Learning to Sail by Basil Mosenthal

[dinosaur]

full book title: "Learning to Sail -in dinghies or yachts- 2nd edition"

just finished this book, and i don't see any mention of it on the forum.

this book said "a no-nonsense guide for beginners of all ages" on the cover. and this statement proved to be very accurate.

this short but sweet intro or refresher [in my case] offers 75 pages of concise, easy to understand, well pictured information. the author really sticks with the basics and tries to cover all the aspects of sailing without overloading the reader. handily there is a four page basic glossary at the end to help with terms and jargon.

the book starts out with clothing and personal equipment one might use. then moves to dinghies. what things are called, how they are rigged, and the mechanics behind getting it to move in the water. after the reader gets familiar with these he moves onto yachts. knowing where things are, how to use them, and what is expected of the crew members aboard. to wrap things up he explains tides, weather, navigation & buoys, and knots.

while a decent portion of this book wasn't anything new to me, i found it to be a great refresher and a good resource for getting familiarized with how yachts are setup. the pictures are very well done and abundant so you constantly have a visual of what he's explaining. sailing terms are thrown in as often as possible, so if being given to a kid, make sure they are old enough or patient enough to deal with going back and referencing earlier pages.