• The first lifeboat in the Penzance area was built in 1803 to Henry Greathead's design, purchased by local subscription and a donation from Lloyd's.

Unfortunately, the early initiative faded and the boat was sold in 1812, and in 1826 the RNLI sent a boat to Penzance which only seems to have stayed a couple of years. In 1852, however, the year the Institution was re-vitalised by the Duke of Northumberland and a new young secretary, Richard Lewis, Penzance got a new lifeboat and since then the record of lifeboats in Mounts Bay has been one of solid service, occasional controversy, outstanding bravery and tragic sacrifice.

Penlee Lifeboat is written by John Corin and Grahame Farr and the story of Penlee and Penzance branch is a microcosm of the history of the RNLI; it makes fascinating reading and the photographs which illustrate the book, many of them historic, come right up to date with pictures of the new Arun lifeboat and her crew. One of the finest photographs is John Chard's portrait of the late Coxswain Trevelyan Richards which faces a foreword by his mother, Mary, in which she says: 'My house in Mousehole was used as a meeting place by his crew . . . and I can recall many happy times when their laughter rang out loud. Trevelyan and his crew are gone now, but the lifeboat goes on and they have become part of its history. Their bravery will never be forgotten and their names will live on for ever. So it is with pride that I introduce this book, and these men, to you. God Bless You AH.' Penlee Lifeboat is available from J. H.

Bennetts Ltd, 72/73 Market Jew Street, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 2LF, price £2.75 plus 50p package and postage.

Bulk orders for branches and bookshops are available at a discount. Apply to the address above for details.—R.K.

• Four booklets, each adding its own individual detail to the sum of RNLI history, have also appeared recently.

Three are station histories, recording the services performed by lifeboats at Port Erin, Aith and Selsey, and the fourth tells the story of a pulling lifeboat, Worcester Cadet, which was on service from 1880 to 1892 at Brightstone Grange, a station closed in 1915.

Publication of The Story of the Port Erin Lifeboats, by Jeff Morris, marks the centenary of this station which was established in the south west of the Isle of Man in 1883; since the first 32ft ten-oared boat went on service that year, Port Erin lifeboats have answered 157 calls for help and have rescued 93 lives. Illustrating the booklet are photographs of every one of the station's six lifeboats, including of course her present 37ft 6in Rother Osman Gabriel, and pictures of her boathouse which has one of the RNLI's steepest slipways.

Copies from the station honorary secretary, Mr R. Rimington, Avenholme, Dandy Hill, Port Erin, Isle of Man, price 75p plus 25p p and p.

Aith Lifeboat, published in the station's golden jubilee year, has been compiled as a 'gift in kind' by James R.

Nicolson, one of Shetland's best known authors. It tells in a most readable way the history of the station, its lifeboats and its people for the past 50 years.

Once again, the booklet is illustrated by a good selection of photographs and there is a map to locate this the most northerly of the RNLI's lifeboat stations.

Copies from the Honorary Secretary, Aith Lifeboat, Post Office, Aith, Bixter, Shetland, price £1 plus 20p postage and packing.

Jeff Morris is also the author of The Story of the Selsey Lifeboats, a second edition which brings the history of this West Sussex lifeboat station, first established in 1861, right up to date; on its front and back cover are photographs of the prototype 47ft Tyne class fast slipway lifeboat City of London which it is planned will go on station at Selsey when her operational trials are completed.

There are photographs of most of Selsey's past lifeboats, too, as well as of the present 48ft 6in Oakley Charles Henry and the D class inflatable lifeboat.

Copies from Mr C. Ford, 5 Sunnymead Close, Selsey, West Sussex, price 75p plus 25p postage and packing.

The Worcester Cadet is the story of just one pulling lifeboat, built in 1880 and provided by a fund raised by Captain J. H. Smith, at that time captain superintendent of the training ship Worcester; it is written by Christopher J. Willis, honorary secretary of the Association of Old Worcesters and another Old Worcester, Wing-Cdr E. H. Roberts. The lifeboat's naming took place alongside HMS Worcester at Greenhithe before she went on station at Brighstone Grange. In the 12 years she was on service in the Isle of Wight she rescued no fewer than 244 lives, 129 of them from the German steamer Eider which struck on Atherfield Ledge in thick fog on January 31, 1892. Copies from the Association of Old Worcesters, 204 Burntwood Lane, Caterham, Surrey, CR3 6TB, price £1 including packing and postage.—J.D.

• For the yachtsman whose playground extends from Fastnet to Ushant in the west and from Great Yarmouth to Den Helder in the east, The Yachtsman's Manual of Tides by Michael Reeve-Fowkes, MInstPI (Flint Hall Publications. £11.75) contains a distillation of all the tidal information to be found in the Admiralty Tide Tables and Atlases of Tidal Streams for the area and similar publications by the French and Dutch Hydrographic Departments.

All the information has been reduced to a central standard port, for which purpose the author has unpatriotically chosen Cherbourg, partly because it has a substantial tidal range and partly because 'the regime is uncomplicated'.

Writing from Poole, who could complain that our French twin town should be chosen especially when our own tidal range is absurdly small and its waveform varies from a near straight horizontal line at neaps to something drawn by a surrealist artist at springs.

Whether the yachtsman who already uses Reed's, Macmillan's or the Admiralty publications will be prepared to add another substantial book to his charttable library remains to be seen.

Perhaps he will be attracted by the pages of very sound advice on passage planning in order to make best use of the tidal streams when he crosses the Channel, particularly if, as a racing man, time is of the essence.

The newcomer to the mysteries of the tides invariably asks two or three highly pertinent questions which cannot be answered without a very brief reference to the theory of tides: first, if the moon draws out a hump of water and the earth rotates underneath it, why does not the tidal wave in the Channel travel from east to west instead of the other way? Second: if the moon draws out a hump of water towards it, what draws out the hump of water on the opposite side of the earth to give us two tides per day? Third: if the combined tide-raising forces of the sun and moon occur at full and new moon, why do spring tides come two days later? In the meagre page and a half on general principles, the author answers the last question unsatisfactorily by stating that there is a time lag while inertia is overcome, forgetting that the tidal wave has to travel 6,000 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, where it originates, before it enters the Channel at Land's End, and continues eastwards (the answer to the first question). He does not attempt to answer the second question. However, it might be claimed that the yachtsman couldn't care less so long as his tables give him the answers he wants, and this publication will surely do that with convenience and accuracy.-K.M.

• Yacht Designer's Sketch Book (Nautical Books Macmillan, £8.95) and Small Steel Craft (second edition, Adlard Coles Granada, £8.95), recently published, are both by Ian Nicholson, FRINA, whose writing is well known to the small boat industry.

The most obvious solution to any problem is often the simplest, and Yacht Designer's Sketch Book, the third volume of practical, workable ideas first published in Yachts and Yachting, continues to provide the stimulus often needed to see the obvious. The sketches apply to hull, decks, spars and rigging and altogether form a most useful guide for anyone involved with small boats.

Small Steel Craft, as the title suggests, is devoted to the design, construc-tion and maintenance of small boats built in steel. For the second edition of what has already been accepted as a popular and useful book, the text has been brought up to date to reflect the increasing interest in this type of construction since first publication ten years ago. It covers the characteristics and uses of modern steels and alloys, and describes the best construction techniques throughout the whole process of building and fitting out small craft; it continues with maintenance, including painting and protective finishes, and concludes with suggestions for reducing annual overhaul bills. As one of the few books devoted exclusively to small steel craft, it should continue to prove invaluable to designers, builders and owners alike.—K.C.T.

• A few years ago Malcolm Robson produced a Channel Islands Pilot (published by Nautical Books) which contains much valuable information and is widely used by visiting yachts. All royalities from the book were generously donated to the RNLI, resulting in nearly £900 for the lifeboats. In his introduction Mr Robson wrote: 'Finally, whilst information has been checked, sorted and rechecked, an error could creep in . . . Please, please if you find any errors,or you can supply omissions, could you tell me?' Guernsey Boatowners' Association has taken up Mr Robson's request, and also followed his generous example. It has compiled an amended list of marks covering Guernsey, Herm and Sark, which includes some important variations from the original book. The list is being sold in aid of the RNLI and is available price £1, including postage, from Mr I. W. Larby, Little Southerndown, St Martin's, Guernsey.

• I had a feeling, on opening The Yacht Navigator's Handbook by Norman Dahl (Ward Lock, £12.95), that a professional navigator had no business writing for yachtsmen who would be so overwhelmed to hear what he had to say that they would never thereafter go beyond the harbour bar or even the yacht club bar.

I was quite wrong. The author presents the mysteries of his trade in a way wholly understandable and digestible by yachtsmen. In fact, candidates for the RYA/DoT yachtmaster and ocean yachtmaster certificates could not find a better textbook for the navigation part of the shore-based syllabus.

I was particularly impressed by the author's insistence that the yacht navigator fully appreciates that his carefully plotted position on the chart is no more than the centre of an area of probability whose size and shape depends on many factors, some of which are beyond his control but most of which can be minimised by the exercise of great care and precision.

Having said that, it is a pity that the principles preached have not been applied to the production of the book. In a rapid scan, some gross errors have been detected all of which fall into the latter category (an errata slip is being issued by the publisher). Also, I gasped when I saw the IALA system of buoyage illustrated on page 43 and thought that they had changed it yet again! However, it turned out that (in the review copy at least) all the green shapes had come out so dark as to be almost black. This is odd since the green in the extracts from Chart 5011 on the preceding pages is most refreshing, like the rest of this excellent book.—K.M.

The RNLI has been given a set of Lloyd's Register of Yachts to sell in aid of lifeboat funds. The set, from 1883 to 1970 inclusive, is complete except for the years 1889, 1890, 1894 and 1969; there are no volumes for the war years 1916 to 1918 and 1940 to 1946. Offers over £500 are invited and should be sent to the public relations officer, RNLI, 202 Lambeth Road, London SE1 7JW, by Wednesday August 31, 1983; the set will go to the highest bidder.

There are also a few duplicate volumes in this generous gift. Please send by August 31, to the address above, offers over £8 for each volume for the years 1921, 1923, 1924, 1929, 1932 and 1937, and offers over £7 for a volume for the year 1970. Once again, the highest amount offered will be accepted for each volume..