Customer Reviews

Sailing For Dummies

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a novice sailor, I found this book to contain an introduction to everything I needed to know about sailing. The Isler couple, both world class sailors, spice up the material with personal amusing anecdotes of their sailing experiences (and occasional mishaps). Plenty of illustrations add to the book's educational value. I can't imagine a better intro book to the subject.

This is an excellent sailing textbook - as the cover states it's "A Reference for the Rest of Us!" That is, it can be used as a beginner's book and then kept for use as a reference manual. I have read and re-read this book several times and each time I re-read it, something I didn't understand or fully comprehend "jumps out at me" and I become a better sailor because of the information contained within and imparted by this book.
Also, some people know their subject but are unable to teach others what they know. Both JJ and Peter not only know their subject, sailing, but are also very adept at transferring that knowledge to their readers, sailors and wannabe sailors!

What a refreshing concept! This book takes the best of all other instructional sailing books and presents just the right amount of information organized in a logical manner. At the same time, it gives details (in all possible areas related to sailing) when and where appropriate. The writing style of the Islers is also to be commended. It makes for an enjoyable read. After all, that's what most of us want out of sailing.

Sailing isn't rocket science, and the authors have done a great job of keeping it simple. They cover all of the basics, some of the advanced stuff, and take all of the mystery out of sailing. Hey, they even include a tear-out plastic-coated "cheat sheet" that you can take with you on the waves!

I used this text as a secondary supplement for an American Sailing Association "sailing certification" , and I found it refreshingly helpful. Well known today, and with hundreds of titles, the "For Dummies® Books" collection offers you valuable basic information on hundreds of subjects, from "Accounting for Dummies" to "Yoga for Dummies".

"For Dummies® Books" strive to make a subject enjoyable to read, interesting and simple enough to understand so anyone can grasp the concept . In "Sailing For Dummies", J. J. Isler and Peter Isler accomplish just that: enjoyable, interesting and simple. This is a very basic text for the first 140 pages, then, for the remainder of the book, the Islers add to your foundational knowledge of sailing ending with subjects such as: sailboat racing, chartering and buying a boat.

"Sailing For Dummies" is livened up by the use of cartoons, interesting quips and quotes and engaging icons found throughout the book in the margins. The icons denote sections of information that promote "tips", "safety", "danger", "nautical words", "sailing stories", etc. Add the above with b&w photos, great diagrams and an excellent index, and you have a book valuable to any novice who wants to know more about sailing. Recommended.

We are buying our first sailboat and needed to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible. This book is easy to follow and really is very helpful in helping the reader to get a solid understanding of what is what and how it works and what to do. I also found it entertaining and humorous. We will give this book a prominent place of honor in our new boat and will refer back to it often. If someone wanted to learn to sail, this is the first book they should read.

"Sailing for Dummies" offers down-to-earth, understandable explanations for everything related to sailing, from planning a trip to the mechanics of sailing to buying a boat. I've been sailing various size boats all my life, but with little formalized instruction, and this book was perfect. However, it will also be immensely helpful for those who have never stepped foot on a boat also. Great work, Islers!

The authors have maybe a bit too much expertise and experience to effectively write for "dummies" like myself. Somehow after reading this, I had just as many questions as before. Part of the problem is this book is way too comprehensive, covering such topics as sail-boarding. I would rather have had more in depth explainations of the basics and more diagrams/illustrations.

It's been a long time since I've done any serious sailing (high school, to be exact), but reading Sailing For Dummies brought back the fond memories of just how much fun it is to be quietly cruising a lake with the sun in my face and the wind at my back. This book is amazingly comprehensive and it's an inspiration to read. I can't wait to get back out on the water again

This is a great book; well-written and informative, and I recommend it highly.

Here is my "how I learned to sail" story:

I accidentally ended up in possession of an O'Day Sprite (10 foot dinghy), but knew nothing about sailing. I put it at my buddy's house; he had a place on a lake, and he promised to teach me how to sail. One day, he walked in, tossed me a bag of parts, and said "Go rig your boat!" He came down with me and taught me equipment terminology, and showed me how to rig the mast. We ended up replacing the mast stays, but everything else was okay.

We got it rigged and got the sails on. He looked at the sails, then looked at the boat; then he said, "That's an awful lot of sail for that boat." He took it out for a quick spin to make sure everything was working, then he put me in the boat and had me try to sail it, while he shadowed me in the Whaler, shouting instructions. The one thing I learned that day was that accidental jibes can cause death rolls (I didn't actually "learn" it until later, but that's what happened). We ended up towing the Sprite back in with the Whaler, and that ended my first lesson.

I went out and bought "Sailing for Dummies", spent a week reading and re-reading it from cover to cover, went back to the lake, and successfully sailed the boat for hours. I never did capsize it again, although I've had it darn near horizontal in a strong breeze. My friend likes to tell people he taught me how to sail; I always correct him and say he taught me how to capsize, which was just as valuable a lesson.

I spent several summers sailing both the Sprite and and my buddy's Hunter 170, then "graduated" to keelboats. He kept telling me that that the Sprite was the hardest boat I'd ever sail; bigger boats are easier.

I got a combination membership/keelboat class at a local sailing club in Boston, learning how to dodge the freighters coming in and out of the harbor, navigation, mooring, anchoring, etc; all the stuff that has less to do with the act of sailing, but necessary for sailing out in the real world. From time to time, I'd go back to "Sailing for Dummies" to brush up on items I hadn't needed prior to that point. I ended up taking additional classes and got a number of certifications.

These days, I'm back to lake sailing. My buddy ended up giving that Hunter 170 to my (then new) wife and I as a wedding present. I've been teaching her and my kids how to sail on the smaller lakes in southern NH. I fabricated a transom for the boat in order to sail it on Lake Massebesic, which is much closer to home than Beaver Lake or Onway. Most weekends during the summer, you can find me out on the lake, goofing around, teaching family and friends to sail, or unofficially racing with the MYC fleet.

http://www.huntermarine.com/Models/170/170Index.html