Boat Books staff waylaid by Oyster Shooter

by Helen Hopcroft on 18 Mar 2007 The staff of Boat Books were unusually chatty when we spoke to them at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival a few weeks ago.. The team from the Sydney and Melbourne stores were manning their busy nautical book stall at the Hobart Festival. They cheerfully explained that they had discovered the joys of the Tasmanian Oyster Shooter.

Contrary to what you may think, a Tasmanian Oyster Shooter is not a crazed gunman with a pathological hatred of shell fish. It is something rather special. Four or so plump Tasmanian oysters in a chilled shot glass with a nip of vodka, tomato juice, a dash of Tabasco, cracked black pepper and sea salt, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. (Pause while reader checks fridge for necessary ingredients).

Rob Landis, from the Sydney store, advised that the shooters make an ideal breakfast. They are best consumed in a single gulp. Apparently four is a good number to start the day.

Although the Boat Books stall was doing a roaring trade, both men seemed happiest discussing their oyster shooter discovery.

They explained that they would have about 20,000 to 30,000 visitors to their stall over the four day festival.

‘There will be those that will walk straight past, there will those who spend a couple of seconds and there will be those who spend half a day there!’

This weekend Boat Books will be at the Club Marine Sailing Show at Docklands in Melbourne and you should visit them if you have a chance or go to any of their city stories as Boat Books has filled a gap in the market for charts and marine literature.

‘Boat Books was first established about thirty years ago in Sydney …we then opened branches in Sydney and Melbourne…. We also run mail order and a website and we’ve got customers right around the world.’

‘We deal with people like Kelvin Hughes in the UK and Cornes in Japan. Which are probably the two biggest chart agents on the other side of the world.’

‘In the late 70’s Dymocks Book Arcade, which in those days was just one store…was an Admiralty and an Australian chart agent. They decided to change…market direction and withdrew and relinquished their chart agency.’

‘This provided a gap in the market. Boat Books saw that opportunity and stepped in. Since then (we) have now become the largest chart agent in the Southern Hemisphere.’

Predictably Landis reported selling a large number of books about timber vessels over the weekend. Sutton said that their usual sales fall into three categories.

‘We sell a lot of sailing stories particularly ones with an Australian bent. ‘How to’ books, particularly learn to sail, how to sail, boatbuilding, fitting out. And also Cruising guides.’

‘We carry things like official government publications such as tide tables, sailing directions right through to the more esoteric titles.’

They are also the agent for a number of self published books. Self published books can be hard to find in mainstream book stores.

‘We are the sole distributor of a book on couta boats ‘First Home’.

They stock some limited edition and out of print books. They will also endeavour to find copies of rare books for their customers.

‘We’ve got a couple of titles at the moment that are now that are out of print. We’ve got the ‘16 square riggers of Australia and New Zealand’; we’ve got the last copies of that. And we’ve also got three copies of the limited edition of it.’

‘‘Tasmania the Wild Island’ by Richard Bennett who’s a well known Tasmanian photographer and yachting photographer. We’ve got the last copies of that.’

Richard Bennett has a long history of photographing the Rolex Sydney Hobart and other high profile racing events. His archive contains photographs of racing yachts dating back to 1974.

With Mother’s Day coming up on the 13th of May, Sail-World asked whether they had any good books for Mum. They suggested the following titles.

‘Beyond the shore; sailing, seafood, wine’ by Rob and Rosemary Petersweld is a large scale, very glossy cookery book. Recipes are interspersed with beautiful seascape photos of the east coast of Australia. Hutton reports the book has been very popular as a gift for overseas visitors.

‘By the Grace of the Sea’ by Pat Henry is a true story. She was the first American woman to sail around the world solo and the oldest woman to do so. Her 8 year voyage ended in 1997 when she brought her 31ft Southern Cross into Acapulco Harbour.

‘The Sea Captain’s Wife- A true story of Love, Race and War in the Nineteenth Century’ by Martha Hodes. By all accounts a fascinating tale of an early interracial marriage in the United States. Historian Martha Hodes tells the tale of a woman who lived through the American Civil War, married an affluent black sea captain and then moved with him to his home in the British Caribbean.

‘Around the Buoys with Champion Yachtswoman and Navigator’ by Adrienne Cahalan should be an inspiring read. One of six children, Cahalan started sailing as a teenager and currently holds five world sailing speed records. In 2003 she completed a Masters degree in Applied Meteorology with a thesis on southern hemisphere meteorology.

Having fulfilled family obligations, its time to pick up some reading material for yourself. Landis advises that the following titles have been selling well in the Sydney store.

‘All Piss and Wind’ by David Salter is apparently a good read and quite funny. ‘It’s been doing very well’.

‘The Last of the Wind Ships’ is a large hardcover publication with text and ‘stunning’ black and white photographs by Allan Villiers. The photographs are from the late 1920’s to 1930’s and show some of the last great merchant sailing vessels; the Herzogin Cecilie, the Grace Harwar, and the Panama.

Boot Book are online, you can go there now at http://www.boatbooks-aust.com.au/