Single-Handing

[Blue Crab]

"Me too" to all of the above. I've been replenishing my cruising library after the usual onshore disaster and room is tight. I've taken to photocopying pages into an indexed binder of info that I'm sure I'll want in the future and haven't seen before, particularly illustrations and dimensions. A lot of titles have the same info with just a slightly different slant, so no need for all the whole books any more once you've read 'em.

The Pardeys are at the top of any list and rightly so. I've also really enjoyed Casey & Hackler's Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach and I've carried around my copy of Bingham's The Sailor's Sketchbook since it was published in 1983. Don't worry about singlehanding tactics per se. You'll figure out how do to it all yourself. That's the point.

But there's no substitute for sailing. For boatless folks, start with building a sailing dink while you're saving your money. You're going to need one anyway and you can learn more sailing a pram than a lot of high dollar "cruisers" know right now. And it's fun. My dad and I built a Sabot when I was about 8 or so. We were sailing by the Redondo Beach breakwater one day when a fisherman hollered, "Rub a dub dub, two guys in a tub!" My dad loudly opined, "Sure beats standing on shore!"

[Teremoana]

I think the best book on the subject is Single-Handed Sailing by Frank Mulville. Almost anything will be outdated where it discusses electronics and so forth, as they change so fast.

The Henderson book (at least in its first edition, which is what I read) is interesting, but is really more of a history than a discussion of technique.