Most of the books that I have reviewed here on The $tingy Sailor that teach sailing skills have been compact handbooks that are useful to keep on board and cover the most basic of sailing skills. They aren’t intended to be encyclopedias of all sailing knowledge. This book is different.
Continue reading “Book Review: The Annapolis Book of Seamanship”

What is the most powerful tool aboard your sailboat? What is the one thing that can make it go faster in any conditions? Without it, the boat wouldn’t move—your brain. The most important asset on your sailboat isn’t a piece of gear, it’s your knowledge of how best to set and trim your sails. A good sailor can make a derelict sailboat go faster than an ignorant skipper can sail a fully-equipped and tuned racing yacht.
Continue reading “Book Review: Plain Sailing: Learning to See Like a Sailor”

Every active skipper takes at least a little pride in their sailboat. That is, if you exclude the owners of those few derelict, abandoned sailboats you can find in any year-round marina. A sailboat is a beautiful, graceful, piece of moving art that almost everyone appreciates.

But what happens when pride goes over the top, into the realm of the absurd, almost to beyond belief? Mine’s Bigger is the account of billionaire Tom Perkins’ $130 million quest to build the Maltese Falcon that was for a few years the biggest, fastest, most luxurious sailboat ever built. Continue reading “Book Review: Mine’s Bigger”