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The Gift Of A Sea

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HIS5247
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Overview

A Short History of Sailing in the Mediterranean

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Product Details

Part Number: HIS5247

Edition: 2019

Printed and corrected to: No

ISBN: 9780995469952

Publisher: No

Language: English

Author(s): Rod Heikell

Author: No

Format: Hardback

Rod Heikell has spent more than 40 years sailing and writing about the Mediterranean, in the progress amassing an extensive collection of papers and books on the history of yachting in the Mediterranean and participating in the modern era of that history. In this book he has painstakingly put together the history of sailing for pleasure in the Mediterranean from the ancient Egyptians up to the present.

Beginning with the royal yachts of the pharaohs, the book looks at the Greeks and the influence of the Odyssey, the excesses of Caligula and the poems of Catallus, the scant history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Romantic poets, and Shelley’s sad demise on his yacht. It explores the French writers and artists who sailed these waters, the Victorians and Americans who toured the Mediterranean in their yachts, up to and through the 20th century. The social and political upheavals of the last century changed the world and gave the impetus for many to escape the woes of a post-war world and sail down to the azure waters and warmth of the Mediterranean.

Despite recessions and the age of austerity the numbers of yachts has exploded in the 21st century. The author looks at the voyages around the inland sea in yachts large and small and examines the development of the yachting infrastructure around the countries bordering the Mediterranean.
The book is illustrated with numerous photos and illustrations from the author’s collection and other sources. The book is for boaters and those with an interest in the history of the Mediterranean, as well as being a reference for more serious research, with extensive reference footnotes.

Rod Heikell

Rod Heikell was born in New Zealand and sailed hesitantly around bits of its coast in a variety of yachts. He tried racing in the Hauraki Gulf but was really not much good at it. In England he abandoned academic life and for no good reason other than curiosity bought Roulette, a 1950s plywood JOG yacht nearly 20ft long, and sailed it down to the Mediterranean. He worked on charter her and delivered yachts until, in ignorance of the scale of the task, he set off to write a yachtsman's guide to Greece. This was followed by guides for other countries in the Mediterranean. He has sailed back and forth between England and the Mediterranean, including a trip down the Danube and on to Turkey in Rosinante, an 18ft Mirror Offshore. In 1996 he took his forth yacht, Tetra, to SE Asia and back for the research for Indian Ocean Cruising Guide. Apart from sailing the 'wrong' way and back again the 'right' way across the Indian Ocean, he has done four transatlantics on his own yachts and also cruised extensively in other parts of the world on other yachts. He is currently back at the end of a circumnavigationand sailing again in his beloved Mediterranean.