A guide for racing covers the principles of sail trim, crew movement techniques, maneuvers, and control systems, and gives advice on adjusting to special conditions.

These racing factors, Dr. Walker explains, translate into boat speed, psychology, and tactics.Wind strength and wave formation, in turn, determine sail rig and fin trim, as well as the psychological approach needed to win. He demonstrates for both the new racer and the seasoned expert precisely how to collect and understand these elements, how to use them in the formulation of strategy, and, finally, how to formulate moment-by-moment tactics. This is a masterful guide to winning.

A detailed, technical, and readable study of the tactics of winning for the experieced sailor—by one of the world's leading smal boat racers.

Here is complete coverage of the racing sailor's common problems. Stuart H. Walker describes situations in which a racing problem was faced and solved. Each chapter is a narrative based on a particular incident, or a group of related incidents, analyzing the causes of the situation and the techniques required to meet it successfully. The Tactics of Small Boat Racing is for the racing sailor who wants to win—who wants to learn the art of maneuvering his boat in relation to the other boats so as to complete the course in the lead.

Stuart H. Walker's understanding of the experiences he recounts and analyzes derives from a career that includes races won and lost in the open sea, harbors, rivers, and lakes, in strong winds and light, and in various conditions of current and sea in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and England.

"Possibly the best book on racing tactics ever written." —Ted Jones, Dolphin Book Club News

Today far more sailors than ever before have reached a superior level of competitive ability, and the few individuals who remain at the head of the competitive classes year and after year must contantly improve their skills. This book will help the sailor analyze for himself the determinants of tactical success.

One of the foremost theoreticians of the art of yacht racing, Stuart H. Walker is also an outstanding practicing racer. For eight years Dr. Walker kept a complete record of the factors that determined the outcome of every race in which he competed. The recommendations he offers in Advanced Racing Tactics are based upon the analysis of these races—the mistakes and the successes. He sets forth basic principles of starting, beating, reaching, and mark rounding that should be practiced every time, and he underlines what mattered, what consistently provided an advantage.

The advanced racing skipper, Dr. Walker writes, must look around, examine his own mistakes and successes, record them, review them, remember them. When he recognizes from this own experience the validity of the principles presented here, they will become useful to him. When he has incorporated them into his regular racing patterns, he will have made a five- or ten-year leap forward.

Addressing the competitor-whether in sailing, tennis, golf, baseball, or other sport-Stuart H. Walker demonstrates that what competition means to the competitor is the main determinant of success and failure, and that what it means to you can be turned to your advantage. Dr. Walker writes, "Competence leads to courage, creativity, and fun. Lack of understanding and lack of control lead to fear, depressions, and incompetence-and no fun. Competition is too good to waste." For the paperback edition, Dr. Walker has written a new chapter, "Cheating," in which he discusses why cheating seems to be on the increase, what it signifies, and what should be done about it.

Stuart Walker's intelligent, straightforward explanation of why wind behaves as it does and what it is likely to do next draws upon his sixty-plus years of sailing experience and his vast knowledge of meteorology. The Sailor's Wind first describes each aspect of wind behavior in context—challenging readers to analyze wind flow as though they were experiencing it on the water—then explains what principles determined the wind's behavior, using recent meteorological research, instrumented observations, and studies of computer models. This book enables sailors not only to understand the wind but also to harness it.