Sailing Fundamentals

• #5 in Best Sailing Books

41 Reviews

Sort by: Most Helpful ▲ Date Rating

I had been sailing for only three years when I got this book as part of a sailing certification course I took at the North Texas Sailing School on Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas. This is a great "how to sail" book and is the course material for the American Sailing Association (A.S.A.) course that I took. It did a good job of teaching all the requisite sailing skills and terminology. I would recommend it for general use in learning to sail at a basic skill level.

The Book includes numerous black and white photographs and lots of illustrations and diagrams to teach the skills required for the course. The book is divided into several sections that are used to teach three separate ASA certified courses. The sections are: Introduction to Sailing, Basic Sailing, Safety and Seamanship, Basic Seamanship Skills, Basic Coastal Cruising I, Basic Coastal Cruising II and Special Sailing Information. The book contains a good glossary and sailing terminology guide (very helpful for novices) and a good index. Review questions for each chapter or chapter series are included as well as answers to all the questions.

I bought the book for general sailing information. I found that a lot of the content is specifically geared to the certification requirements for ASA. If you are not going to certify or sail in the US then you will find yourself skipping US-specific pages and maybe losing on content in the process. Everything is spelled out to an excruciating detail. A book for those who haven't been in a boat ever before in their life.

This is American Sailing Association textbook for beginning sailors and closely tied to the ASA certification program.

Why should you consider certification? Many people don't want to own a boat and prefer to charter. This is more economical than boat ownership.

To have the freedom to charter anywhere in the world you need to be able to prove to the charter companies that you know what you are doing. That is where certification comes in.

An ASA certification is a big plus when you are in Hawaii on vacation and want to rent a keelboat for a couple of hours. Or if you want to charter a big boat in the British Virgin Islands for a week. Try to do that without a certification! The major plus of this book is that it teaches you how to sail with all the information you need to learn in the proper order you should learn it. There is an advantage in learning the material in a time tested manner. This book gets the benefit of tried and true, tested, proven methods of sailing instruction that work. The material is presented in the order in which you should learn it

Reading the book and then taking the course will give you a jump start on your sailing skills.

Most sailors have knowledge like Swiss cheeze--with lots of holes. The books will give you knowledge like American cheeze--no holes.

Buy the book--you won't regret it. Read it and take the course for maximum effectiveness.

This is the path to skill, safety, and confidence on the water.

This book covers the fundamentals, as agreed on by several authorities, succinctly and clearly. The thing that sets this apart from the rest is that it's layout is tailored to meet the requirements of the ASA and USGS certification and is used as their official textbook.

This book will teach you the baisics of sailing in a way thats easy to understand. Theirs a lot to learn if your a beginer. Gary Jobson did a good job of simplifying it a little.

Although the content of this book is useful, it is a difficult read because of poor editing. There are numerous typographical errors which could easily be corrected. Occasionally, there are terms used that have not been defined, although synomyms have been (e.g. "forestay" is referenced but only "headstay" is defined). However, one of the most cumbersome problems to deal with is the reference to illustrations. Illustrations are not numbered which makes it more difficult to find the proper one to look at on many pages where there are multiples. Additionally, there are numbered objects referenced in the text that do not appear with numbers in the illustrations. Certainly, with effort one can work their way through the text and learn from it, but it could be much smoother to do with a small amount of work from an editor.

This is one of the most disorganized and poorly edited books I
have ever read. There are sentences that get truncated from one
page to the next, concepts that supposedly will be explained "in
the next chapter" and never are, totally unrelated topics that
are jumbled together, material that is repeated without a clear
reason, obscure and/or poor illustrations/photos, etc.
Some radical editing could probably turn this book into
something useful, but as is I would recommend that the beginning
sailor turn to one of the many introductory books on sailing
that are better written and illustrated.

Growing up on Long Island, I've been around alot of boats. Even here in sunny So Cal although I'm not right on the water, I'm not far from it. Most of the boating I've done though was basically for skiing, so I had no knowledge of sailing. I was on a sail boat but only along for the ride...I LOVED IT!..But I knew nothing, I didn't know a Jib from a Jibe, or a Close Reach from a Broad Reach. I wanted to learn all about it and get certified. So I signed up for my sailing lessons, which took several weeks for the basic certifications(since I could only go on weekends), and this was the book that was required(for the classes).

We did several chapters every weekend so during the week I would be able to read through to the next's weeks lessons.Sailing Fundalmentals explained everthing from "the rules of the road" to basic vocabulary, to raising the mainsail,getting the boat moving, and anchoring. Along with esstential saftey rules and regulations and , Knot tieing, and what to do in emergency situations. All these thing were covered in the classes on board the boat and reading the book first each week helped quite a bit with understanding the acutal lesson.

I highly reccommend this book in conjunction with lessons.I did find sometimes though that I had to read some sections a couple of times before I understood what they were saying. So I would also reccommend Basic Cruising (which seemed to be a bit of an easier read) to study for the certification tests. It is part of the US Sailing certification series.

Take the Plunge! I aced my tests and if I can do it, you can too(trust me on that)...Laurie

Very poorly edited & proofread; numerous errors & omissions make for distracting & frustrating reading that undermines confidence in the material. Buy, read and enjoy "The Complete Sailor" instead.

I read this book early in my first experiences with keel-boats. It is written simply and brings the total novice up to the point where he or she can apply their knowledge with some minimal guidance and sail a boat. After a day or two with this type of experience, they would certainly be fine on their own, as long as they don't plan to challenge their skills. A great book, for the novice, but don't forget to invest a few bucks in references to help you advance beyond the basics!

Jobson makes sailing easy for anyone to understand. If you're new to the sport, this is the book to read. If it's the only book you're going to buy - you won't be sorry! I used this book as ASA certification, but that does not limit the usage for general knowledge.

I received this book with a basic keel boating class. This was the second book I read on boating, and I found it much worse than the first (The Complete Sailor by David Seidman). While this book covers many topics, it is poorly organized. The diagrams are next to useless. While it may cover all the topics of the ASA exam, I would not buy it if I were not taking the exam.

I have owned a sailing school and taught sailing for 25 years. In 1983 I was putting together a basic sailing book to be used by schools, when I discovered ASA and Gary Jobson's Sailing Fundamentals. I thought it was a terrific book and adopted it rather than finish my own book. I liked the organization, completeness and casual conversational style. Also I liked the illustrations, particularly the wind circle and points of sail in the later (present) edition. We have taught thousands of people to sail and are still using this book.

The publisher and editor should be ashamed for producing this book. As an editor, I'm embarrassed for them. Sailing is a terrific sport and I sincerely hope that the poor unsuspecting souls who bought this book expecting clear, concise, and organized instruction, are not turned off. Sentences are missing, typos abound, illustrations are incomplete. AND, those folks who gave this book a glowing review need to have their eyes checked. IF YOU PURCHASED THIS BOOK, RETURN IT AND GET YOUR MONEY BACK (I did).

I recently got a copy of this book to take my ASA sailing certificate. Unfortunately, this book is really poor. The information is good, but it's poorly organized. It's completely full of typos (like the page where they were talking about "boast" instead of "boats"), sentences which end in the middle, pictures of knots that are incomplete (and therefore, not knots), and my personal favorite, instructions on folding a sail where the pictures start with a folded sail, and end with an unfolded one. If you looking to buy a book on sailing, look elsewhere. Try the Anapolis Book of Seamanship.

I am a bit amazed by the other reviews of this book. I just took the ASA certification and read this book as part of the class. This is one of the worst textbooks I have ever read. The four other people in my class all agreed. Among it's problems:

- It is full of serious typos and several sections were even truncated, ending right in the middle of sentences.
- Many of the diagrams are incomprehensible.
- May of the photos are wrong our out of order.
- All the knot-tying diagrams omit the last step for tying the knot.
- Several of the sections describing how to do things do not make any sense whatsoever. Some of the sections tell you "In this section we are going to learn how to do A. It is important to know how to do A because ..." - but they never actually tell you how to do A!

For a book that has been in print as long as this book there is really no excuse.

The book does cover that basics, but since there are many really good books that cover this same material and more much (such as Chapman Piloting and the Annapolis Book of Seamanship) there is really no reason to buy this book.

As a Teachyourselfer native english speaker I find the descriptions with diagrams easy to understand and it covers everything. As its title suggests it is a manual for the A.S.A. courses and covers basic U.S. regulations which apply to anyone sailing in U.S. waters.

This book provides the fundamental theory for getting started sailing. As with any activity that is learned with practice, readers should not expect to learn how to sail by reading the book. Reading it alone is really boring, but once you start sailing, many of the concepts explained in the book strat to make sense and it is a really useful reference.

I'm not sure this book has anything to do with true fundamentals, but it is a basic, run of the mill sailing book. It's probably worth a read, but there are serious voids that could stand to be filled by other books. The big glaring void is the complete ommission of the attitude required to handle a sailboat wholly under sail, the book assumes power assist. I'd recommend picking up a book by FitzGerald, especially Wind and Tide, as this precious little volume will make a good suppliment.

This manual is used by the American Sailing Association (ASA) for their sailing fundamentals class. Everything is useful and well explained, no fluff. Great for beginners and sailors that want to do the basics right.

This book was a requirement for my sailing class and is an excellent concise sourse of all begining sailing knowledge.
I've put everything I've learned so far to good use. Teaches all about sailboat terminology, safety, rules of the road, and most of all how to sail a boat with correct use of the available wind.
This book gives sufficient coverage to take the ASA certification, which is what I am embarking on. A great way to start upon a new sailing experience!

This book has been around for almost twenty years now. While I didn't use it in a sailing class or school, it is the book that I picked up when I taught myself to sail.

I found it to be very complete and well organised. When it came to terminology, hardware, laws and theory it was first rate. It was also a good review of skills that I already knew but was rusty on- like knot tieing and chart reading.

However, this book did not teach me how to sail. To be fair, I don't know if any book can teach that. I learned by actually getting out on the water and learning to keep the wind on the back of my neck, and to adjust the mainsheet and the tiller accordingly. Maybe it is just me, but you aren't going to learn to tack or jibe from a checklist. When things get rough you aren't going to remember. And if you are running through a checklist in your mind, or worse yet, from a cribsheet or book, you aren't going to be focussing your attention on the wind and the waves where they need to be.

Sailing Fundamentals is a great book for learning how to sail. It is well written with illustrations and pictures to help even the novice sailor understand the fundamentals of sailing from preparation, practice drills, sail trim, crew organization, navigation, safety and a lot more. It also includes sections on seamanship and racing rules. I would recommend this book for adults as well as young people.

I have both Sailing Fundamentals and the US Sailing Basic Keelboat text. Overall, I find the Sailing Fundamentals to the more complete text of the two. However, the editing is sloppy in places and the illustrations are lacking compared to the US Sailing text. For those of you who are very visually oriented, I would suggest getting both texts. The US Sailing illustrations are very good.

For the last 20 years, my student feedback has been very good. They like the pictures, the pace, and the level. The self tests at the end of the chapters help them get ready to take a very comprehensive written exam. By using this textbook, my pass rate on this exam is above 90%. Then they use and enjoy the practice water excercises to develop their water skills. Prior to using this book, my students felt very intimidated by the sailing mystic. This book is user friendly. Of all the textbooks that have been written on sailing, the US Coast Guard Auxillary picked and approved this text to be used in their courses. I believe their seal on the front cover says alot about the quality of the contents.

I bought this book to refresh my knowledge of sailing small sailboats in inland lakes after a 15 year hiatus from sailing, and didn't find it very appropriate. As others have mentioned, there are also a lot of typographical and editing errors, which is odd considering it was written as an aid to certification.

There was a lot of information about coastal sailing, but I'm willing to bet that there are a lot more sailboats in the 14' or less range than larger ocean-faring sailboats. At the very least, if I was the author of this book I would mention it's target audience on the cover, or change the name to coastal sailing fundamentals.

I also got this book with a keelboat class I was taking at the time. In combination with an experienced instructor, the book was quite useful. However, there are quite a few sloppy mistakes, due more to poor editing than poor writing. If I had bought this book outright, I'd be pretty angry as well. The companion books for cruising and navigation are much the same.

I took the ASA 101 course and a lot of the material that was asked on the test was not emphasized in the book. I found it very dry, somewhat scattered and generally not enjoyable from which to learn.

I've only skimmed through New Complete Sailing Manual by Steve Sleight and that book looks like it might be a lot easier to understand.

One of the best basic sailing manuals I've seen - I bought a copy for each member of my crew. If you want to learn how to sail the right way, and quickly, this is your book.

There's a reason why hundreds of thousands of new sailors have used Sailing Fundamentals to guide them into the world of sailing. It's easy to understand, clear and well-illustrated. The book will help simplify a subject that has a fairly high degree of technical material.

You can certainly find sailing books that present the information in a more complicated manner. But why would you?

Being new to sailing, I purchased the book before I started taking sailing lessons so I would be familiar with the terms, concepts, etc. With highlighter in-hand, I carefully combed through the book. It prepared me very well.

My instructor usually hands out the same book during the first class. Since I already carefully read it (he quizzed me), rather than spending a lot of time in class going over the terms etc., I spent the time sailing; gaining hands-on sailing experience.

It's a great book for the beginning sailor.

I used this book as a companion book to another text for learning to sail on the Hudson, and I found it to be a thorough and informative text, with all basic information on rules of the road, parts of a boat, parts of a sail, rigging, water safety and rules of the road.

As a beginning sailor, learning on a responsive boat with a sail and a jib, I would recommend this book to anyone learning to sail smaller craft and slower craft. By my second lesson, this book and the companion I used allowed me to gain the comfort necessary to prepare for my basic keelboat certification.

This is a very basic and fundamental book with well presented information that is a necessary book in the American Sailing Association.

Like some other reviewers, I was amazed at the number of typographical and other errors in this text. The sail folding photos are indeed worth a good laugh. The only reason I have this book is that it was given out as part of my ASA sailing class. The book represents the only money I wasted on this course. Why the ASA chose this book when there are so many excellent beginning sailing books available is beyond me.

This was the textbook for my ASA basic keelboat certification. Does an adequate job but leaves much room for improvement and there are probably better books out there. It's been around a long time and must have been through many printings and I would expect the publisher to have more pride and correct the many typos and some bad illustrations and photos.

Sailing Fundamentals is the manual of the American Sailing Association and the United States Coast Guard Aux. The basic fundamentals for any boat owner.

A very comprehensive guide. If you are going to buy just one sailing book, make it this one.

The book provides easy step by step instruction for someone with little or no knowledge of sailing. It is an easy read and well written.

This book is a very descriptive text book for ASA basic sailing certification 101-104. Cruising Fundamentals will also be required for any ASA classes you may take in a Cruising boat. I would recomend that you also purchase Basic Keelboat (not the Kindle version) if you are taking either the US Sailing or the ASA courses. The ASA books are much more descriptive but have lees diagrams where the US Sailing books are just the oposite. Between the two books you will learn much more than with just one or the other.

Very good book! Seller was on time and good communication. I would have no problem recommending either the book or seller!!
Thanks again

The book is pretty BASIC, and for beginners it's a least the minimum that you need to know before hop on !!!! Tells you a little bit of everything, but if you looking something more especific or deep in details, definally IS NOT the right one !!!!
Really good to know boats part and names though !!!!