Overview

Until now, learn-to-sail books have offered no advice on acquiring or caring for a boat; they just assume the boat appears from somewhere, and the reader only needs to figure out how to sail it. Meanwhile, books on buying boats have offered no advice on sailing them. In fact, there simply is no book available on what to look for in a starter sailboat. A few books exist on choosing cruising sailboats, but these assume the reader already knows how to sail and just needs help spending a few hundred thousand bucks. In other words, there has been no attempt to answer the needs of the adult new sailor, who not only wants to learn how to handle a sailboat but also how to choose, acquire, and care for one. The fact is that you can buy and learn to sail a safe and fun sailboat for a startup cost of USD5,000 or less and ongoing expenses of just a few hundred dollars a year - less than you could easily spend on golf, fly fishing, stock car racing, or skiing. There just hasn't been a book around to explain that to you. With such a glaring gap at the entrance level, no wonder sailing still gets accused of elitism. Your First Sailboat changes all that. It is the first book to take a holistic view of the sailing experience - putting entry-level sailboat selection, use, maintenance, and lifestyle issues all in one place for new sailors who happen to discover this wonderful sport as adults. This is the book that answers the questions other books don't even think to ask: Can a keelboat tip over? Can I take a centerboard boat onto open water? How do sails turn wind into forward motion? Can I trailer a keelboat? Is it ok to buy a used sailboat, and how will I know if it's used up? What kind of boat is best for taking my kids daysailing and what's a fair price to pay for it? What if I want to do some weekend cruising too, or even some weeklong coastal cruising? Should it have a tiller or a wheel? What knots do I need to know? How do I know where the wind is coming from? How will I know when it's too rough to go out? In three major parts - Buying and Equipping Your First Sailboat; Handling Your First Sailboat; Maintaining Your First Sailboat - this book first provides a road map for boat acquisition, including decision-making trees that end in specific model recommendations for new and used boats according to the kind of sailing you want to do. These recommendations will fall into six groups: centerboard daysailer; centerboard racer; keel daysailer/racer; keel weekender/racer; centerboard weekender; keel cruiser. Boat handling information includes complete tying instructions for the only five knots you need to know, plus answers you won't find so succinctly anywhere else for the common dilemmas every new sailor encounters (Where am I? How do I get over there? What will happen if I turn this way? Why an't I make the boat move? Why can't I make the boat stop moving? How do I attach the sails? Where is this water coming from? Is this normal?) and so on, with the information differentiated for the six major types of sailboats whenever necessary. The book also does the new sailor a major favor by identifying the things he or she Doesn't need to know, and it ends by answering one of the harder questions: How do I know when it's time for my second sailboat? Deceptively simple, engagingly straightforward and laced with humor, Your First Sailboat is the complete starter kit that new sailors have been looking for.

Full Product Details

Author:   Daniel Spurr
Publisher:   McGraw-Hill Education - Europe
Imprint:   McGraw-Hill Professional
Dimensions:   Width: 18.50cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.472kg
ISBN:  

9780071422161

ISBN 10:   0071422161
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   16 August 2004
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Introduction: So You Want to Buy a Sailboat? Part 1. Buying and Equipping Your First Sailboat 1. What Kind of Boat Should I Buy? 2. First-Time Sailor’s Survival Guide 3. How Big Should My First Boat Be and What Should It Be Built Of? 4. From Whom Should I Buy? 5. New or Used? 6. How Do I Know If a Used Boat Is Used Up? 7. How Do I Recognize Quality? 8. Where Can I Keep My Boat? 9. What Will It Cost Me? 10. What Equipment Do I Need? Part 2. Handling Your First Sailboat 11. How Do I Get My Boat In and Out of the Water? 12. How Do I Tie My Boat to the Dock? 13. All the Knots You'll Ever Need 14. How Do I Attach the Sails? 15. How Do I Attach Sheets and Halyards? (And By the Way, What Are They?) 16. How Do I Leave the Dock? 17. How Do I Raise the Sails? 18. How Do I Turn? 19. How Do I Stop? 20. What If the Boat Heels? 21. What If the Boat Flips? 22. How Do I Come Back to the Dock? Part 3. Maintaining Your First Sailboat 23. How Do I Take Care of This Thing? 24. What If I Hit Something? Part 4. Navigation 25. How Do I Know Where I Am? 26. How Do I Know Where I'm Going? 27. How Do I Steer a Course? 28. Currents Keep Screwing Me Up 29. How Fast Can I Go? 30. What If It Gets Dark? 31. What If It Gets Foggy? Part 5. Worst-Case Scenarios 32. Despite What You Say, What If I Still Get Lost? 33. What If the Mast Falls Down? 34. What If the Boat Starts to Sink? 35. What If the Boat Does Sink? 36. What If Someone Gets Hurt or Falls Overboard? 37. What If the Engine Won't Start? 38. What If the Wind Stops Blowing? 39. How Do I Know When It's Time for My Next Boat? The Sailboat Guide Resources Index Illustration Credits

Reviews

Author Information

Dan Spurr was for 12 years the editor of Practical Sailor newsletter, the “Consumer Reports” of sailing and one of the most respected boating publications, noted among other things for its new and used boat reviews, which have been published in book form as Practical Boat Buying. He is a former senior editor of Cruising World magazine and author of two highly regarded IM boating books as well as two critically acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He bought and refurbished his first fiberglass sailboat (a Pearson Vanguard) in the 1960s, and has since renovated three other boats including his current C & C 41. He is now the editor of Professional Boatbuilder magazine. AUTHOR HOMETOWN: Bozeman, Montana

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