Euan Ross has a new book out – Highland Cowes is a history of boating and yachting in Scotland from pre-Roman times. CS hasn’t had a chance to review it yet but it looks interesting and has chapters with names like Royal Yachts in Absurdia and The Silent Sea in Bureaucracy.
Three years in the making it is divided into five books that make up an 800 page volume. Euan is selling it at £15.98 inc p&p, through Amazon: “… it occurred to me that, since no one ever makes any money from sailing books, I should dispense with the author’s royalty, as a small contribution to the common good,” he says.
“Unfortunately, it cannot yet be ordered through pukka bookshops as I will have to raise the retail price to cover their additional costs. So if you don’t want to patronise Amazon, you will have to wait. The link to the book and ‘Look Inside’ is below.
“During the work on Highland Cowes, it has been a pleasure to collaborate with Ian Howlett, arguably the man who knows more about the International Rule than any current, or indeed past yacht designer. It has also been my good fortune to liaise with Jon Reid, Hon. Historian of the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club, and indeed my many other friends who double-up as vaults of fact, fiction and anecdote.”
The following extracts, from Ian Howlett’s Foreword, gives something of the flavour of the book.
“Accumulating an excess of old books on yachting has been a vice of mine since the early 1970s, when hidden gems were still to be discovered in the little bookshops of Southampton. These writings from the past feel of a different quality to almost all those of today. Highland Cowes is a most noteworthy and pleasing exception. This book, like old volumes of the Yachting Monthly, is to be savoured in front of a log fire along with a glass of malt.
Highland Cowes is a ‘magnum opus’ in all senses of the phrase, both in scope and content, describing the history of this extraordinary and beautiful area that was for so long the richest centre of all, for the design, building and racing of yachts. Euan Ross has a special talent for covering much ground in fine detail whilst rooting out the most entertaining stories. It is, of course, the latter that make history interesting. Euan’s approach and the resulting text is in marked contrast to what might be termed the ‘dumbed down’ museum techniques of today. He combines accuracy, along with the entertainment of many good stories, and like a good malt there is a complexity and depth to be appreciated.”
Here’s the link: