Fast Track to Sailing: Learn to Sail in Three Days

If you a have never been on a sailboat, this book will give you a great overview of how it should be done. If you have crewed a friend boat and are now ready to take you sailing seriously, this book is really great. I began sailing with the purpose of single handing my own boat. I took a few lessons, crewed a few races, bought a boat and two years later,I'm living that dream. Sailing as much as time will allow. Becoming a component sailor takes time and experience. This book is supplemental to actually sailing. Sailing with good sailors you can learn from. This book is clearly part of a hands on course that according to the testimonials throughout everyone loves. Odds are you will never take that course, but you can apply what you learn from this book to any other sailing course. Even if you are teaching yourself. As I said, I have been single handing my on boat for two years. There was tons of information I was an to glean from this book. Some information (like the navigation section) offered enough tease to be dangerous on it's own,. As the section stated, it's not a navigation book. Beginners and intermediate sailors who have a realistic understanding of their skill level should come away from this book wanting to apply they learn and build upon that. The "test you knowledge" throughout the book is a good way to apply the information in you head when now actually sailing, but nothing can replace doing it. And then, doing it again. Over and over. Again and again. You want to sail? Read this book and every other ( good one ) you can get your hands on. Then go sailing. Over and over again. Don't be put off by the consistent reference to the Colgate 26. The authors are Colgate. I'm sure it's one of the finest boats that you and I will probably never sail. Most everything in this book can be applied to any small to medium sized sailboats along with a little common sense. That's really what sailing is about. Common sense.

So first, let me give some background so that any people reading this review will understand its context. I grew up sailing in New England, which is fairly serious stuff. I have over a decade of significant and frequent sailing experience, followed by a couple of decades' hiatus until recently, when I began sailing again, this time on smaller boats and in calmer conditions. That said, I learned (and still retain) a great deal of what I learned when younger but found myself uncertain where the holes in my knowledge were since I received no formal education on the topic. I got this book for the purpose of finding/filling those holes, and also catching anything I may remember (or have learned) incorrectly.Gird your loins...you're in for a lot of information to absorb. And that's a good thing; there is a lot to know about sailing and sailing well. The book starts at a very basic level, and builds bit by bit on that knowledge so that before you know it you're reading about how to control the shape of the sail. Even more importantly, you're learning (in that example) *why* to control the shape of the sail. The only criticism I have is that the entire book is liberally peppered with testimonials as to how great the authors' sailing school is. But that's a relatively minor detail as they are all put forth as sidebars and the book really doesn't come up short on education. If you find yourself a bit lost at any point, go back a couple of pages; odds are you read over something too quickly, and lost the context for what you're reading now.Whether or not this book may be too much for someone without any prior sailing experience is not for me to say; I knew what a "tiller" was and knew my starboard from port long before I was even interested in girls. But I'd recommend this book to anyone without reservations; it really is that good, in my opinion.

After reading this, which is probably great for a sailor, I think it talked me out of the sailing adventure I had on my bucket list. That's ok, an interesting read for future sailboat captains I'm sure.

Excellent how-to book on sailing. I have never sailed before, but honestly felt like after reading through the first 30 pages I knew enough to able to get on a sailboat and start sailing. Granted I still have A LOT to learn, but this book immediately jumped right into practical "here are the basics of sailing and here's how to do it" thus giving readers confidence that they can literally start that same day, if nothing else, helping out on sailboat and understanding the lingo and concepts. The book is written by experts who run sailing schools all over the world, and there are even you-tube videos by their instructors that are fascinating to watch on each of the major topics (like tacking, jibing, etc. etc.). I am thrilled that this is one of the books I chose to learn about this subject (some of the others have been not so great).

Seems like great information but they need a new publisher. Pages 1-8 were repeated, and then pages 9-24 were missing altogether. Have ordered a replacement, so we'll see if the next copy was printed correctly.

I lived on a sailboat. I went sailing, a lot. MY sailing consisted of someone else telling me "do that!" or "do this!" - which was fine, since I didn't know what the hell I was doing......I finally decided to KNOW what I was doing.....This book was incredibly helpful. Of course, you need to get out on a boat eventually (the authors run a sailing school, too) but reading this helps you UNDERSTAND what the wind does, the sails do, tacking does, terminology, and all that.....I was told by a VERY experienced sailor, when I asked him how I should best learn to sail, "I learned from a book."You can, too.....Vagabond Sue

I found this book really useful and a decent read. My level is that I am about to take my RYA Day Skipper practical. I think this book took you from A to Z on getting sailing and explained some areas that I have simply just followed before. One excellent area was its catch phrases Tiller Towards Trouble etc. I found these really helpful for memory aids. Diagrams and pictures were all good. Liked the notes and helpful rules. A little 'American' perhaps but not obvious. I have a number of sailing books and this is one of my best. Who would not like it - well very experienced sailors would get much less out of it but it is still good for reminders and the catch phrases, if you are teaching others. Especially good if you are sailing yachts under 30 foot.

my son loved it as many tips and help for a novice

This is a really good book; well conceived and presented. I have looked through a lot of sailing manuals. This is the best so far.

As lições neste livro se baseiam em figuras. descrevem as figuras e os detalhes das mesmas. Só que nos locais onde deveriam aparecer as figuras aparecem apenas pequenos ícones. Reclamei e me telefonaram sugerindo uma série de procedimentos em todos meus dispositivos, o que foi inútil. Ao final a atendente informou que poderia ter meu dinheiro devolvido.Ter o dinheiro de volta não resolve minha necessidade, que é estudar através deste livro

Very good explanations linked up with great photos and illustrations. A bit of self promotion going on by the sailing school but I'd recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn to sail.