The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon: And 101 Other Things for Young Mariners to Build, Try, and Do on the Water - Hardcover

by David Seidman (Author), Jeff Hemmel (Author)

Spark a passion for sailng and the outdoors in your child

From the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards bronze medal winner

Ever since humankind began seafaring, boats and shoreline adventures have produced sturdy, independent, creative, self-reliant kids. From the author of the bestselling Complete Sailor and proud father of a boy mariner, here is the book for all parents who want to introduce their kids to the world of boats, boating, sailing, the shore, and the sea. It provides dozens of adventures and activities for kids, and a plethora of projects for you and your kids to do together.

Topics range from how-to to fanciful, in random organization so that each excursion into the book turns up unrelated gems on facing pages. The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon encourages your kid to get outdoors and on the water, to build things, to try things, to cultivate their curiosity, to learn self-reliance, and to get a giant dose of the magic of seaside adventure.

• Loaded with things for kids to do--build a rope ladder; build a Huck Finn raft from PVC pipe; catch and fillet a fish; go crabbing; skip a stone; body surf; waterski on bare feet; chart a cove; learn the great sea battles; build a sandcastle; navigate; win a sailboat race; paddle a sea kayak; and a whole lot more.
• Designed to cultivate a kid's curiosity about the natural world.

Topics include: Where's the wind coming from; How high is that wave; An anti-pirate potato cannon; Brew your own biofuel; Make a dugout canoe; Build a Huck Finn raft from PVC pipe; Skip a stone; Build a sandcastle; Carve a paddle; Row a boat Escape a rip current; Go kite sailing; Navigate by the stars; Carve a half-hull model; What's on the bottom; A journey to the abyss; Don't wrestle an alligator; A dinghy camper; How to dive with mask and snorkel; Build a motorboat from cardboard tubes; Body surf; Recognize ships; Discipline in the Age of Sail: cat-o-nine tails, hanging from the yardarms; Steer without a rudder; Chapter 25. Tie up to a dock; Reading a lines drawing; Whatever floats your boat; Play nautical capture the flag; Paddle a sea kayas; Build a rowboat; Signal across the water; Capture plankton in a net; Tie knots and splices; Make a rope ladder; Make a chart of your favorite cove; Throw your own beach clam bake; Make a catboat-race weather vane; Fight off a shark; Heave a monkey's fist; Ski on your own bare feet; Fillet a fish... and cook it on your engine; Your own ditty bag; A proper sailor's knife; How to stand up on a PWC; How to get up on a wakeboard; Go clamming; Build a human pyramid on water skis; How to poop in a boat: How marine heads work; Diver's tube raft; Submarine a PWC; Survive a sinking; Finding east or west All you need is the north star; The bosun's pipe; Ships in a bottle; Five sea battles that changed history; Use the five secrets of winning a sailboat race; Make a viewing bucket to see underwater; Cast a fly; Survive a hurricane; The Eskimo roll; Stow that chart; Goggles from a soda bottle; Find fish fast; Repair a sail; Whalewatching; Go on a plastics hunt; Don't be left in the dark; Pets at sea: how to train your cat or dog for boating; The green and clean boat; Ride the disk; Go crabbing; Careers at sea; Pass your boating license exam; Origins of sea terms; The best way to coil rope; Carve a slalom turn; Keeping watch; Throwing a cast net; Keep what you catch - start an aquarium; Heroes of the Sea: Shackleton, Slocum, Day, Knox-Johnston, Heyerdahl, etc.; Books & Stories (Three Men in a Boat, Crunch and Des, Riddle of the Sands, Swallows and Amazons); Stage paintball sea battles; Read the messages in clouds; Get unlost in the fog: sager forecaster; Know how to handle waves; Semaphore signals; Glacier surfing; Great voyages by young mariners; Make a weather station

Author Biography

David Seidman got into boats when he was nine and has been hooked ever since. He has designed and built his own boats and sailed the world in others. The first person to reach Bermuda from the U.S. in an outboard-powered boat, Seidman has also crossed the Bering Strait on a personal watercraft, holds the world record for distance traveled in a boat on a gallon of gas (103 miles), has followed the route of Lewis and Clark, crossed the country twice by boat, and has traveled by boat up the Amazon and down the Yangtze and Mississippi rivers. Equally fascinated by power, sail, and paddle, he is an accomplished sea kayaker and has sailed across the Atlantic. He is the former executive editor of Boating, the world's largest powerboat magazine, and is the author of The Complete Sailor, a bestselling sailing instructional guide. Most relevant of all, however, David is the proud father of a 6-year-old boy who he hopes will share his love of boats and the sea. The Anti-Pirate Potato Cannon and 101 Other Things for Young Mariners to Build, Try, and Do on the Water is David's attempt to ensure that happens. Jeff Hemmel is a lifelong boater, and contributing editor to Boating Magazine, PersonalWatercraft.com, and BoaterMouth.com. Always interested in watersports, he raced sailboats in his teen years, competed as a professional personal watercraft freestyle rider in his 20s, and remains an avid wakeboarding enthusiast. Hemmel was recently inducted into the International Jet Sports Boating Association Hall of Fame, as well as given that association's "Lifetime Achievement" award. Jeff loves a fresh story angle, and in that pursuit has battled Class IV rapids in a Hells Canyon jet boat, surfed the waves of South Africa on a stand-up Jet Ski, rode a wakeboard through the Grand Canyon, even pulled the 12-person water-ski pyramid at Florida's Cypress Gardens. Like David, Jeff is passing on his love of the water to his two young daughters, both of whom are already proud skiers.