Fernhurst Books for the Racer this Winter
by Jeremy Atkins, Fernhurst Books 11 Nov 2013 09:58 GMT
11 November 2013
As the nights draw in and the sailing circuit dies down, the winter is a great opportunity to brush up on your sailing knowledge so that you are ready for next season.
The newly re-launched Fernhurst Books has a number of titles that can help you learn and progress, whatever your standard.
For the beginner, Racing: A Beginner's Guide by John Caig, now in its third edition, takes you through all you need to know to give a flying start to your competitive career.
If you sail a specific class, then there is likely to be a perfect book for you. Laser sailors are spoilt for choice. Tim Davison's The Laser Book is the definitive Laser sailing manual and has been a best seller for 34 years. Laser sailors with high ambitions might want to take some tips from Sir Ben Ainslie (The Laser Campaign Manual) or triple world champion Glenn Bourke (Championship Laser Racing).
The Mirror class celebrated its 50th anniversary this year – to learn more about sailing this class, why not try The Mirror Book by Peter Aitken.
Covering more than one class is Andy Rice's excellent Asymmetric Sailing which contains tips and advice from expert sailors in a wide variety of classes, giving you the inside knowledge to get ahead of the fleet.
If you sail something bigger, Mark Chisnell's Sail Smart isn't about sails, but Understanding Your Instruments – key for those yacht sailors wanting to turn the wealth of information available to them into better racing results.
Whatever class you sail, you could benefit from reading Be Your Own Sailing Coach and Be Your Own Tactics Coach by Jon Emmett – golden nuggets from the man who coached the winner in the Laser Radial at London 2012.
Then there are the books that everyone should have...
The rules may seem complicated, but Bryan Willis takes you round the race course telling you what's what, who's right and who's wrong in The Rules in Practice – most sailors' rules "bible".
Covering the power behind everything we do is the classic Wind Strategy by David Houghton and Fiona Campbell. They have explained the wind to teams involved in the Olympics, Admiral's Cup, America's Cup and round the world races. Anyone could benefit from some of that!
All the books can be bought from www.fernhurstbooks.com, and can also be found in all good bookshops, book websites and chandleries. Many of these titles are available as eBooks.