Best Sailing Books

Sailing, Seamanship, and Boat Maintenance

Both beginning sailors and the most experienced old salts will find many uses for a thick reference book about all matters of seamanship or other specific sailing topics. Of the many dozens of books professing expertise, here are some that you'll consult for years to come:

• John Vigor's The Seaworthy Offshore Sailboat is the best book you can read when shopping for the right sailboat to take offshore or to learn how to upgrade your own sailboat for offshore sailing or extended cruising.
• Chapman's Piloting & Seamanship for 65 editions and almost a century has been the classic tome about virtually everything related to boats - the book many older sailors grew up trusting.
• John Rousmaniere's Annapolis Book of Seamanship like Chapman's is thorough and almost as encyclopedic, with a bit more of a sailing focus.
• Robby Robinson's International Marine Book of Sailing is a great book for learning to sail - but is much more. It gets you sailing right away as you then read on to learn more about seamanship, navigation, and all the basics of sailing. Wonderfully well written.
• Don Casey's Complete Illustrated Sailboat Maintenance Manual is the best reference book for learning how to repair, maintain, and care for your boat.
• Beth Leonard's The Voyager's Handbook is the must-have bible for preparing for and then going long-distance cruising under sail.
• Paul Keller's Cruising for Seniors has useful information and some good reading for anyone wondering about how long-term sail cruising may or should be different once you're old enough to start thinking such thoughts.

Sailing Narratives

Sailors have always told their own stories of their sailing adventures, and many hundreds have been published over the last century. The best of these not only are a good read as a story but also can teach a lot about how to enjoy sailing at its finest and to avoid mishaps at sea.

• Bernard Moitessier's memoir The Long Way is one of the best-ever narratives of a philosophic master sailor singlehanding around the world.
• Voyages of a Simple Sailor by Roger D. Taylor is a collection well-written sailing narratives in which the sailor-philosopher also teaches self-sufficiency and independence.
• Tania Aebi's Maiden Voyage chronicles her 30-month solo circumnavigation begun at age 18, a story of adventure and maturation at sea.
• Beth Leonard's Blue Horizons collects together wonderfully well written columns she wrote during a 6-year navigation - a bright portrait of a couple's life cruising under sail.
• Chris Stewart's Three Ways to Capsize a Boat is a memoir about learning to sail and adventuring in the Greek Isles and across the Atlantic - a charming and very funny book.
• Patricia Vellinga's Sailing There tells a great story about crossing Europe by canal and then sailing all over the Med - an enjoyable sailing travelogue.
• Torre DeRoche's Swept: Love with a Chance of Drowning is a true tale about an inexperienced sailor cruising off into adventure with her boyfriend in a small sailboat across the South Pacific - a great read!

Novels Involving Sailing

• Christine Kling's thriller Circle of Bones is a well-written, engaging, suspenseful novel set on boats and Caribbean islands.
• Mitch Davies' novel Better Than Ever, Again is an action adventure tale involving sailing in the South Pacific, but read this review before getting too excited.

Cruising Guides

It's important to know where you're going when cruising!

• The Atlantic Cruising Club Guides to Marinas are among the better traditional print products that provide information about marinas you may visit while cruising.
• The ActiveCaptain Interactive Cruising Guidebook is a great online resource with information about marinas, anchorages, and much more - which is also built into many navigational software products and apps.
• Nicola Rodriguez's Sail Away: How to Escape the Rat Race and Live the Dream is a useful starting point for those new to cruising.
• Take along the great birding book Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-Petrels of North America next time you're voyaging offshore to identify and learn more about the sea birds you see.

Sailing Magazines

While everyone knows the newsstand glossies SAIL and Cruising World, two other sailing magazines are actually more useful to most sailors:

• Good Old Boat Magazine is chock-full of articles covering almost everything you need to keep your sailboat running or make upgrades you can do yourself.
• Blue Water Sailing is primarily intended for sailors with advanced skills and ambitions for long-distance cruising and provides in-depth information for those preparing for serious voyages.

Sailing Cookbooks

Here's one of the best to start with:

• The One Pan Galley Gourmet by Don Jacobson and John Roberts has 170 varied, easy-to-cook recipes suitable for both herbivore and carnivore, with choices for both those with spicy tastes and those who may need blander food after a day of rollicking waves.