Knightro's Guide to Sailing

Transform basic sailing skills into true mastery No other sport is as complex or as gear- and technique-intensive as sailing. The details and nuances are vast, but beneath the surface are 22 elements, or core areas of knowledge. By understanding these principles you can attain true mastery: tie any knot, shape any sail, take the helm of any boat, no matter how large or unfamiliar.

An estimated 4.1 million people in the United States participate in recreational sailing. Yet the large library of sailing literature leaves many of them high and dry. On one side are technical guides for America's Cup boat-builders; on the other, simplistic books for weekend sailors with little interest in science. In Float Your Boat! professional and amateur boaters alike will find intelligent and understandable answers to such questions as: What were the key innovations that made sailboats more efficient? How do you increase the speed of a boat? How do sailboats travel into the wind? Why are so many explanations of sailing so wrong? Sailing enthusiast and physicist Mark Denny first traces the evolution of the sailing craft, from prehistoric coracles made of animal skins and antlers to the sailboat's reinvention as a pleasure craft during the Industrial Revolution. He then identifies specific sailing phenomena--how wind drives modern Bermuda sloops, how torque determines stability, why hull speed exists--and provides the key physics principles behind them. Whether you are an inquisitive landlubber who has never set foot in a boat, a casual weekend sailor, or an old salt who lives for the sea, Float Your Boat! is an accessible guide to the physics of sailing.

The definitive guide to a critical, hotly debated topic How should a sailor cope with storms at sea? Some advocate heaving-to, others running off. Some say trail a sea anchor over the bow, others a drogue astern. The stakes in the discussion couldn't be higher, or the consensus lower. Finally, preeminent sailor/author Hal Roth offers a practical strategy that can evolve and respond as storms grow stronger.

Breaking down the complicated concepts of speed, acceleration, torque, fluid mechanics, and surface physics, Physics of Sailing provides a lively, easily accessible introduction to the basic science underlying the sport of sailing. It illustrates the many ways physics can be used to understand the principles of sailboat propulsion and how a scientific understanding of the boat, wind, and water can lead to more skillful sailing. After a brief but insightful tour of the history of sailing, the book explores the physics involved in making faster sailing crafts for both upwind and downwind sailing, including Newton's impact theory of fluid resistance and lift and drag phenomena. It compares possible sail shapes, presents measurements of hull smoothness, and describes wind turbulence, the nature of water waves, and the structure of wakes. Using the physics of optics, the author also explains the connection between water's appearance and the wind. Along with a glossary of sailing terms, he includes many examples throughout to illustrate the concepts in practice. Avoiding unnecessary formalisms, this book skillfully applies the principles of fluid mechanics to sailboat technology and the art of sailing. It should help you become a more knowledgeable sailor.

Find a small cruising sailboat and restore it to pristine condition on a budget that won't sink your budget Small, trailererable cruising sailboats are more popular than ever as mooring spaces dwindle and marina dockage and winter storage costs soar. Fix It and Sail helps you discover boatloads of fun far less than a single ski weekend or golf club membership. Veteran sailor and journalist Brian Gilbert shows you how to select and inspect a boat, then restore it from keel to rigging. Gilbert's clear, step-by-step instructions guide you through every phase of the restoration process from repairing keels, hulls, ports, and cabins to painting, wiring, and sealing. You'll learn how to evaluate, repair and replace hardware, upholstery, canvaswork, and more. Profusely illustrated appendices give you a vivid picture of the costs, tasks, and labor involved in an actual restoration project.

Filled with illustrations, this concise reference work describes the development of European and North American sailing rigs and defines and explains all the different forms for both square rig and fore-and-aft. It is intended as a first stop for anyone needing to understand and identify the various arrangements, concentrating on the classification of rigs and their variations. Arranged by rig type, the book includes specially commissioned scale drawings of the full-rigged ship, barque, barquentine, brig, brigantine, schooner, ketch yawl, and their derivatives. Examples of well-known or significant ships are shown in great detail. The text defines and introduces each type and explains its history and its application. Contemporary photographs and an illustrated glossary define separate parts. The author, an experienced sailing journalist, has a talent for explaining all this diversity to the non-specialist while at the same time offering the modelmaker and sailing-ship devotee a valuable reference source.

How and why does sail boat performance depend on the configuration and trim of boat and sails? This book provides the yachtsman with answers in a relatively straightforward account of the physical mechanisms of sailing. It presents an accessible overview of the fluid dynamic aspects of sailing and sailing technology, addressing both aeromechanics and hydromechanics. Readers are provided with the basic principles of physics and general mechanics that will assist their understanding of the fluid mechanics of sailing yachts. Rich appendices cover not only in-depth,mathematical-physical treatments and derivations for those wishing to explore further, but also helpful summaries of basic mathematical notions for those wishing to refresh their knowledge. This work explores keel yachts, specifically single-masted mono-hulls with 'fore-and-aft', Bermuda-rigged sails. However, much of it is applicable to other types of sailing vessels such as multi-hulls, yachts with multiple masts, windsurf boards and the like. Yachtsmen, yacht designers and professionals of sailing technology will all find something of interest in this work which provides explanations of the mechanics of sailing in a way that is scientifically justified, whilst remaining appealing to those wishing to use their knowledge on-board a sailing vessel. For some years I'm teaching a course on "Sailing Yacht Design" in the master class of yacht design. Actually, I've found your book the best one about physics of a sailing yacht I've ever read. Edward Canepa, assistant professor in Fluid Machinery at the University of Genova (Italy) ...very impressed, no wonder it took so long. It is  "everything I ever wanted to know about sailing but was afraid to ask" ! Frank Woodward, former computational fluid dynamicist at the Boeing Company and Analytical Methods Inc., and a cruising yachtsman

Find your way around the globe with expert advice World Cruising Routes covers more than 1,000 sailing routes through the world's oceans with descriptions of winds, currents and weather, chart recommendations, GPS waypoints, entry ports, navigational hazards, and more. This book is updated with information gathered from the author's website, noonsite.com, as well as from his recent circumnavigation.

Covers geographic coordinates, compasses, dead reckoning, tides, currents, radar piloting, and celestial, satellite, inertial, omega system, and computer navigation.