SeaWise was written by two skippers who came to the same conclusion from opposite directions: aviation has solved the problem of acting correctly under stress, and sailing has not.
Frank and Dor-Ner sailed together for decades. SeaWise is the method they refined between them — a way to make seamanship and safety inseparable, drawn from aviation discipline and ocean miles.
Trained as an Israeli Air Force pilot, where checklist discipline isn't an aesthetic choice — it's how you come home. Founded and sold tech companies, produced Emmy-winning documentaries, and has spent the last decade carrying aviation's safety methodology onto the water.
Frank writes essays on seamanship, decision-making, and the boom at en.zvifrank.com.
Co-author and Frank's lifelong mentor at sea. A WGBH producer who built landmark series like Columbus and the Age of Discovery, he held a Yacht Master Ocean ticket and a US Coast Guard captain's license, and crossed oceans with the same calm he brought to a director's chair.
1939 – 2017. This work continues in his name.
Aviation figured out long ago that under stress, structure is the first thing that goes. Pilots train for the moment with checklists, procedures, and rehearsed action — not because they're rigid, but because they free the mind to think when thinking is hardest.
Sailing, for the most part, has not done this. The seamanship literature is rich; the procedural discipline is thin. Skippers learn by anecdote, and the lessons of incidents stay with the people who lived them.
An emergency that does not kill you on the spot is an invitation to a dance. Cool down, put on your dancing shoes, and don't forget to be grateful for being invited.
SeaWise brings aviation's method onto the water. Procedures for the fourteen emergencies a sailor should rehearse. Checklists for the ordinary work that prevents the extraordinary. A logbook of incidents so the fleet learns from every one.
The site is free. The book is the piece you can mount in the cockpit for the moment the screens are dark and the hands are wet.
Questions, corrections, an incident you want recorded in the logbook — write to frank.p.zvi@gmail.com.