Here we are again with the seed catalog and cruising guide season. (Sounds so much better than the bleak midwinter, doesn't it?) Happily, there are new products available in both categories to distract us.

Cruisers in the Northeast may have received the twelfth edition of The Cruising Guide to the New England Coast as a holiday gift, since the book was strategically released in September. Others are still debating the investment. This is the scoop.

Cruising Guide to the New England Coast W.W. Norton, 827pp, $49.95

If you found the 11th edition (published in 1995) enjoyable and useful, you'll feel the same about the 12th. Over its 50-year evolution the book has become both a literary classic and a family saga. A major reason is the literate personal commentary, much of it in the voice of the legendary Downeast sailor, Roger Duncan.

A new generation of Duncans is responsible for the new edition, but many segments from many previous editions written by predecessors of the contemporary authors have been wisely retained. In decorous post-Victorian prose spiced with wry twists of (usually) self-deprecating humor personal experiences, observations and advice from three generations of Yankee academics provide a thoroughly enjoyable prospective on the enterprise of cruising.

For example: "The era of the 'gentleman's yacht' is almost over. One sees along shore now very few 50-foot schooners, yawls, or ketches shining with brass and varnish, flying proper flags at the proper time, and having a paid skipper and deckhand to row the owner ashore in a varnished cedar skiff." The reading enjoyment of today's cruiser may be laced with a twinge of envy, of course, for those bygone days of high style and summers of pure leisure.

Practically speaking, the Guide continues to fulfill its purpose (as stated in the third, 1952 edition), "to put into convenient form information of value to the captain of a small sailboat or motorboat cruising the New England coast ... including the following points about each harbor; suitability of refuge; appearance of entrance from sea; information on entering; anchorages and mooring facilities; attractiveness and general interest; and useful information such as location of yacht clubs and boat yards (with depths at docks); availability of supplies, hotels, railroad, restaurants, post office, bathing, and amusement facilities and sources of accurate information."

The new edition covers the same dauntingly large and various cruising grounds as the 1995 edition ­ Hudson River to New Brunswick, Canada ­ with all the harbors previously included. The table of contents has been somewhat reorganized into different groupings of passages from those of the previous edition. There are also some design changes, presumably in an attempt to modernize the look, but which actually make the text harder on older eyes, though not significantly.  

A close comparison of the practical details included in the 11th and the 12th editions by this reviewer revealed minimal informational changes, though it would be foolhardy to suggest that the older book would suffice for this summer's cruise. The specific piece of information that you might need in a dilemma or a crunch might be just the new inclusion overlooked by a whole spate of reviewers.

Another cautionary note is also warranted, however. Inherent in the process of compilation of such a volume is the significant lag time between the research and publication. Research for this edition seems to have been accomplished during 1999. Some findings are already out of date by the time the book hits the stores.

Not much happened in Wells Harbor between 1992 and 1999, for instance, although a battle over dredging had raged for more than a decade. Between the research and the Guide's publication, the harbor was smartly dredged. Today it is an adequate hidey-hole for shallow draft cruisers and home to almost 200 recreational boats and a small lobstering fleet. As the authors themselves say in this edition (and all the previous ones), "the information contained herein cannot be guaranteed and must be used with due caution."

Last year we told you about Curtis Rindlaub's fourth edition of the classic "A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast" (Diamond Pass Publishing, $54.95 hardcover; $42.95 softcover). Together, these two books are essential cornerstones for the on-board library of any New England cruising boat.

Carol Standish reviews books for Points East.

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