Three Years in a Twelve-Foot Boat | 
| Author: Stephen G. Ladd
Publisher: Seekers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $5.87
You Save: $11.08 (65%)
New (3) Used (22) from $5.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 280779
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 390
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0966933737
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.45
EAN: 9780966933734
ASIN: 0966933737
Publication Date: September 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Cover wear and may contain some marks or writing. Keen Northwest ships in 2 business days or less. Refunds for any reason if item returned within 30 days of shipment.
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Book Description
This is the true narrative of a middle-aged poet who rows and sails a featherweight wooden boat through nineteen countries - 15,000 miles - to relive his youth and savor adventure. While courting disaster in some of the Western Hemisphere's remotest corners, he records nature, cultures, and his own emotional processes.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Fulfilling an Ambition June 9, 2008
A surprisingly good read... after purchasing the book, and then realizing it was not a whole lot about sailing, I let it gather dust for several months... But once into the book, I was captivated - and I have little interest in rowing, or river travel either... Ladd seems to have the knack for making mosquito invested estuaries sounding inviting, or at least intriguing... But Ladd's journey is as much about meeting and getting to know people (as well as himself, I'll wager...) as anything... Yes, he rows and sails thousands of miles, but this really isn't a nautical book so much as an adventure of life in the genre of a more enlightened period of the 20th Century - few serious rewards will be found by those more at home in the instant-gratification 21st century... Ladd is a gifted writer who knows how to turn a phrase, setting sunsets and storms alike to poetry - he lets us share his voyage - a voyage more of attitude and intellect, than simple, carnal flesh.
Warts and all February 5, 2008
What an interesting book.
While this book is in essence a travelogue of Ladd's voyage through some very interesting and dangerous parts of the world it is also a voyage of him as a writer, seaman, and person.
Ladd's book is interspersed with a number of poems and for the first few chapters it is difficult to distinguish the poetry from the prose. I found this hard going and nearly put the book down, however from about chapter 5 Ladd finds a style that embraces his unusual and insightful use of language that paints a vivid and descriptive account of his voyage from all perspectives.
The people and the places visited, especially outside of the US, are unique and unusual and Ladd captures their beauty, poverty and despair as it may be. At times he is lucky to survive and you can feel the anxiety in his writing without this being played up by the author.
Ladd leaves nothing untouched and this may make you cringe when it borders on personal areas that you wish were left unsaid but in its own way this is part of his voyage as a person and the book is richer for Ladd's honesty.
I'm glad he went without me November 14, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am a bookstore fumbler. I pull everything out, look here and there and find books like this one that can't be ignored. I hoped to really enjoy this book, since the idea is so compelling. This is the story of a young guy who gets an idea for a solo voyage to Latin America and then designs and builds a cheap, single-handed boat to make the improbable trip.
I have to say, though, that from start to finish I never wished I was him. Sure, he's a good boat designer and builder - his wierd craft survived the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, the Orinoco and the Caribbean. He must also be a very capable and fearless sailor, since he went places that seem impossible in such a small craft. But as someone who has been over much of the ground he covered, I'm glad he went without me.
One is struck by the author's constant need for and dependence on the kindness of strangers, including many whose language he does not speak well, although from the account that is never lacking. Sometimes it seems that he does push it too far and asks more than a host might reasonably be asked to supply. At the same time there is an almost sinister tone, a feeling that something really bad is just about to happen. Of course, bad things do happen all around him constantantly, and the fact that he returned at all to write this book is at least partly due to his good luck.
It's a bit gritty for my taste - I can almost taste the muddy water and feel the mosquito bites - but as a cautionary tale it gets high marks.
 In no way a classic sailing nor adventure story October 26, 2005
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
This Guy confuses falling in love with prostitute sex. He does not even know before he goes anything about where he is going; no charts, no boat registration, no understanding of legal aspect of moving himself and his boat in the areas he plans to go - and this was after a YEAR of planning.
He believes he needs the protection of a gun.. Hmm - and then that gun had better have the most deadly bullets in the world.
He writes (terrible) poetry all the time and constantly adds statements that I assume he feels will impress.
This guy's text is unsophisticated, and abbrasive. But he had an incredible journey.
Definately not a girl friendly book. If you are a beer swilling guy that likes the ladies (whatever they cost) you will probably find this book a great read. Much more a book about Steven Ladd, than about sailing, or even the areas he visits.
Sophomoric Sex and Booze Journal July 8, 2004
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Very little about sailing, and most of what is there displays the author's lack, not command of skill and judgment. It is hard to fathom that anyone would think that average readers are more interested in details of his copulation with a prostitute than they are with the construction and operation of the boat, but apparently, Steve Ladd thought those were the important details to include. A previous reviewer got it right: It's "Dear Diary" with a catchy title. I could not finish it. I skipped around, trying to find some part that wasn't saturated with the author's ego and libido, but finally gave up. If there were some good illustrations on the details of the boat, it would rate 2 stars, but the few line drawings of the boat were all two-dimensional and lacking detail. Part of the appeal of the travelogue is experiencing the trip vicariously. If you want to experience loose women, prostitutes, drugs, vagrancy and the seamy side of just about everything related to cruising, this is your book.
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