Ebook: How to Sail: A Complete Handbook of the Art of Sailing for the Novice

Since the publication and generous acceptance of The Boatman’s Manual as a standard handbook and guide to small-boat seamanship, navigation, and operation, I have received many letters suggesting that I expand the material on sailing to meet the needs of the pure novice and the raw beginner. Of necessity that book assumed that the reader could sail. But seemingly there are many of us who love little ships but are completely at sea (or, rather, not at sea) in our knowledge and experience of their basic handling.
The writer with sufficient sailing experience to write about sailing for others sometimes assumes a knowledge of the fundamentals by the tyro which does not exist. It is so easy to forget that thrilling, terrifying moment when our first boat gathered the unseen power of the wind in her white sails and charged off to a freedom henceforth to know no curb but the trembling hand on tiller and sheet. Yes, they are long-ago days for many of us who sail and write. Yet each year thousands of young men and young women heed the call of blue water and must face that awful moment — the first sail.
It is my earnest wish that this book, which I promise shall start at the very beginning, will make that first moment the successful commencement of a long and lusty lifetime of sailing. We shall face the plain fact that many of us do not understand plain sailing. So the utter novice shall have his simplest question answered and explained and diagrammed to his full satisfaction. Old hands will find many hints and guides to perfect their own sailing habits and techniques. Even those auxiliary skippers who never hoist their nylon sails on their chromium tracks may find here the challenge to shut down their noisy bang-bang engines and join the ocean queens which move under free wind alone.