The fourth edition has come a long way from where it began. Back in 1995, John Anderson of Yachting NSW walked the manuscript of the first edition through Yachting Australia's endorsement process. Don McKenzie, who I had never met, phoned to tell me that he had read and 'highly recommended' it, which was endorsed by Alastair Mitchell, and remains endorsed by Phil Jones, the current CEO of Yachting Australia.
It was endorsed with equal enthusiasm by Chris Gillett of Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association, Keith Jenkins of Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol and Roy Privett of Boating Industry Association of NSW. My sincere thanks to Tom Reed of Volunteer Marine Rescue of Western Australia and Inspector Mick Lynch of NSW Water Police Force for their endorsements.
Once again, people from most unexpected places, people with busy lives and people I have never met have again helped me in making the Fourth Edition a reality. This revision would not have been possible without the support and contribution of research material from Chris Heeks of OTEN and James Garde of Seafood Tasmania. I remain indebted to my friend, pharmacist and first aid instructor Martin Phillips for again revised the First Aid chapter. Anil Chadha of TAFE, Kenn Batt of Bureau of Meteorology and Alan Barringham reviewed various chapters, and my beautiful wife Jing drew numerous sketches. I am grateful to GME and ACR for commenting on the EPIRBs section, Jastram Engineering for contributing to the steering gear chapter, OzeFridge for contribution to the refrigeration section and Manson Anchors for commenting on anchors. For the past contributions I remain indebted to Volvo Penta, Detroit Diesel, Muir Windlasses, Yamaha Motors, Energy Power Systems, Kinnears Pty Ltd., Australia-wide Solar, RFI Industries, Lowrance Electronics, Russell Muller, Hood Sailmakers, RFD Marine and Pains-Wessex.
The book continues to enjoy the benefit of vast depth of knowledge of Russell Vasey, Alan Barringham, Kenn Batt, John Richardson, David Duff, Des Highfield, Steve Mitchell, Ken D'Cruz, Sigi Veldhuyzen, Peter Irvin and Ravi Nijjer. Ross Carey has again designed an excellent cover. Without the input of each and every one of them, the book would be incomplete.