Best Sailing Books

""It was the best of dreams, it was the worst of dreams, it was an age of consulting the nautical experts, it was the age of landlubber foolishness, it was the epoch of determination, it was the epoch of despair, it was the season of hurricanes, it was a spring of…

"Takes readers into the maelstrom and shows nature's splendid and dangerous havoc at its utmost".October 1991. It was "the perfect storm"a tempest that may happen only once in a centurya nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been…

Covering all 185 maritime countries, this farranging third edition offers answers to the cruising sailor's vital concerns.

This is the definitive book on knots. Here are approximately 3900 different kinds, from simple hitches to "Marlingspike Seamanship." Mr. Ashley has included almost everything there is to know about them.

You will venture into the fringes of the wilderness with the minimum of simple gear, to live with it on its own terms. You will know that one of the sure ways to contentment in this life is a small boat, a fair wind, and a new coast to explore.' Dinghy cruising is a wonderful…

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocketsized gift editions of much loved classic titles.

Get Real, Get Gone writes like a pragmatic handbook for sailors who can't rely on a big budget. It mixes cost-conscious advice on boat choice and outfitting with concrete maintenance tips and short voyage anecdotes showing compromises you’ll face. The tone pushes safety and frugality over romanticizing the sea, so it’s useful when you need realistic limitations but can feel repetitive as common warnings recur across chapters. Practical readers will take away actionable priorities; those seeking lyrical escape may find it dry.

No matter what anyone tells you, boat cooking IS different from cooking ashore. The space is smaller, there's no grocery store 5 minutes away, you have fewer prepared foods and electric appliances, and food storage is much different.Despite cruising different oceans, weJan and…

Long considered one of the best books about sailboat racing by competitive racers around the world, Dave Perry's Winning in One Designs covers every aspect of racing.

What we have all now and then dreamed of doing, Tom Neale did: go and live alone on a desert island. For years while storekeeping in the South Pacific, he planned, read and talked until the great day when he was landed on his little kingdom, aware of (but undismayed by) the fact…

The definitive guide from the world's bestknown sailboat maintenance expertDon Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual combines six core volumes into a single, utterly dependable resource that answers every frequent question, explains every major system, and…

With this edition of Seraffyn's European Adventure, all four of the Pardey's classic Seraffyn tales are available in affordable paperback.Join Lin and Larry while they winter in England working to pay for the next leg of their journey into the Baltic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,…

True surfers understand that surfing is not a sport, a hobby or even a lifestyle. Instead, it is a path, a constantly evolving journey that directs where you go, how you live, and who you are.In 2006, Liz Clark decided to follow the path that surfing, sailing and love of the…

First launched in 1983, Annapolis remains the sailor's bible, a comprehensive chapter and verse guide to all aspects of seamanship from the simplest ABC's to the most advanced skills and latest electronics.

"Belongs in the bookshelf of every cruising vessel."Blue Water Sailing"If you are serious about that extended voyage, read The Voyager's Handbook."Sailing"Every now and then a new voice emerges in the world of sailing literature that stands out, a voice that is both clear and of…

The pleasures and adventures of cruising under sail are amazingly affordable, say Lin and Larry Pardey. But to keep your dreams on budget, financially, emotionally, and timewise, you have to decide are you a cruiser or a consumer Topics covered include making your getaway plans…

From the acclaimed teller of such classic yarns as A STEADY TRADE, THE INCREDIBLE VOYAGE, and HEART OF OAK, ENCOUNTERS OF A WAYWARD SAILOR is wonderful collection of true stories from one of the great storytellers of the sea.Drawing on experiences from a lifetime at sea, Tristan…

The fear of storms has kept many otherwise competent sailors from venturing into the open ocean. This book explores the myths that have sprung up about ways to bring small boats through storms and shows tried and true methods that work for all types of sailing vessels.

The Capable Cruiser is a logical extension of the Pardeys' The SelfSufficient Sailor (9780964603677), with more emphasis on seamanship underway, including careful analysis of extreme anchoring situations and solutions for mitigating them.

An essential reference book for sailing enthusiasts, now in its fourth edition with a foreword by quadruple Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie.Learn the basics of sailing, master navigation, and maintain your boat with The Complete Sailing Manual, written by instructor and former…

This is not just an instructional bookit's an insight into a sailor's approach to the sea, boats, and the everchanging dynamic of wind on the water "A learntosail book with heart."WoodenBoat "A real winner...a masterful blend of straightforward text with delightful and…

Here's the book that can get you sailing in an afternoon and keep you sailing better through a lifetime on the waterThis is the first sailing book that follows a sailor's ideal learning curve.

Published to coincide with the Golden Globe Race's 50th AnniversaryIt lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and nonstop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done.

Find your way around the globe with expert adviceWorld Cruising Routes covers more than 1,000 sailing routes through the world s oceans with descriptions of winds, currents and weather, chart recommendations, GPS waypoints, entry ports, navigational hazards, and more.

Learn the essentials of seamanship from one of the world's premier boating organizations Developed and refined through 40 years of Coast Guard Auxiliary training courses, Boating Skills and Seamanship is your perfect introduction to recreational boating's fundamentals.

The cruising tale is full of the sights and sounds, the fragrances and native customs of foreign lands, especially Central American and the Caribbean. It is a story of a leisurely sail through the Gulf of Cortez and on through Panama Canal to the Azores and England.

In 1965, 16yearold Robin Lee Graham began a solo aroundtheworld voyage from San Pedro, California, in a 24foot sloop. Five years and 33,000 miles later, he returned to home port with a wife and daughter and enough extraordinary experiences to fill this bestselling book, Dove.

It began in fine weather, then suddenly became a terrifying ordeal. A Force 10, sixtyknot storm swept across the North Atlantic with a speed that confounded forecasters, slamming into the fleet with epic fury.

One of the best books ever written about sailing' Time 27,000 miles, three and a half to five months alone at sea, chilling casualty rates, the unrelenting strain of handling 60foot boats day and night, the absolute certainty of weather and waves that could destroy them.

In late December 1956, the 46foot wooden ketch Tzu Hang sailed from Melbourne, Australia, bound for England by way of Cape Horn. Aboard were Miles Smeeton; his wife, Beryl; and their friend John Guzzwell.

In a salty, slashing style, Tristan Jones unfolds his extraordinary sagaa six year voyage during which he a covered a distance equal to twice the circumference of the worldrevealing both a rich sense of history an insuppressible Welsh wit.

This is Nicholas Monsarrat's final masterpiece, an epic tale of the sea and seafaring from the sixteenth century to near the end of the twentieth.Told from the point of view of Mathew Lawe, a young Devon sailor who is cursed after a spectacular act of cowardice to wander 'the…

A fullcolor guide to mastering seventy useful knots for sailors, fisherman, campers, climbers, homeowners, and all lovers of the outdoors.The Morrow Guide to Knots includes clear, illustrated stepbystep instructions that teach you how to tie dozens of knots, from the swivel…

Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirtysix weeks.

To anyone interested in smallboat cruising and voyaging, the names "Lin and Larry Pardey" need no introduction. As worldgirdling sailors who roamed the planet on a pair of small, engineless boats that they built themselves, the Pardeys established their hardearned reputations by…

Pete Goss became a national and international hero when he rescued French yachtsman Raphael Dinelli as his boat sank beneath him in the roundtheworld singlehanded sailing race, the Vendee Globe, on Christmas Day 1996.

The Sailor's Classics library introduces a new generation of readers to the best books ever written about small boats under sailWhen 65yearold Francis Chichester set sail on his solitary eastward journey around the world in 1966, many believed he wouldn't return alive.

This book is about learning to sail. It follows the techniques perfected at the worldfamous Annapolis Sailing School, where thousands of people just like you have learned to take tiller in hand and harness the wind.

On one of the last American merchant ships, second mate Andy Chase and author board the S.S. Stella Lykes, captained by Paul McHenry Washburn. The 42day journey down the Pacific coast of South America stops for freight at Cartagena, Balboa, Lima, and Guayaquil ?

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a threeyear odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure.

On April 24, 1895, Captain Joshua Slocum set out on a threeyear journey to circumnavigate the world alone by boat. Crossing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in his sloop, the Spray, Slocum visited South Africa, South America, and Australia before returning home as the first man…

It seemed like a good idea. Tired of everyday life ashore, Farley Mowat would find a sturdy boat in Newfoundland and roam the salt sea over, free as a bird. What he found was the worst boat in the world, and she nearly drove him mad.

This is a biography and astonishing adventure story of a woman who, left a widow in 1927, packed her five children onto a 25foot boat and cruised the coastal waters of British Columbia, summer after summer.Muriel Wylie Blanchet acted singlehandedly as skipper, navigator,…

In this 10th Anniversary edition, with a new afterword from the author, G.Bruce Knecht tells the harrowing story of a worldrenowned sailing race gone fatally bad.On December 26, 1998, 115 sailboats crossed the starting line of the famous Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

When Isaac Bell attempts to decipher the forbidding deaths of nine men, he encounters a secret so powerful it could dictate the fate of the world in this riveting thriller by the #1 New York Timesbestselling author.A century apart, NUMA Director Dirk Pitt and detective Isaac…

Alone aboard "Acrohc", the tiny yacht he designed and built, Serge Testa sailed around the world and into the Guinness Book of Records. Exotic landfalls, cyclones, encounter with whales, and a nearly fatal fire at sea makes this a gripping story.

The modern cruising catamaran has arrivedThe arguments are over and the verdict is incruising catamarans comprise a rapidly growing percentage of the cruising fleet worldwide.

Float Plan reads like a quietly immersive contemporary romance anchored by grief and the sea. Trish Doller spends long, careful pages inside Anna's mourning mind as she impulsively takes the trip she and her fiancé planned; the novel's strength is its sensory seafaring detail and character calibration that make emotional shifts feel earned. The main limitation is a slow middle where rumination repeats itself and plot momentum thins—readers seeking brisk pacing or plot twists will find it frustrating.

Authoritative, practical, and handson information on reading and relying on electronic and paper nautical chartsThe classic "How to Read a Nautical Chart" explains every aspect of electronic and paper nautical charts: how a chart is assembled, how to gauge the accuracy of chart…

A new classic from one of the world's most respected sailing authorsMore than 35 years ago, Hal Roth quit his job as a journalist and went sailing. Since then, he's logged more than 200,000 sea miles.

The waters of Antarctica, June 6th 1998.23yearold Matt Lewis has just started his dream job. An observer aboard a deep sea fishing boat, he is mesmerized by his new surroundings: glistening icebergs, killer whales and majestic albatross.

Interested in learning to sail but feel like you're navigating in murky waters Sailing for Dummies, Second Edition introduces the basics of sailing, looks at the different types of sailboats and their basic parts, and teaches you everything you need to know before you leave the…

The book is the most comprehensive education and boating safety learntosail guide to date. Incorporated in the textbook are useful illustrations and exceptional photographs of complex sailing concepts.

Expanded and Revised. The Essentials of Living Aboard educates both dreamers and explorers with information about this wonderful and rewarding lifestyle.

This special edition of TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST includes updates 24 and 76 years after the initial voyage. Richard Dana writes so that the reader can feel the icy Chilean waters, taste the hardtack, and feel whip upon your flogged back.Take the voyage with him as he leaves…