Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Knockdown : The Harrowing True Story of a Yacht Race Turned Deadly by Martin Dugard ISBN: 0-671-03879-6 Publisher: Atria Books Pub. Date: 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (14 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: If You Weren't There You Wouldn't Know
Comment: I've read this book, I've read all the others on this race, and I've sailed a number of Sydney-Hobarts.
We call the races "Hobarts", not "SydHobs" as Dugard suggests.
The '98 race was not easy - we had over 70 knots of wind across our deck and seas of over 20 meters, so no-one would ever suggest it was easy - but nor should it become a vehicle for an opportunist to score a few quick bucks by capitalising on the drama which others experienced, unless it is done professionally. This book just doesn't meet the grade.
It is unfortunate that Dugard obviously wrote his book with very little knowledge of sailing (let alone Ocean Racing in storm conditions), or of the race. I'm not sure he has even visited Australia, and suspect the research may have been limited to copies of Press reports and a few phone calls to friends in Sydney. You don't get that knowledge through reading books, nor as a passenger. You only get it by being there, and having the responsibility of delivering your boat and crew against the challenges thrown up by the weather.
Certainly given that ocean racing is about judgement calls in a context of nature at its harshest level, only those who are on the water in command of a craft carrying 15 or so other people, who are having to face the elements first hand and in real time, can evert know what it is like. Because sailing in these conditions is not something you can learn out of a text book, it is not something that is mechanical or formula driven - it is about real calls and real delivery in a real situation.
Dugard hasn't done it. If he hasn't done it he is not qualified in my view, but is quite probably what we call in Australia an armchair expert.
From a point of view of credibility, there are simply too many factual errors in the book, starting from virtually the first page.
Some of the errors are appalling, and not simply in the text - even one shot showing the stern of Helsal II is captioned suggesting we are looking at the bow. If the author can't tell the difference between bow and stern, how can he be relied upon to make comment or judgement about how the boats and crews performed or should perform under arduous conditions.
Its like the old Vietnam Veterans joke - you weren't there, so you wouldn't know....
An alternative book on the same race is that by Rob Mundle (A Fatal Storm). A better book, more detailed, more objective, and more accurate, compiled from interviews with a wide range of skippers and crews (and he published the interviews themselves), brilliant photos by Richard Bennett, and written by a man who has sailed a few Hobarts himself, so who knows what the journey down the racetrack is really like.
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping!
Comment: This was one of the most vivid, compelling reads I have had in some time. Dugard is a master of description. Knowing virtually nothing of blue ocean yacht racing, I was transported into a world of driven men and the tragedy they willingly face. A must read.
Rating: 2
Summary: Third in a Three-Book Field
Comment: I try not to review books solely by comparing them to other books, but in this case it seems justified. The story of the 1998 Sydney-Hobart race has been told in three books (that I know of): G. Bruce Knecht's _The Proving Ground_, Rob Mundle's _Fatal Storm_, and this one. Having read all three, I found Dugard's the least satisfying.
All are competent "true adventure" stories, and all deliver the goods on that basic level. Mundle, however, is first-rate journalism, following a wide range of boats and trying to give a precise picture of what happened. Knecht is more focused: an exploration of people facing mortal danger far from civilization, like Krakauer's _Into Thin Air_ and Junger's _Perfect Storm_. Dugard tries to split the difference, narrating the race as a whole while also exploring the reasons why people sailed in the Sydney-Hobart and other blue-water competitions. This would be a tall order for *any* 250-page book, and Dugard fails to pull it off. I was left neither with a good sense of the race as a whole nor with a clear understanding of why the crews involved made the choices they did.
Dugard's writing compounds the problem. It veers from breezy and imprecise (confusing if you're not familiar with yacht racing and severe weather, frequently irritating if you are) to ponderous and pretentious. His treatment of the storm as if it were a semi-conscious "enemy" is especially unfortunate because, paradoxically, it diminishes the storm's power. The essential, defining quality of the sea is its utter indifference to the fragile humans who venture out on it.
If you're only going to read one book on the 1998 Hobart, do yourself a favor: find a copy of Mundle or Knecht instead.
 |
Title: Fastnet, Force 10: The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing, New Edition by John Rousmaniere ISBN: 0393308650 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race by Rob Mundle ISBN: 0071361405 Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press Pub. Date: 17 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Into Africa : The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone by MARTIN DUGARD ISBN: 0385504519 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown ISBN: 0671027360 Publisher: Pocket Star Pub. Date: 26 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
