Best Sailing Books

On April 24, 1895, Captain Joshua Slocum set out on a three-year journey to circumnavigate the world alone by boat. Crossing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in his sloop, the Spray, Slocum visited South Africa, South America, and Australia before returning home as the first man to successfully sail around the world solo. Slocum's memoir tells of pi...

What begins as the sheer desire for adventure turns into a spiritual quest as a young woman comes to terms with her family, her dreams, and her first love.Tania Aebi was an unambitious eighteen-year-old, a bicycle messenger in New York City by day, a Lower East Side barfly at night. In short, she was going nowhere—until her father offered her a cha...

Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survi...

First launched in 1983, Annapolis remains the sailor's bible, a comprehensive chapter and verse guide to all aspects of seamanship from the simplest ABC's to the most advanced skills and latest electronics. And while much of the original edition has been left in dry dock to make way for the many changes on the water since 1983--like multihull vesse...

Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure -- a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his t...

The Long Way is Bernard Moitessier's own incredible story of his participation in the first Golden Globe Race, a solo, non-stop circumnavigation rounding the three great Capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. For seven months, the veteran seafarer battled storms, doldrums, gear-failures, knock-downs, as well as overwhelming fatigue and loneline...

An essential reference book for sailing enthusiasts, now in its fourth edition with a foreword by quadruple Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie.Learn the basics of sailing, master navigation, and maintain your boat with The Complete Sailing Manual, written by instructor and former British national champion Steve Sleight. This authoritative text has c...

Published to coincide with the Golden Globe Race's 50th AnniversaryIt lay like a gauntlet thrown down; to sail around the world alone and non-stop. No one had ever done it, no one knew if it could be done. In 1968, nine men - six Englishmen, two Frenchmen and an Italian - set out to try, a race born of coincidence of their timing. One didn't even k...

'One of the best books ever written about sailing' Time 27,000 miles, three and a half to five months alone at sea, chilling casualty rates, the unrelenting strain of handling 60-foot boats day and night, the absolute certainty of weather and waves that could destroy them. On 3 November 1996 sixteen sailors set out from the Bay of Biscay to embark ...

In August of 1979, Nick Ward began the 600-mile course of the UK’s Fastnet Race with perfect weather. Within 48 hours, the deadliest storm in the history of modern sailing had blasted through the Irish Sea. By the time it had passed, it had thrown one of the world’s most prestigious races into bedlam and taken the lives of fifteen sailors. Ward’s b...