Recommended sailing books

[Hud3]

The Voyager's Handbook, by Beth Starzinger, is a good guide to many things you need to know when contemplating the cruising life.

[boatman61]

The Glenans Sailing Handbook...

The Glénans Sailing Handbook is a collection of the knowledge acquired since the beginning of the sailing school and is the reference handbook in the yachting world, in France and abroad. It is the fruit of more than sixty years collective experience
of sailing. The 7th edition, entirely revised and enlarged, was published in 2010.

A complete best-seller
First published in 1951, the Glénans Sailing Handbook quickly became a reference work in the yachting world, undoubtedly thanks to its specificity : with more than 1.000 pages, it is the most complete sailing handbook. It is written for all the sea enthusiasts, from the beginner to the experienced yachtsman.
Its nickname “sailor’s bible” is eloquent about the impact of this handbook, which has become a real bestseller : more than 830.000 copies were sold since its first edition ! The Glénans Sailing Handbook is well known outside France : it has been translated into four languages - English, German, Italian and Spanish.

The reflection of a collective experience
Through the successive editions, the Sailing Handbook is meant to be the reflection of the unceasingly enriched experience of the Glénans instructors and skippers. Indeed, the very first Glénans Sailing Handbook has been written since 1951 by a number of skippers. This duplicated document, distributed exclusively among the instructors, was then gathered together.
These documents were used to edit the first volume of the Glénans Sailing Handbook in 1961 and the new edition was at once a great success. The five following editions (1972, 1982, 1990, 1995, and 2002) were all enlarged and updated. Since the beginning it has been a collective work (75 collaborators for the 7th edition), and a reflection of the Glénans spirit: knowledge sharing out, team spirit, passion for the sea.

For the ^^^^above reasons^^^^... it has contributions from some of the best sailors around from racers to cruisers.. also the Royal Navy Seamanship Manual if you can get hold of one..

[Caribbeachbum]

Sailing for Dummies will teach you to operate a sailboat.

Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship will teach you to be a mariner.

The Voyager's Handbook (already mentioned, I second it) is the best single-source reference about the cruising life out there, and by a wide margin. If I could have only one book, this would be it.

There are many, many wonderful books about the journey itself. I favor The Logical Route, Maiden Voyage, The Long Way, and of course, Sailing Alone Around the World.

Finally there's this: there will be many people who will tell you how hard it is and that you should get a tiny boat and be afraid a lot. Every time you think about believing this and being afraid, remind yourself that Laura Dekker sailed alone around the world on a 39' Jeanneau. She was 14.

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[Rocinante33]

Consider "into the Heart of the Sea." No better place to read that book than on a boat without a horizon in sight!

[UNCIVILIZED]

I'll do'em by author mostly, as if someone's good enough to have penned one "go to" reference, then they've likely written more than one book or article.

Brion Toss - Rigging, & much more
Nigel Calder - Install it, maintain it, fix it... all of a boat's systems
Skip Novak - Around The World, One Watch At A Time...
Tani Aebi - Maiden Voyage
Ross Norgrove - All of his stuff's great, & each book encompasses much more than it's title suggests
Steve & Linda Dashew - get'em all, gratis -> SetSail FPB » Free Books

[nematon785]

I am a fan of Casey, Chapman, Leonard, and Admiralty, all mentioned in this thread.

I also like:

Single handed Sailing - Evans
Rigger's Apprentice - Toss
Sailmaker's Apprentice - Marino
American Practical Navigator- Bowditch
Mariners weather handbook - Dashew.


You can get the textbooks for the ASA 101 type courses quite inexpensively (used online), and they are good basic instruction manuals for sailboat operation.

[lancelot9898]

Sailing for Blondes by Joyce Matlock is due to be published sometime in March

It's a good introduction to sailing with the terms and methods for a newb to get out on the water. All of which is presented in an entertaining way.

[psk125]

I like Dashew's Circumnavigators' Handbook. Robin Knox-Johnston is also worth reading, along with Adrift, Atlantic Circle, and Desirable and Undesirable Characteristics of Offshore Yachts. The Pardey's books could also keep you busy for a good while. Better buy a good reading lamp.