Customer Reviews

Cruising Fundamentals

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is American Sailing Association textbook for more advanced sailing topics and the the second of a series. 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. Every time an instructor like the author, Harry Munns, teaches a course it gets better. This book gets the benefit of his tried and true, tested methods of sailing instruction. It works well.

This book follows "Sailing Fundamentals : The Official Learn-To-Sail Manual of the American Sailing Association and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary"

Get them both.

Each book follows the ASA Basic Keelboat, Basic Cruising, and Bareboat charter courses.

Reading the books and then taking the courses 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 both books--you won't regret it. Read them and then take the courses for maximum effectiveness.

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

It is a big step for an intermediate sailor to go to the Caribbean and bareboat charter a 40' vessel. We use this book to take the intermediate sailor to this level. Cruising Fundamentals contains a vast amount of detailed information and yet it is organized in logical steps to bring students to the desired level of competance without overwhelming them. This book contains many excellent photographs and sketches. The basic navigation information is excellent without going too deep and the review questions are good for self evaluation (am I really getting it?)
I particularly like the way systems are presented and compared. For example, the House DC system vs the shore power AC system, diesel engines vs gasoline engines featuring the differences and types of cooking fuels discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each.
This is an all round excellent book that can be read straight through or used as a reference. I understand the second edition is in the works and I look forward to getting it.

I have never been cruising and really did not find this book to be very enlightening. It was VERY basic. You can expect things like "This is the hull, this is the sail" kind of stuff. I was really looking for more advanced topics like weather, emergency situations, planning a long distance cruise, etc.
This book is really for those of you thinking about buying a sailboat for cruising and have absolutely no boating experience. It touches on basic troubleshooting (and I mean basic) but does not really go in depth. I also purchased SAILING FUNDAMENTALS by Gary Jobson (Author), and found this book to be worth every penny. I would only recommend Cruising Fundamentals to those of you dreaming of cruising in the future, not very useful for anyone actually doing it.
I would rate this book at a high-school reading level.

This is a textbook for the ASA Sailing certification. If your taking the ASA or US Sailing certification I would recomend you purchase both books. Do not get the US Sailing books for Kindle. They do not include all of the diagrams. The ASA book is very discriptive and the US Sailing books are heavy on diagrams. Between the 2 sets of books you will get a much better understanding of tasks that are expected.

This is a fine book, along with Sailing Fundamentals, if you're taking the corresponding ASA course(s). All the information is valid but is geared to passing the course as opposed to just teaching sailing. Additionally, my ASA course instructor said that ASA is getting ready to drop both of these books.

I'd learned the basics of keelboat sailing just this past summer, and was ready to take it to the next level, obtaining an ASA Bareboat Skipper's license, which I just completed. This book was recommended reading by the sailing school, and after having read the book, and completed the course, I consider the book a complete waste of time.

The book is out of print, and so, though the cover price is only about $16 or so, I paid over $50 for a used copy on Amazon. I should not have bothered.

The book was written about 25 years ago. The black and white photography is amateurish. The book attempts to explain complex subjects, let's say, coastal navigation with an overdose of textual descriptions, and very little in the way of hands-on "how to do". All subjects are given very cursory attention, and I found the layout itself.....jumping around from one subject to the next in an illogical order, very incoherent.

One thing i discovered at the school is that there is a NEW bareboat charter book which has been US Sailing Association approved. The school had it for sale, but because I took my course in Thailand, they were selling it for a premium price. I browsed it, and it is much better. I'll be purchasing a copy via Amazon.

The name of the better book is: Bareboat Cruising.

Buy that one, not this one.

"The Emperor has no clothes", say it again!!!! THE EMPORER HAS NO CLOTHES!!!!

I had to stop reading the 104 book just to write this review.

Both the 101/103 and the 104 book are just crap. In my opinion they are an embarrassment to the ASA and a burden upon instructors and students.

These books are thoughtless, mindless and ill conceived. How can an industry made up such intellectual people and an activity that has evolved over nearly 7,000 years utilize such a piece of rubbish for a standardized training text book. This is unquestionably the single worst text book I have ever studied.

This is an actual quote from 104 text. It is just one of hundreds of examples of ridiculous statements made throughout these textbooks.

"Occasionally cruising sailboats employ halyards made entirely of braided line. These are rare and, other than a tendency to stretch, present no new problems."

1) If they are so rare than why is it part of the standardized text, unless of course these rare occasions can produces some catatrophic event or problem.

2 Then the author proceeds to describe that this is not an issue either.

"It might seem unbelievable that someone might forget to pack such critical items as a checkbook or swimsuit, but in the heat of the moment in the last minute dash to get out the door, anything can happen. "

Really ??????? I have never in my life sailed with a checkbook, and rarely sail with a swimsuit. How unbelievable is that and why do midless statements like this like this belong in a the ASA textbook?

Stupid crap like this occupies almost every single page of the 101/103 book and a lot of the 104 book so far. I can only speculate that some sacred cow in the ASA with a lot of political influence and no writing skills authored these books and that is the reason ASA published them.
Somebody with a spine and the political influence inside ASA needs to call a spade, a spade. This text books are crap.

MDHosto, Atlantic Beach FL

This is a fantastic book to keep on the boat with information I have not found elsewhere. A must for the cruising sailor's library.

This book is used for the ASA (American Sailing Association) 103 and 104 certification classes. It is somewhat dated, but practical for today's Coastal Cruising (ASA 103) and Bareboat Chartering (ASA 104) application. It contains review questions and lots of useful illustrations and pictures. I am recommending this book for sailors that want to build a solid knowledge foundation. Better yet, take the classes!

Book is just ok. A lot of the information is just common sense. The only reason I bought it was because it was required for a class that I was taking.