Hints, tips, advice and yarns from Britain’s most famous sailor; this is a great book to dip into when you’ve just come off watch or are waiting for someone to get back from the showers. And that’s because it should be a book to take aboard while cruising. Sir Robin’s writings over 50 years or so are distilled in this hardback volume which has a foreword by Alex Thomson. Alex reflects on how he was inspired (and helped) by RKJ and that is currently the flavour of things with the revival of the Golden Globe Race in the summer of 2018 – half a century on from Robin and Suhaili’s great, if seemingly unlikely feat, where the solid seaworthy Wm Atkins ketch rustily tramped down the miles (at about three knots mostly) clocking the tombstoned-dreams of her competitors as she went.

This is Sir Robin’s year and he was fêted in Falmouth in June by entrants to, and fans of, the Golden Globe race alike. The BBC and ITN filmed him aboard the restored Suhaili where he showed, a few months shy of his 80th birthday, that he can hop out onto the shiny stainless boomkin hanging beyond her stern, and balance calmly there gathering her mizzen into a harbour-stow with all the chutzpah of someone a third of his age.

There’s quite a lot of that cool nerve and confidence in the pages of this book where Robin covers a huge range of subjects with seamanlike directness and a master mariner’s authority. It’s split into chapters (Seamanship Skills and Gear, and Seafaring – Boats, Races and Places with about 12 articles to each section) but if you just dip into it you’ll find yourself reading about your anchor; why and how you should sail safely in heavy weather; how to correct index error on your sextant; what it’s like to go back to Dunkirk with the Little Ships or why you should be circumspect about relying on AIS.

There are 73 such stories – so it’ll keep you going for a while. And share it – it’s good approachable writing, but do write “Stolen from” and your name in the front to make them realise you really do want it back! DH

Pub Fernhurst, 2018, 220pp, £14.99