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Chappell, John --- " [1999] MarStudies 22

• BOOK REVIEW
• The User’s Guide to the Australian Coast, by Greg Laughlin. Reed, Sydney, 1997, $45.00.

BOOK REVIEW

The User’s Guide to the Australian Coast, by Greg Laughlin. Reed, Sydney, 1997, $45.00.

This handsome book deserves to find a place on the bookshelves of students and lovers of Australian coastal waters, as well as amongst those assorted manuals, sailing directions and miscellania that cram a shelf near the chart table in offshore cruising craft. A handbook about coastal biology and landforms it is not: as the subtitle declares, this book is a guide to currents, waves, winds and weather. Broad in its coverage of most components of weather near the coast and explanatory in style, Laughlin’s book will also be useful to those who keep a weather eye open whilst making long-distance camping journeys through the outback, and is a good source book for those who fly light aircraft and wish to improve their understanding of the vagaries of the atmosphere and its winds.

Quite lavishly illustrated, a particular attraction of this book is its use of colour maps, diagrams and satellite images, derived by modem computer graphic methods, which illuminate concepts clearly and provide the reader with immediate data. The text itself is written in a clear and attractive style, well keyed to the illustrations, and succeeds in explaining (without mathematics) the basis of many technical concepts that concern air flow and climate. The scientific underpinning of the book is good: not only is the author is a professional climatologist, but also the work is supported by contributions from highly regarded specialists in related fields, which Laughlin has skilfully knitted into the text without breaking its continuity.

In terms of its level of conceptual and explanatory detail concerning winds, weather and tides, the book is pitched higher than is commonly found in manuals for sailing and small coastal shipping, and is closer to a college text. Although this is not a substitute for aviation training manuals, the level of detail concerning winds and weather hazards in the lower atmosphere is comparable to that found in texts for the commercial pilot licence. Indeed, with worked examples to assist the reader to identify weather conditions, from the scale of synoptic weather maps down to the local scale of hills, shores and islands, the book would not be out of place as an adjunct text for college and tertiary introductory courses in environmental studies that have a climatological component, and certainly is a must for public libraries.

Consistent with the fine yachting photographs that herald each chapter and add instant appeal, the author clearly has a love of boats and sailing, and has included many useful tips on reading the weather and boat handling, when severe weather is in the offing. Anyone going to sea in small boats - particularly where enthusiasm exceeds experience - would profit by absorbing fully the very useful chapters on wind and wave essentials, and on severe weather. Other chapters give explanatory and well-illustrated accounts of regional variations of tides, currents and climate, but are not a substitute for tidal almanacs, charts, weather maps and references that provide sailing directions. However, the content is slimmest in that area where the title may lead the buyer to expect more, namely, the matter of the coast itself. Although physiological hazards such as hyperthermia, hypothermia, wind chill and so on are sensibly summarised, more space could have been devoted to physical hazards such as rip currents or wave-break on rocky headlands. Considering that it is not concerned with the features that comprise the coast and add to its allure through their manifold variations - the beaches, rock platforms, life between the tides, cliffs and dunes - the potential buyer must overlook the book’s title and go for the content, which is recommended.

John Chappell

Research School of Earth Sciences,

Australian National University