Product Description

Energy-Efficient Building Systems is a complete resource for understanding,
operating, and maintaining essential building systems such as heating, air
conditioning, electrical, and lighting. Packed with successful, real-world
examples and 100-plus illustrations, this is the most practical manual
available for reducing energy consumption and complying with green building
guidelines in commercial buildings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #798185 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From the Author
If you've dreamed of offshore voyaging...
When other boats scurry back to to their berths just ahead of the setting sun, you want to keep sailing. You want your tracks to be the only ones on a perfect sand beach of a deserted tropical island. You want to see the green flash, taste coconut milk from the husk, watch the fish dance at dusk, and share a feast with new friends from other cultures. This book can help you get there.

In five sections, this book covers everything I wish I'd known before my partner and I embarked on our 36,000 nautical mile circumnavigation:

1. The Essential Ingredients - an enthusiastic crew, an offshore-capable boat and enough money.

2. Equipping the Yacht for Bluewater Voyaging - all the equipment you'll need to add before you leave from anchors to frying pans.

3. Liveaboard Skills - From maintenance to keeping your boat watertight.

4. Shorthanded Passagemaking Skills - From weather to watchkeeping.

5. Foreign Savvy - Bureaucracy, mail, money, markets and enjoying foreign cultures while keeping the home fires burning.

From the Back Cover
"When other boats scurry back to their berths just ahead of the setting sun you want to keep sailing. You want your tracks to be the only ones on a perfect sand beach of a deserted tropical island. You want to see the green flahs, taste coconut milk from the husk, watch the fish dance at dusk, and share a feast with new friends from other cultures. Perhaps you have cruised for a few months along one of the coasts, for a season in the Caribbean, or for a year in the Atlantic. You probably returned relaxed and contented full of plans for someday. This book can help you get there. It is written for coastal and limited offshore cruisers who want to make the transition to long-term voyaging. I have tried to capture everything I wish I had known when we set sail that June day."

from the Prologue by Beth Leonard

About the Author
Aboard their 37-foot ketch Silk, Beth Leonared and her partner Evans Starzinger successfully completed a 35,000-mile circumnavigation of the world in June 1995. Prior to their sailing career, they were international management consultants. Beth holds an MBA from Carnegie-Mellon. Since discovering the joys and challenges of offshore voyaging, she has published several articles in SAIL magazine, Cruising World, Sailing, and Yachting World. She has also participated in many popular panels, forums, and seminars within the international sailing community.

Customer Reviews

The Best Book on this Subject
I have an extensive library of books about cruising and the voyaging lifestyle and this is by FAR the best and the most useful. Beth Leonard covers the whole topic in great depth and what's more instead of just spouting personal opinion like so many other books, she actually backs it up with research and published evidence. You can tell she has a background in management consultancy. No, she hasn't got a lifetime aboard like some other writers but in my opinion that's what makes her book more valuable to the average person. Not many of us abandon the established world in our teens and are then content to live a spartan and frugal existence thereafter, happy because its all we've ever known. Many more people come to liveaboard cruising in their 40s, 50s or 60s and want to retain some sort of comfort in their new life whilst watching their budget. This book outlines far more realistic and workable ideas for this type of cruiser than the more purist approach of living on dried beans without a proper head or hot water!!!
Really, if you are considering taking a sabbatical to go cruising, this is a definite must have.

a good writer, but does she have enough experience?
When I first saw this book and read the reviews I felt that no publisher would spend this much and produce a book that looked this good unless it was either written by someone who knew what she was writing about, or made it clear that her ideas were only opinions, not based firmly on real hard earned experience. A three year sailing experience limited to one boat does not seem to make this woman an expert - especially on the matter of real seamanship, heavy weather, and such. I'd say this is a good look at a really easy voyage using the trade winds, not too much happened to test the people or boat. But it definitely is not a handbook and people looking for real serious seamanship advise should look elsewere. I did agree with many of the ideas presented here, just wish the author had stuck to what she really knew, not tried to write the complete handbook. voyage.

Absolutely THE BEST
I've read a lot of books about voyaging and how to prepare yourself for it and this is undoubtedly the best. Beth Leonard takes a very clear, pragmatic and structured approach to the whole business which is a welcome difference to some of the more "romantic" approaches. I really like the fact that she gives options at every step of the way depending on budget and your wish for technology. So, the book is useful to both the budget/purist, the mid range voyager, the large purse/technologist and every shade in between. I learnt so much from reading it.

Whatever other books you buy on this subject - do buy this one.