"It takes thousands of hours of sailing to get the kind of knowledge contained in this book." -- from the Foreword by Bruce Schwab The ONLY bible for how to sail your boat fast, safe, and alone Solo sailing is within any sailor's grasp with a little forethought--and this essential guide. Got a 35-foot sailboat? No problem. Is the wind blowing 20 knots? No problem. Are you racing offshore overnight? Even better. Singlehander Andrew Evans learned the hard way how to sail and race alone--with lots of mishaps, including broaches and a near tumbling over a waterfall--and in Singlehanded Sailing he shares the techniques, tips, and tactics he has developed to make his solo sailing adventures safe and enriching. Learn everything you need to know to meet any solo challenge, including: Managing the power consumption aboard a boat to feed the electric autopilotSetting and gybing a spinnakerFinding time to sleepDealing with heavy weather

Here are the answers to all your boating questions and dilemmas. This book is packed with 101 essential punchy sailing tips for sailors to read before and during sailing for a stress-free, enjoyable time at sea, from expert sailing instructor, Duncan Wells. In this accessible, easy-to-absorb handbook, Duncan will share his tried-and-tested techniques and advice on sail setting, mooring, anchoring, navigation, sailing in heavy weather and more. Step-by-step photographs, diagrams and clear instructions will guide you through each tip, and this book is perfect to dip in for help with a particular sailing problem. In this book, Duncan will tell you all about how to: * Calculate the speed of the tide by eye * Follow the rule of the road * Calibrate the depth sounder * Calculate the displacement speed of your hull * Reef early for an easy life * Use the chart plotter to calculate when to tack * Pick up buoys from the cockpit * Look after your zips And many, many more! This new title in Duncan Wells' popular Stress-Free mini-series will be a godsend to all boaters looking for tips, hints and solutions to everyday boating problems, and will complement Stress-Free Sailing and Stress-Free Navigation.

Channel Havens is a cruising guide with a difference. Recognising that many of us would like to sail away from the crowd, Ken Endean introduces the reader to beautiful, unfrequented places within the Western English Channel, from the Solent to the West Country, Channel Islands and Northern France. Here are sandy bays, coves, reef anchorages and the upper reaches of river estuaries - places neglected by most pilot books - where one can experience the sense of discovery and adventure that is more usually associated with faraway cruising. Anyone who is attracted by the dramatic scenery of unspoilt coastal waters will treasure this guide from an experienced sailors who has gone before.

Plans included: A Coruna (1:50 000) Baiona (1:85 000) Leixoes (1:20 000) Lisboa Approaches (1:65 000) Cascais (1:25 000) Sines (1:30 000) Lagos (1:30 000) Bahia de Cadiz (1:55 000) Rota (1:25 000) Strait of Gibraltar (1:275 000) Gibraltar (1:40 000)

Written by one of the best-known figures in all of sailing and a leading authority on Optimist sailing and racing, The Winners Guide to Optimist Sailing is the ideal training manual for young skippers, their parents, and their coaches. The most comprehensive sailing guide to the International Optimist dinghy class features:

• Step-by-step instructions on every aspect of beginning sailing
  
• More than 100 stunning photographs and helpful illustrations
  
• Useful tips and winning tactics for competitive racing
  
• Special advice sections for parents and coaches
  

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 book is a must-have for any serious racing sailor’ – Sir Ben Ainslie, four-time Olympic gold winning sailor Paul Elvstrøm is arguably the greatest Olympic sailor of all time. Proving that understanding the rules is crucial to winning, he devised this unique approach to explaining them using bird’s-eye diagrams. His detailed explanations are applied to myriad racing situations, each cross-referenced to relevant case studies provided by World Sailing (formerly ISAF). Included with the book are a set of plastic boats, for use during protest hearings. They are transparent but coloured differently so can also be used with an overhead projector. This edition is completely revised to cover the new rules issued for 2021–24. It includes the full text of the latest rules, with a handy quick-reference guide highlighting the latest changes. There is also a confidence-building section on how to present your case in a protest, and the back cover shows the signal flags for instant easy reference on the race course. Long established as the most accessible and most trusted guide to the racing rules, Elvstrøm Explains is a must-have. Whether racing in a dinghy, keelboat or large yacht, it is the perfect pocket reference for those who want to win.

This is a classic real-life story of derring do on the high seas, complete with extreme risk, last-minute ingenuity and many near-misses.

Beginning in the 1960s, this book tells of the real life adventures of the author as a boy - a time of boarding schools, long holidays and an unbelievable (to today's parents) amount of freedom and danger. Encouraged by his parents (who lived abroad) to become more independent and self-sufficient, Peter decided to see how far he could get in his family's small open dinghy Calypso. Aged 16, he spent a winter restoring her, before pootling straight out into a force 7 gale and very nearly capsizing, after which he headed back to land to plan even more extreme adventures.

Calypso was a Wayfarer, a small (16ft) and very popular class of open dinghy; a boat designed for pottering around coastlines and estuaries during the day. But along with the occasional brave crewmate, Peter managed to sail her across the Channel, through the Bay of Biscay, down the French canals and into the Mediterranean, then up into the North Sea and the Baltic to Oslo, living aboard for three months at a time. These were some of the longest voyages that anyone had ever achieved in an open boat, where (as Peter says) you 'have to be like a tightrope walker, concentrating on balance day and night, fully aware of the consequence of relaxing your vigilance'. He survived huge waves, nine rudder breakages in heavy seas, dismasting, capsizes, and hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation. He also managed it on a tiny budget, working as a farm labourer, hitchhiking everywhere, and at times living on one meal of cereal a day, to save the maximum amount for his boat.

Charming, quite British in style, beautifully written and a lovely insight into a seemingly golden time, this is primarily a great read, but will be of huge practical use to anyone wanting to go that bit further in their dinghy. It also includes a lovely Foreword by world-famous yachtsman Brian Thompson.

Frank Laskier was born 1912 and lived his early years in the suburbs of Liverpool. As a teenager, Frank was an avid reader of Conrad and Masefield and had a romantic view of the "call of the sea". One day he decided to lie about his age and run away from home aboard a ship destined for Australia. Laskier worked on many ships in the merchant navy and it was his experiences during the Second World War that brought him to the attention of the BBC. Frank was asked to broadcast a number of talks on his experiences. This book is a transcript of those radio talks first published in 1941. Through this authentic voice of an ordinary man - not a historian, or a politician, or a great admiral - but an ordinary man, we can be reminded of the importance, bravery and sacrifice of the merchant navy in keeping Britain supplied during the Second World War. From the 1941 cover: 'We are proud to announce this book by Frank Laskier, "a sailor, an Englishman," the merchant seaman who gave the ever-memorable postscript after the BBC news on the first Sunday in October. The millions of listeners who heard that deeply moving voice will welcome an opportunity to read many more stories of the war at sea, which Laskier tells with the incomparable vividness of simple truth, and which made him a great broadcast speaker overnight. Laskier sounds, too, the note of victory that will bring a universal response-"Remember what we have been through; remember what we're going through; and fight and fight, and never, never, never, give in!" ' The publisher of this new edition has included an introduction and explanatory footnotes, as well as an appendix listing the ships mentioned in the book along with their descriptions.

Bill Conan, a middle-aged adventurer, has entered a 30,000 mile solo race around the world in the sloop Josephine, seeing it as his last chance to win status and success. Risking the ultimate test of skill, strength and endurance, Conan will follow his course across the vast expanse of the treacherous Atlantic, toward the one disaster a seaman most dreads. Overboard and alone on the open sea, his struggle can have only one end...

Since its publication in 1963, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer--bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography. It is the candid, sometimes painfully revealing confession of a man who scrutinized his every self-defeat and self-betrayal in the unblinking light of conscience.