Malta, who will print the book. Little by little, it’s coming together.
More background to the voyage
An adventure like The Aegre voyage doesn’t just happen. In the early part of the book, I write about some of the people and stories that led me to think such a voyage was not just possible but a practical way to go sailing far on a small budget, a sort of cycle camping alternative to a big expensive camper van. It’s in the hope of inspiring others to take an adventurous course that I’ve written the book. One of my inspirations to go sailing was the story of my uncle who went to sea in a traditional Irish curragh, dressed as a monk.
This was a 1963 reconstruction of the voyage of St Columba in 563 AD from Northern Ireland to the island of Iona off the coast of NW Scotland, in a time when voyage reconstructions were rare. I was 13 and could only look on with envy. But it got me thinking. Maybe you too. I’ve gathered together information about the voyage and the curragh here. It’s quite a tale.
An update on the book, some background to Shetland boats, about our publisher, and how we kept accurate time on The Aegre.
The Aegre is one of the characters of this story, but I don’t attempt to humanise her. She was a Shetland boat and had enough character without any need to give her human frailties. I knew her intimately, every plank and fastening, and her behaviour in calms and storms. I learned to move with her as if we were extensions of each other. Intuitively I learnt to trust her.
But it was only after the voyage that I learned more about Shetland boats, their origins, and usage over centuries. I wasn’t surprised. Long before I’d learnt that with the sweetness of her lines, The Aegre could slip through the water with barely a ripple in the lightest of breezes, surge forward endlessly before the big sweeping swells of the trade winds, and slow down to ride out the big rollers when it all became a bit much.
So it was that gathering background material for this story, I discovered books about these boats, their building and their use in the Shetland Isles. You might be interested too.
Take a look at Adrian Osler’s ‘The Shetland Boat’ and ‘Shetland’s Boats: Origin, evolution and use’ by Marc Chivers. With Dr Adrian Osler’s permission, I’ve included some of his drawings of the construction of Shetland boats in The Aegre voyage book.
Another is ‘Small Boats of Shetland’, a delightful little book by Alison Munro. All are available from the Shetland Times Bookshop.
Small boat designer Iain Oughtred has created relatively easily built designs that draw heavily on Shetland boats, such as his 19’6″ Caledonia Yawl, the design of my last boat, Crazybird.
Book progress: The book is almost ready to go the printer. We are just finalising some pages; then it’ll be the grand final check before sending it off.
The book publisher: The Voyage of The Aegre, is being published by Vinycomb Press. Not (yet) a well-known publisher. Last year I was only able to interest one commercial publisher (other than the vanity press) but eventually, I realised that to tell the story in the way I wanted, regardless of the market, I needed to publish the book myself. Fortunately, by then, I had around me a rather expert team committed to the book’s success. We decided to publish it ourselves. But we were spread around the world.
The Vinycomb Press publishing team comprises:
Dr Gene Carl Feldman, kayaker and small boat sailor, NASA oceanographer and editorial adviser, with a curious link to The Aegre explained in the book. Lives near Washington, DC.
David Burnett, retired Gollancz publisher. Tireless, and with the wisdom of a long career in publishing. Knows everyone, based in Ludlow, UK.
Dr Digby James, Page Maker, fast, a church minister when he’s not page making. Lives in Oswestry, UK.
Sandra Bell, reader, and common sense adviser, taking on some marketing work, responds so quickly we call her Ping. Lives somewhere in the UK.
Myself, I write the stuff. Based in Melbourne, Australia.
And the name? It’s in honour of John Vinycomb, an engraver, illuminator, and heraldic designer, born in 1833. He published books such as ‘On the process for the production of ex-libris (book plates) (1894). He was my great-grandfather.
A photo of him working at his desk hangs on the wall beside me as I write. I’m going to create a page about some of his work on the website, but it’s not available yet.
This week on the book website, I’ve added a page about the difficulty of measuring accurate time aboard The Aegre, why it was important and how we eventually solved the problem. Our solution ended up saving our lives too. See Measuring time aboard The Aegre
Next week I’ll explain our plans to support the book with chapter notes on the website and give a glimpse of things to come.
Publishing update; the book cover outside and in; about Shetland boat drawings in the book; the South Australia Wooden Boat Festival; this week’s artifact from The Aegre voyage, and updates to the website.
The Voyage of The Aegre story is almost ready to go to the printer. That is to say Page maker Dr Digby James in Oswestry (UK) is putting the final touches to the layout. He’s part of our Vinycomb Press Editorial and Publishing team. It’s moderately complicated because apart from the text, we have a dozen maps, six drawings and eight pages of photos.
And then Publishing date is 27 July 2023 – 15 weeks away.
Finally the cover is done, designed by Gene Carl Feldman. He’s another member of our Vinycomb Press team. The ends of the cover fold in as a flap back and front.
And then on the reverse of the cover, the flaps open out to reveal maps of the course of The Aegre. In the front across the Atlantic, and across the Pacific in the back.
As a result we think it looks pretty special. Gene found these charts, in a Boston library. The Atlantic one is from 1797 and the Pacific one from 1849 (both long out of copyright). Aboard The Aegre, we were given and used several Pacific charts of about the same age as the one we’ve reproduced here. I still have some of them.
Later this month (29-30 April) I’ll be at the biennial South Australia Wooden Boat Festival at Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray River, a bit south of Adelaide.
I’ve been a few times before. It’s always an exotic mix of traditional wood-burning paddle steamers from up the river, vintage river sailing boats, putt-putts, and jazz bands. All together with delicious food and South Australian beers and wines. See https://www.sawoodenboatfestival.com.au/ Out on the water I’ve learnt NOT to get in the way of racing riverboat paddle steamers.
This week on the websiteabout The Aegre Voyage I’ve added another artifact I still have from the voyage. It’s a little Suunto hand-bearing compass. It’s very precious to me. Read why: https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/?page_id=839 I’ve also added a Media tab beneath which is PR stuff about the book. Included are a new Advance Information sheet, author bio, reviews, and details of how to get an advance copy of the book for review.
That’s all for this week. Next week I hope to be writing that the book is ready to go to print. It’s being published by Vinycomb Press and I’ll explain the torturous path to publication. In the artifact section of the website I’ll write about our difficulty with measuring accurate time aboard The Aegre, why it was important and how we eventually solved the problem.
If you have a request for a topic on The Aegre voyage that you’d like me to address in a post or any comment, please contact me. And as ever, please share this with a friend.
The Voyage of The Aegre – From Scotland to the South Seasin a Shetland boat will be published on 27 July 2023. and launched in Lerwick, Shetland, during the Tall Ships Festival 26-29 July 2023. I’ll be there to talk about the voyage, the book and answer questions.
Copies will be available in Lerwick, also from Amazon, Book Depository, Central Books, other online booksellers and progressively through bookstores in the UK, US, AU and NZ. I’ll send out details of how you can pre-order a bit nearer the time.
The book will be coming out as a paperback. It’s about 264 pages, with 8 pages of photographs. There are also more than a dozen maps in the book so you can follow along where we went and drawings of the rig, the interior layout of the boat and of the boat under sail. It will also be available as an ebook.
Added to the website this week is a new tab Reviews, kicking off with a review by sailing journalist and broadcaster Paul Heiney of the Royal Cruising Club, joining a review by 1966 Atlantic rower, adventurer and author John Ridgway.
Also new to the website is a piece under the Artifacts tab on plotting our position at sea on The Aegre. See https://nicholasgrainger.com.au/
I’ll be adding posts and more background information about the voyage and the book every week between now and July, so maybe bookmark the website and come back soon.
Keep your friends informed about the coming book by forwarding this email and encouraging them to subscribe on the website! Thank you.
