Yachting Start to Finish

Yachting: Start to Finish is a complete reference for every level of sailor whether you are a beginner and need a straightforward, easy-to-understand guide or are taking your sailing to the next level and looking for the professional tips and tricks that will get you sailing faster, better, safer and having more fun. Packed with 150 illustrations and 150 photographs, this is the way to learn, develop and refresh your skills. With its handy size and rugged covers it is the ideal book to keep on board or in your kit bag.Packed with expert advice from the professionals at UKSA, the book covers:

Basic Principles

• Parts of the boat - exploded illustrations of a keelboat and components
• How a boat sails - Sailing theory explained
• Points of sailing - Sailing a keelboat at different angles to the wind
• Choosing a keelboat - Types of boat and their suitability including catamarans
• Preparing to sail - Safety afloat, practical clothing, launching small keelboats, rigging
• Reefing and roller furling
• Knots and Ropes - Practical illustrations for basic knots and splices
• Transporting - Towing and launching, to crane-in and -out
• Sailing for the first time - Balance, sail trim,
• Mooring and anchoring
• Beaching

Rules of the road

• Avoiding other boats
• Rights of way
• Basic racing rules.

Weather forecasting

• Understanding tides and currents.
• How to spot telltale signs of change in wind and weather.
• Reading a weather map
• Types of cloud
• Sea breezes
• Beaufort scale
• Sourcing weather information on the web.

Basic Techniques

• Tacking
• Gybing
• Beating to windward
• Reaching
• Running
• Spinnaker handling
• Setting out and returning to mooring or marina
• Folding and stowing sails

Maintenance

• Rig
• Winches & windlass
• Engine
• Shaft and propeller
• Drains and stopcocks

Sailing Offshore

• Buoyage and lights
• Navigation - Charts and plotting, compass, tidal streams and leeway, passage making, estimating position, Course to steer, electronic navigation, passage planning and pilotage
• Radio
• Sailing at night and in restricted visibility
• Asymmetric spinnakers - Setting, handling and gybing
• Singlehanded sailing - keelboats and catamarans
• Towing
• Heavy weather sailing - keelboats and catamarans
• Safety at sea - Skipper's responsibilities, radar reflectors, lifelines, lifejackets, life rafts, Summoning assistance, life-saving signals.
  
• Man-overboard routines
• Collision regulations

The Basics of Racing

• The start - Practical lessons and rules explained
• First leg tactics - Practical lessons and rules explained
• Reaching - Practical lessons and rules explained
• Running - Practical lessons and rules explained

Glossary of Terms