Our Mission

Nigel's Story

Nigel got into motorcycles and sailing dinghies as a teenager, and has never been far from mechanical things and boats ever since. He has a BA in Philosophy from Exeter University (UK) and an MSc in Operations Research from Sussex University. In a varied career, before becoming a full-time sailing writer, with a focus on marine technical systems, he worked on automotive assembly lines, in foundries and machine shops, and on offshore oil production platforms.

He and his wife, Terrie, built a couple of 70-foot canal boats (on which they lived in England), and a 39-foot Ingrid cutter. They then sailed a Pacific Seacraft 40 for 5 years, following which they had a Malo 45 built in Sweden. This was sold to be replaced by the same boat but with an experimental electrical distribution and propulsion system.

It has been used for extensive testing of cutting edge systems, including a 4-year European Union funded project (HyMar), of which Nigel was the Technical Director, investigating the applicability of hybrid technologies to marine propulsion systems. Based on data collected during the HyMar project, Nigel initiated, and was a lead developer in, a multi-year project resulting in the award-winning advanced generator technology now sold under the Integrel brand name.

Nigel and Terrie have sailed in the North Sea, the Atlantic as far north as the Faroe Islands and as far south as Portugal, the U.S. east coast, the Bahamas and extensively in the Caribbean, with Pippin (now aged 35) and Paul (34) augmenting the crew along the way. In addition to his books on boat systems and hundreds of magazine articles, he has also authored a ‘Cruising Guide to the Northwest Caribbean’, ‘Cuba: A Cruising Guide’, ‘Nigel Calder’s Cruising Handbook: a Compendium for Coastal and Offshore Sailors’ and ‘How to Read a Nautical Chart’. He recently released a memoir of his family’s first long cruise titled ‘Shakedown Cruise’.

Nigel is currently the Technical Editor and/or Associate Editor of PassageMaker, Professional Boatbuilder, Sail, and Ocean Navigator magazines and a consultant on marine energy issues.

Michael's Story

Michael belongs to that rare class of people who combine a vast theoretical knowledge with the ability to apply this to the practical world.

Before becoming a full-time writer with a focus on marine technical systems, Michael had a varied career: starting as an apprentice in a motor workshop, he later worked in forges and machine shops and then became a standards engineer for the German Standards Committee DNA, today known as DIN, in the 70s. There, among other things, he wrote the first manual for gel-cell batteries for the German armed forces.

In the eighties he discovered his passion for boats and sailing. He founded a company constructing marine engines and steel hulls. The first German diesel engine complying with the strict emission rules of Lake Constance originated from his workshop as well as the first V8-diesel engines which could replace V8 gas engines in stern drives. It was also around this time that his commercial inshore license came in handy when he had a stint as captain for the recently founded Greenpeace Germany, blocking freighters on the river Rhine that were transporting hazardous chemicals to be dumped into the North Sea.

In 1993, after having finished building his biggest boat - a 63-foot ketch rigged Reinke design - his life took an unfortunate turn. What was supposed to be a routine surgery turned into a 6 month stay at a Paris hospital, leaving him a paraplegic. After coming back to Cologne, he had no choice but to wind up his business.

However, being tied to a wheelchair did not stop him and his wife from moving onto the newly finished boat, sailing the North Sea, English Channel, Irish Sea and the Atlantic. His new liveaboard-homeport became Penzance, Cornwall, where he started his career as a technical editor for the German sailing magazin Palstek, writing almost 500 articles about boat engines and electrics. His technical illustrations - based on his training at DIN - became a hallmark for the German technical magazine for boaters.

Currently, Michael runs the German website YachtInside, an online library of more than 2,000 pages of technical knowledge. This library is the basis for most of the content on BOATHOWTO. He also still occasionally writes for the German Trans Ocean Magazine and is a consultant for boat owners and boatyards.