Kayaking, canoeing and sailing are exhilarating, demanding and hugely enjoyable outdoor pursuits. This practical guide offers a comprehensive introduction to all three sports, for those at all levels of experience and ability. All aspects of each sport are covered, from basic information on equipment and where best to sail or paddle, to expert tuition on the core skills and techniques you will need - such as launching, rigging, tacking, paddling, capsizing and rescue. Packed with expert advice, professional hints and tips and illustrated with more than 1500 photographs and diagrams, this book contains everything you need to know about these thrilling aquatic sports.

This is not your parents' Art and Science of Sails, written by Tom Whidden and Michael Levitt and published in 1990 by St. Martin's Press. The first edition sold more than 20,000 copies. The Second Revised Edition 2016 -- now in its second printing -- is published by North Sails Group, LLC and written by the same duo. What a difference 25 years makes! Today there are one-piece sails made over a 3D mold in the shape they will assume in the wind. Sail plans have radically evolved to fractional rigs, fat-head mains, and non-overlapping jibs. That is true for racing boats as well as cruising. Thus, ninety percent of the text is new, as are almost all of the more than 100 photographs and technical illustrations. The authors focus on circulation as they did in the first edition, but now come at it from a different direction. And for the first time anywhere, they attempt to quantify its effects. Where the wind speeds up and why as it passes over a sail plan, and where it slows down and why. Circulation theory is familiar to aerodynamicists for at least 100 years and is argued about by sailors at least since 1973, when the late Arvel Gentry loosed his theories on the sailing world. Gentry was an aerodynamicist at Boeing by day and a sailor on the weekends. And the theories used to explain why airplanes fly were at odds with the theories of why sailboats sail to weather and what the slot actually does. Whidden, CEO of North Marine Group, which includes North Sails, and Levitt, who has written 14 books, utilize explanations like circulation to answer such diverse questions as: Why fractional rigs, fat-head mains, and non-overlapping jibs have come to predominate. Why and how leech twist can be a sail-trimmer's best friend. Why a yacht designer positions the mast, keel, and rudder to create some weather helm. Why the safe-leeward position is advantageous relative to the entire fleet, not just to the boat you tacked beneath and forward of. Why a mainsail's efficiency is improved with added upper roach, beyond the value of the extra area. Why the miracle of upwind sailing is not that there is so much lift but so little drag. Why, when sailing upwind, the main is always trimmed to a tighter angle than the jib. What a polar diagram tells us or why tacking downwind is almost always faster than sailing directly to a mark. There is also an in-depth look at the wonders of material utilizationnot just materials. Indeed there have been no new fibers accepted into sailmaking for over 20 years. It is how they are used that makes the difference. In the last three chapters, the authors drill down on mainsails, headsails, and downwind asymmetric and symmetric spinnakers. And in this edition for the first time they address downwind aerodynamics. The book celebrates the complexity and beauty of sails in words and pictures and of the whole rarefied sport of sailing.

This book records the history of the racing yacht "Chessie, " the first ever entry from the Chesapeake Bay in the famous Whitbread Round the World Race. Skippered by Baltimore businessman George Collins and named after the Chesapeake's equivalent to the Loch Ness monster, "Chessie" became a focal point of regional and national pride when she competed in 1997-98. That year was also the first time that Baltimore and Annapolis were included as a combined stopover in the nine-leg, 31,600-mile race, beginning and ending in Southampton, England. After a neck-and-neck race up the bay against famed skipper Dennis Connor, "Chessie" entered Baltimore's Inner Harbor greeted by the cheers of thousands of fans. During the stopover, over a half-million visitors came to the Whitbread Race Village in Baltimore and an additional sixty thousand toured the Race Village in Annapolis, giving Baltimore-Annapolis the highest attendance of any of the nine ports visited by the race.

While racing, the boat also served an educational purpose through a two-part curriculum developed by the Living Classrooms Foundation, a Baltimore nonprofit educational organization for at-risk children. Children from five hundred schools in twenty states and seven foreign countries participated through the Whitbread Education Project, a curriculum package augmented by an Internet component, the "Chessie" Chase, which explored academic subjects such as math, science, social studies, geography, and literature and tackled such practical issues as vessel design, ocean currents, changing weather, and the principles of navigation. Classes competed in a virtual race against each other in the multifaceted program for a chance to visit "Chessie" and meet her crew when she reached Baltimore. The children also exchanged e-mails with "Chessie's" crew throughout the race. When President Clinton and Vice President Gore visited the Living Classrooms Foundation in Baltimore, students helped them write an e-mail to the boat saying, "Have a great race."

This book contains chapters on the race, boat construction, crew selection, and the Living Classrooms Foundation Whitbread Education Project. Personal experiences and memories of the crew bring the sailing adventure to life and reveal the educational purpose of the boat. Sidebars feature useful charts and information, special observations, and a few human-interest e-mail exchanges between individuals and the crew. A large Mercator-projection map marks the race course and individual legs. Numerous photos document racing action as well as the hoopla on shore.

Here are 75 novel and wonderful boats--some strange, some beautiful, all of them paragons of Philip Bolgers form-follows-function design philosophy. A planing microtrawler; a glass-galleried, beachable birdwatching boat; a fully enclosed ocean-cruising rowboat; cruising sailboats that take the ground at low tide; power, sail, and rowing boats from 6 to 95 feet--these are boats as only Bolgers unfettered imagination does them. This is the first collection of Bolgers work in almost 15 years. It is long overdue.

Bolger is an eloquent writer and his comments run the gamut from hilarious to profound.--The Ensign

Bolger brings a kind of youthful feeling to yacht design--he would rather make precedent than follow it.--WoodenBoat

Bolger has a way of seducing even the lay reader into thinking about and beginning to understand boat design.--Cruising World

Boat lovers who are used to designers who conceive the same boat over and over, camouflaged with a face-lifting here and there, will be amazed at Phil Bolgers diversity.--Boatbuilder

This is the story of two single-handed non-stop round-the-world voyages: Robin Knox-Johnston's in 1968/69 and Ellen MacArthur's in 2004/05. Although there were similarities - both voyages started and finished in Falmouth, for instance, and neither sailor was in a conventional race - the story is mainly one of contrasts, mostly as a consequence of thirty-six years of technological developments. These gave MacArthur the opportunity for a considerably faster voyage, but that didn't necessarily make things any easier for her. When Knox-Johnston set sail in Suhaili, no one knew if it was possible for a human being or a boat to survive such a voyage; and when MacArthur commissioned her boat B&Q, many considered that a high-performance trimaran of that size could not be safely sailed around the world by one person. Whatever comparisons are made, the question as to which was the greater achievement is futile: both voyages were utterly remarkable. MacArthur is no longer 'the fastest', of course - her time has since been beaten by three Frenchmen - but she is still the fastest British solo circumnavigator, while Knox-Johnston's record as 'the first' will be there for all time.

Knife-edge decisions, adrenalin rushes, extreme weather, bitter rivalries, heart-stopping races - they are all in a day's work for Ben Ainslie. Against all odds, in the London 2012 Olympics Ben Ainslie thrillingly won a fourth successive gold medal, making him the greatest ever Olympic sailor and a British hero, chosen from many to be the flag bearer for the closing ceremony. From his proudest moment representing Team GB, to one tough decision that almost risked destroying his career, this is a unique insight into the man who cannot let himself be second best. It shows what really takes place in the white heat of competition and lifts the lid on this toughest of sports. REVISED AND UPDATED FOR PAPERBACK TO INCLUDE LONDON 2012.

A comprehensive guide to over 140 knots and splices, with easy-to-follow instructions, and 380 clear illustrations. Useful for sailing, fishing, camping, hobbyists, and those needing to know knots and splices. Contains an explanation of the basic terms used relating to knots and ropes, and cordage.

New love. Exotic destinations.
A once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
What could go wrong? City girl Torre DeRoche isn't looking for love, but a chance encounter in a San Francisco bar sparks an instant connection with a soulful Argentinean man who unexpectedly sweeps her off her feet. The problem? He's just about to cast the dock lines and voyage around the world on his small sailboat, and Torre is terrified of deep water. However, lovesick Torre determines that to keep the man of her dreams, she must embark on the voyage of her nightmares, so she waves good-bye to dry land and braces for a life-changing journey that's as exhilarating as it is terrifying. Somewhere mid-Pacific, she finds herself battling to keep the old boat, the new relationship, and her floundering sanity afloat. . . . This sometimes hilarious, often harrowing, and always poignant memoir is set against a backdrop of the world's most beautiful and remote destinations. Equal parts love story and travel memoir, "Love with a Chance of Drowning" is witty, charming, and proof positive that there are some risks worth taking.""

After tough assignments as a Canadian diplomat abroad, Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny unwind by sailing Bosun Bird, a 27foot sailboat, from Cape Town, South Africa, across the South Atlantic and into the stormy winter waters around Tierra del Fuego, South America. Coghlan recounts earlier adventures in Patagonia when, taking time off from his job as a schoolteacher in Buenos Aires in the late 1970s, he and Jenny explored the region of southern Argentina and Chile over three successive summers. This time, as they negotiate the labyrinth of channels and inlets around snow-covered Fireland, he reflects on voyages of past explorers: Magellan, Cook, Darwin, and others. Sailing enthusiasts and readers of true adventures will want to add Coghlan's world-wise narrative to their libraries.

"Sailing Smart "is for every sailor who wants to increase his or her knowledge, understanding, and sailing expertise: the local day-sailor who wants a firmer grasp of the fundamentals, as well as the serious competitor who wants to be up on the latest, most innovative sailing techniques and racing strategies. Buddy Melges, one of the world's best-known sailors, has at last set down his highly original thoughts on how to sail "well." He covers the full range of sailing experience, from the general to the specific, the basic to the highly sophisticated. Melges's message is delivered in a bright, uncluttered manner by way of applications from his own sailing experience and through step-by-step instructions on everything from basic boat handling to expert on-the-course tactics and maneuvers. The book is profusely illustrated by the noted sailing artist Ted Brennan, and each drawing is accompanied by a cogent, in-depth explanatory caption.