Reviewed by Kathleen L. May

This much-anticipated book chronicling the last Whitbread has sadly not lived up to the expectations everyone had for it.

Quokka has instead published a book that looks more like an advertisement campaign for an Internet web site dealing with the race than a book about the race. The book for the most part appears as if it were written by a committee that couldn't decide where various the Whitbread 60's email text should go on any given photograph. This destroys not only the photograph but also the text of the Email. Another problem is that the reader is not able to easily ascertain who wrote the Email (on some of the pages there are at least two emails from two different people) and which W60 the image was taken on. All too often the photographs are grainy, out of focus and lack perspective. This is quite frustrating when you consider that the same people who were responsible for a ground-breaking website are also responsible for this book. Quokka did an outstanding job with the website covering the race. The site was uncluttered and user friendly. If the reader is persistent they will be able to find out who the author is of the email by reading the small print so to speak in the small boxes on each photo.

On the positive side the text (that is not printed on top of the photographs of the W60's) for the most part gives an excellent detailed account of each of the nine Whitbread race legs, as well as a brief history of the race and a glossary of both sailing and Whitbread terminology. The book starts out with an overall history of the Whitbread. This is very informative until they get to the 1993-94 race where the Whitbread 60's (known as W60's) make their first appearance. This section of the history of the race leaves a lot to be desired. There is no satisfactory explanation of how or why the W60's came into being or even why they were allowed to race. One is left to wonder about the various rule changes, cost factors and safety consideration that must have been taken into account.

The other chapters dealing with the 1997-98 Whitbread are well written. Each of the race leg chapters has a prologue that informs the reader of what went on before the start of each leg. This prelude details crew and racecourse changes (if there were any) along with the protests and the rulings of the international jury. The rest of the chapter is devoted to the race, giving the reader a good overview of each leg and how each W60 crew coped with its own particular set of problems and the race tactics they used.

The conclusion chapter of the book isn't as fulfilling as the previous chapters dealing with the race. It deals with Quokka's role in the race as the creator of the official Whitbread website. This chapter failed to answer some basic questions about how and why the website was created. Whose idea it was to cover the Whitbread with an Internet website? How many web programmers did it take to design the site and keep it up and running? Not to mention how the virtual race came into being and the infamous Talk Back column where differing viewpoints of the website sailors (i.e.: users) were published. This part read more like an advertisement than an account of Quokka's role in covering the race. What this chapter did do is give the reader a peek into the future, telling us that there would be other internet sites devoted to various other sporting events as well as sailing.

The Glossary of Nautical Terms and Whitbread Slang gives the reader a greater understanding of the Emails and Chapters in the book. The glossary will come in handy for use as a future reference. The Nautical Glossary defines everything from aft to yaw. The Whitbread Slang Glossary is shall we say much more interesting than the Nautical Glossary. It begins with the definition of "Big Kahuna" continues with words and phases such as: complete dog, fantasyland, Haulin' the Mail, Haulin' the Chili, Real Estate and Wet sanding just to name a few. All of these terms don't necessarily mean what one might think they do.