Customer Reviews

Your First Sailboat : How to Find and Sail the Right Boat for You

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a good buy for the beginning sailor looking to buy his or her first boat. The writing, diagrams (reminds me a lot of R. Crumb drawings), and pictures are simple an to the point. Glance thru the chapters list and you'll get a good idea of what to expect. Definitely recommended if you are in the market to buy your first sailboat and have no sailing experience.

I just got this book two days ago, and am so far very pleased with it. It organizes every single question I've ever had into concise, well-diagrammed, and sometimes humorous chapters. For example, the two-page chapter "What if the Boat Does Sink" certainly isn't an exhaustive study of the topic, but does give you extremely good pointers and common sense advice that will help you respond better to such a worst-case scenario.

I think another good treatment of a subject is in the "What if the Boat Heels" chapter. It's a question that I imagine a lot of beginning sailors have, often accompanied by nervousness about how much heeling is normal and safe. The answer to this question has proved surprisingly elusive to me, so it was nice to see a little bit written on the topic, and to have my concerns addresses directly.

What this all means is that this book does a phenomenal job of covering the bases. I would feel 100% more qualified to go buy and sail a boat after reading it. Of course, it's no substitute for comprehensive guides of special uses, such as offshore cruising, real foul-weather sailing, instrument navigation, etc., but it's a fantastic primer book for the price. Enjoy.

My husband and I have signed up for ASA Sailing classes, so we have been reading many "how-to" books on sailing. Lots of these books jump right into sailing lingo, and so the subject matter is very confusing for the novice sailor.

We finally found Your First Sailboat when we looked for books on the subject of buying a sailboat. This is the book we should have read first!! Daniel Spurr writes humorously about the selection of boats, and along the way, we learn about sailing techniques as well. He approaches the sailing sport with clarity and common sense, and he writes in plain jargon, not the technical language that would overwhelm a beginner.

We love this book!

There has got to be better books out there for the first time sailboat owner than this. The information is very sparse and lacking in any kind of detail. As an example there is a chapter on "From Whom Should I Buy?" that is two pages long. Even a novice such as myself knows that you are either going to buy from a private owner or a broker. In fact there are 39 chapters in this book, and they are all about two to three pages long. The book just does not flow well. In the introduction the author makes you feel as if after reading this book you will grasp all the basic concepts of boat ownership and sailing, when in fact you walk away with more questions about sailing then when you started reading the book. The one thing the book did tell me was that I better read other books on the subject before I continue on the path to sailboat ownership. One thing I would recommend is that you get profesional instruction on sailing and ask a lot of questions of other boat owners before you decide to buy a boat and start sailing. If you feel you need to read this book, get it at the libarary, and save yourself the money.

As a newbie to sailing, I found this book a to be a wonderful overview of sailboats and sailing in general. The book is organized into short chapters covering just about everything I wanted to know before deciding to purchase a sailboat. The diagrams are just right- helping to illustrate key points quite handily. I would definitely recommend to others looking for an overview of sailboats.

I bought this book, by her request, for a godchild who will get her first sailboat when she graduates this spring. Although I didn't read it cover to cover, I did look through quite a lot of it before it got wrapped up and given as a holiday gift. The book is practically laid out, well-written, and will be very useful indeed as we are looking for a cruising sloop in the 35-45 foot range for her. I recommend it as helpful and also as entertaining reading. The book is particularly well organized; the list of topics and chapters makes the information easy to find and work from.

A great book for anyone thinking or dreaming about buying a sailboat. Covers many topics, to a reasonable level, and is a great 'starter' book.

I'm fairly new to sailing and have my own boat for about two years now.
Being from North Dakota I'm pretty much self taught and this book is among the best books I own. Trust me, my wife states I have about 30 books and she's right.
I highly recommend this one. Among the best.
You'll get alot out of it.

This is a good place to start for someone looking to buy their first sailboat. The only problem with it is one that it could never solve - the utterly vast number of considerations to ponder in buying your first sailboat. Indeed, no one, totally comprehensive book on this topic would be fun to read. So, get this book, and a couple or three others, get a general idea of what your needs or desires are, and go looking. This book is a good start and an easy read.

I love to sail but buying my first sailboat is quite the adventure. This book makes reading about all the details enjoyable and even humorous at times. I especially appreciate all the great illustrations to help understand the parts & various conditions of boats.