Customer Reviews

Sail and Rig Tuning

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ivar is right about this being the best illustrated manual. The concise, easy to understand text followed by beautifully understandably illustrations, have taken sail and rig tuning for me out of the black arts. Amazing how he fits all of this into an 80 page paperback....which makes it easier to fit into your seabag.

This is my favorite book on sail trim. It not only explains what to do, but why to do it. It is organized well and has great illustations. It is not just for novices, but has information that more experienced sailors will find useful. For example, it has pages with illustrations showing the comparative (in percentages) sail drafts to use for various winds strengths and conditions.

The excellent ilustrations in this book make it stand apart. Easy to understand, a great reference to refer back to. Also includes problems with lists of solutions. For example, too much weather helm has solutions like 1) tighten outhaul 2) reduce mast rake etc.

There's only a few basic concepts to get your head around and the diagrams in the this book do a great job of explaining them. Worth every penny.

Book is divided between sail trim and rig tuning. While there are a lot of sail trim books available, the section on tuning the rig is excellent.

finally a book that brings togeter the jargon with pictures to explain the nuances of sail tuning. Very helpful.

The best book yet on sail and rig tuning. It unique because it is short, consise and easy to understand! Ivan gets right to the point in each area discussed. I'm convinced we'll sail faster and smarter and know how to change gears when our boat just doesn't feel in the grove. Thanks Ivan.

There is nothing more frighten then a mast coming down at sea. Just the mere thought of it is enough to have a lot of cruising sailors pouring pockets full of money into the hands of riggers up and down the island chain. However rigging isn't that hard, heck I even know a couple guys who decided overnight to be riggers. They hung up their shingles and we started genuflecting before them as if they were the font of all knowledge. Well before you reach your hand out for that holy water, maybe you should check out this very fine book. It will educate you into the black art of rigging a sailboat. You'll know, without consulting that expert, when to replace that turnbuckle or wire. You'll learn how to tune your rig yourself and, need I say it, you'll probably save enough money to pay for that new laptop you've had your eye on.

Practical, step by step manual with very good illustrations. Use it to study or a reference book when you trim your sails and rigging. Especially rigging is something often overlooked. Just go around a marina and see/feel for yourself. There is at least a knot of speed hidden in your rigging. Also you don't want to get the mast on your head. Do check in the mast before you start, toggles and spreaders must be in good shape. Don't overtension. Highly recommended. I must have bought more than a fair number because I keep giving them away to people who see and like it.

Having sailed my whole life ([...]) doesn't mean that I have all this in my head or that I do know the why of the intuitive trimming of the sails. This book always gives me something to try out on my own or other people's boats. You will be surprised how you can improve even an old sail by systematically using the steps in this book.

If you could buy only one book on sailing, have moderate experience and enough common sense not to do things that will obviously damage the hull or hurt the crew, this would probably be it.

It is not perfect, in the sense that there is no engineering math, but it's so good that, having lost my copy, I'm buying a replacement now.