Rating: 
Summary: The MBA goes sailing
Review: A few of the other customer reviews have pointed out that the author may not be the most experienced sailor in the world, and that her circumnavigation experience was limited to relatively non-dramatic tradewinds sailing. While this may be true, what I found most helpful about this book was the author's open-minded analytical approach to the issues, and the fact that she backed her opinions up with her surveys and "research" results. She also presents various alternative solutions to the reader- for example when she specs out how a cruiser can be outfitted in either a simple, a moderate, or a complex way. This is very helpful in a field that tends to be dominated by more "fundamentalist" writers such as the Pardeys or the Dashews who bring their own conclusions very much to the table when they share their experiences. In that sense, I think her relative lack of experience can be a virtue, in that she seems to have kept an open mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much detail ?
Review: An overall very well written and informative book. The detail is overkill in places, I especially got a kick from the one page instruction on how to wash clothes in a bucket. People needing this detail should not be cruising. The contradictions arise when opinions in the book are contradicted by later actions eg. the praise of a ketch in many places in the book is tempered when one realises that their ketch was replaced by custom built cutter. As with all books of this type the opinions that they contain are a snapshot in time and do not represent definitive answers. Advice and information contained in the " Handbook " genre is merely that, there is no substitution for practical experiance, especially when washing clothes.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Handbook
Review: Beth Leonard, the author of this book is an MBA and it shows in the organization and structure of her book. In parts, much like a textbook, "The Voyager's Handbook" lays out useful information and facts in well researched tables, charts, and diagrams. Interspersed with these data driven sections are numerous vignettes and personal accounts from Leonard's 3 year circumnavigation. Her often poetic descriptions contrast nicely with the drier facts that make up the more technical side of cruising. Overall, a detailed combination of "here's what I experienced" and extensive research.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Handbook
Review: Beth Leonard, the author of this book is an MBA and it shows in the organization and structure of her book. In parts, much like a textbook, "The Voyager's Handbook" lays out useful information and facts in well researched tables, charts, and diagrams. Interspersed with these data driven sections are numerous vignettes and personal accounts from Leonard's 3 year circumnavigation. Her often poetic descriptions contrast nicely with the drier facts that make up the more technical side of cruising. Overall, a detailed combination of "here's what I experienced" and extensive research.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Handbook
Review: Beth Leonard, the author of this book is an MBA and it shows in the organization and structure of her book. In parts, much like a textbook, "The Voyager's Handbook" lays out useful information and facts in well researched tables, charts, and diagrams. Interspersed with these data driven sections are numerous vignettes and personal accounts from Leonard's 3 year circumnavigation. Her often poetic descriptions contrast nicely with the drier facts that make up the more technical side of cruising. Overall, a detailed combination of "here's what I experienced" and extensive research.
Rating: 
Summary: The most thorough, thoughtful and valuable of the genre
Review: Beth simultaneously addresses the nitty gritty details of life "off the hard" by providing a ready reference, and bolsters the spirit for heading offshore with a personal glimpse of her adventure and cruising life. This will become part of our onboard library.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the most capable authors I've ever worked with.
Review: Eight months after publishing The Voyager's Handbook, I returned to it while fact-checking another book. I opened the book for a quick search and 45 minutes later was still engrossed. Editors have almost as much trouble as authors distancing themselves from a book enough to see the forest for the trees, but after an eight-month absence I'm blown away by how much information Beth Leonard packed into this book. No wonder George Day of Blue Water Sailing Magazine is calling it the new bible of long-distance cruising. The credit goes to Beth.
Rating:
Summary: Well researched and authoritative. An excellent book.
Review: For anyone contemplating crossing an ocean in a small boat, this is the most informative book available on the subject. Leonard successfully combines the experience of her three-year circumnavigation with the analytical skills of a high-powered business consultant--the job she abandoned. Because she was a total novice when she initially set off, she looks at voyaging through fresh eyes, no small advantage in a field too often ruled by dogma. Voyager's Handbook addresses every imaginable aspect of offshore cruising. I found the book to be extremely well researched, and Leonard's recent firsthand experience makes it authoritative. Definitely two thumbs up. I recommend it without reservation. --Don Casey
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read on the subject to date - Very Useful
Review: Great book - full of facts but easy to read. Great for convicincing significant other of the merits of bluewater sailing - I'm the one in a thousand women trying to convince a husband to sail around the world with me and he wants facts - this book had plenty. Very impressed! Lots of detail on cost, time and energy required.
Rating:
Summary: getting started
Review: hi,
I thought that your book was what I am looking for. I am a student in collage and when I graduate I am going to sail around for as long as I want. I was trying to find litearture on sailing and this has everything in it that I was looking for. thank you,
Trever VanCampen.
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