---
product_id: 1697822
title: "How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide"
price: "9.34 OMR"
currency: OMR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/1697822-how-boat-things-work-an-illustrated-guide
store_origin: OM
region: Oman
---

# How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide

**Price:** 9.34 OMR
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide
- **How much does it cost?** 9.34 OMR with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.om](https://www.desertcart.com.om/products/1697822-how-boat-things-work-an-illustrated-guide)

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## Description

How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide [WING, Charlie] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide

Review: Insightful - This book blew my mind. This is essential reading for a new sailor.
Review: Very useful and clear illustrations - Nice thing about.this was that the example hardware they chose to use in the book matches the hardware on my boat

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | 0071493441 |
| Best Sellers Rank | #116,466 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #5 in Instructional Sailing #30 in Boating (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (426) |
| Dimensions  | 8.5 x 0.4 x 10.88 inches |
| Edition  | 1st |
| ISBN-10  | 9780071493444 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0071493444 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 176 pages |
| Publication date  | June 4, 2007 |
| Publisher  | International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press |

## Images

![How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61saAjnLjDL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Insightful
*by B***L on August 12, 2025*

This book blew my mind. This is essential reading for a new sailor.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very useful and clear illustrations
*by B***N on May 28, 2025*

Nice thing about.this was that the example hardware they chose to use in the book matches the hardware on my boat

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Buying a Boat? Read this Before You Shop
*by J***O on December 2, 2013*

Charlie Wing has done a little bit of public service with "How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide", although McGraw-Hill has done a disservice to their fine illustration department by not crediting their work by name. Books of this sort which are extensively photo-illustrated often make things harder to see and understand because of the issues involved with lighting small bits in enclosed spaces and/or scale issues. Clear-line illustration of this sort suffers from none of these drawbacks. Captain Wing--whose name is familiar to those of you nautically-minded as author of "Get Your Captain's License" and "The Boatowner's Illustrated Electrical Handbook"--reviews boat systems that you'd likely see aboard your 32'-class cruiser. Wing's no stranger to learning in extremis, either--indeed, as he makes clear, he began his journey as the systems aboard his own cruiser successively packed it in over the course of a season. Section I deals with propulsion, and his overview of the various folding/feathering props should disabuse you of the notion that installing these aboard your boat would be a good idea. (That's not what he says, it's what I inferred. Seriously, the diagrams alone are frightening. Why would you hang your boat's propulsion upon something that has that many teeny pieces and moves about?) At any rate, it's a good overview of propulsion. He uses the Yanmar 2GM as his example, and includes some sage advice--such as installing a larger primary fuel filter. Section 2 covers steering. I like wheels, but he doesn't cover tiller systems. He also explains servopendulum autopilots. Section 3 covers standing rigging, swageless fittings and tuning your rig. It's a brief chapter that's at best a big-picture overview. Section 4 is called "Line Handling", which is pretty ambitious--it includes basic deck skills like coiling down lines properly to making them off through knots, block and tackles and the set up of your running rigging. My nit to pick here is that Captain Wing doesn't review the fundamentals of reeving multi-part blocks. How many times has someone unreeved crucial blocks, such as at the mainsheet, and left you wondering how to get it reeved properly? His coverage of reeving to advantage and disadvantage is too short and too sparsely illustrated. This is a particularly salty skill and probably would have added fewer than 2 full pages to the text. Section 5 covers ground tackle--this is what sailors usually call the frayed mess of crap that they've shoved forward into the fo'c's'le. Ground tackle often merits little attention let alone discussion, which is a mistake. Regular practice with it will save your skin. I'd have liked Captain Wing's discussion of various moorings (in particular the Bahamian) to have earned a little more coverage, though. After all, as I tell my students, there's no such thing as a book called "101 Funny Anchoring Stories". Chapter 6 is the reason I bought this book. As the co-author of a book called "The 12-volt bible" you'd expect the Captain to spend some quality time on this subject. He does, and that's a good thing, since electrical systems are growing steadily larger and more complicated in small cruising boxes. I'd like to have seen an overview of basic tests that you would perform when tying up at dock--for example, how to use a multi-meter when checking for correct polarity. Chapter 7 is "plumbing", which offers a good overview of general marine plumbing systems. It is not, however, by any means a troubleshooting and repair guide. Captain Wing has done an excellent job of creating a high-level overview of major boat systems. It's an excellent companion for boat owners and those of you who bare-boat charter as a familiarization guide.

## Frequently Bought Together

- How Boat Things Work: An Illustrated Guide
- Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual 4/E
- Marine Diesel Engines: Maintenance, Troubleshooting, and Repair

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*Product available on Desertcart Oman*
*Store origin: OM*
*Last updated: 2026-02-20*