Annapolis: Sailing Capital of Maryland

If you’re a Marylander who owns a coffee table and thinks fondly of our capital city, this is the book you want.

reviewed by Dick Wilson

Start at the inside cover: A striking photograph of 20 sailboats skimming along in a race. Sloops asail, spinnakers shimmering on a sparkling sea. It’s visual poetry. The boats are racing all-out; these folks are serious about their racing. Read on to see and feel life on the Bay.

A foreword by Gov. Martin O’Malley — extolling the merits of our state’s beautiful capital city — gives us a nice segue into the real subject of the book, which is the city itself. In four chapters, writer Ginny Pearce and photographer Roger Miller encapsulate the essence of Annapolis: Its rich history, the United States Naval Academy, the Bay with its sailing and the city’s physical beauty.

Street shots, aerial shots and interior/exterior close-ups of Annapolis buildings show the city in all its architectural orderliness, history and natural beauty. Miller’s photography makes you realize the serious limitations of your little point-and-shoot digital camera and the eye behind it.

Can there be anything prettier than a regatta of boats scudding before the wind with spinnakers aloft? Miller’s photos in the chapter “Sailing in Annapolis” go beyond beauty to show you what sailing feels like. Maneuvers are fully explained in the text and in Gary Jobson’s chapter preface, so you get lessons along with good looks.

The final chapter paints a vivid portrait of life at the United States Naval Academy, as well as its storied past and its honored role in our country’s military establishment.

If you’re a Marylander who owns a coffee table and thinks fondly of our capital city, this is the book you want.

Image Publishing, Baltimore: 168 pages, hardbound: $39.95.