How to Sail - a Complete Handbook of the Art of Sailing for the Novice and the Old Hand - Lane C.D. [1970, PDF]

How to Sail - a Complete Handbook of the Art of Sailing for the Novice and the Old Hand

Year: 1970
Language: english
Author: Lane C.D.
Genre: Handbook
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.
ISBN: 0-393-03118-7
Format: PDF
Quality: Scanned pages
Pages count: 270
Description: Since the publication and generous acceptance of The Boatman’s Manual as a standard handbook and guide to small-boat seamanship, navigation, and operation, I have received many letters suggesting that I expand the material on sailing to meet the needs of the pure novice and the raw beginner. Of necessity that book assumed that the reader could sail. But seemingly there are many of us who love little ships but are completely at sea (or, rather, not at sea) in our knowledge and experience of their basic handling.
The writer with sufficient sailing experience to write about sailing for others sometimes assumes a knowledge of the fundamentals by the tyro which does not exist. It is so easy to forget that thrilling, terrifying moment when our first boat gathered the unseen power of the wind in her white sails and charged off to a freedom henceforth to know no curb but the trembling hand on tiller and sheet. Yes, they are long-ago days for many of us who sail and write. Yet each year thousands of young men and young women heed the call of blue water and must face that awful moment — the first sail.
It is my earnest wish that this book, which I promise shall start at the very beginning, will make that first moment the successful commencement of a long and lusty lifetime of sailing. We shall face the plain fact that many of us do not understand plain sailing. So the utter novice shall have his simplest question answered and explained and diagrammed to his full satisfaction. Old hands will find many hints and guides to perfect their own sailing habits and techniques. Even those auxiliary skippers who never hoist their nylon sails on their chromium tracks may find here the challenge to shut down their noisy bang-bang engines and join the ocean queens which move under free wind alone.
I have known of would be sailors who sailed but once because their first attempt resulted in the disaster and shame of wrecking or dismasting or in damage to surrounding property. If this book keeps such beginners in the sport and launches them upon a happy voyage toward capable boat ownership and command, its presentation will have been justified. But there are many others — the first boatowners, the young skipper graduating to his next dream ship, the crew-guest of other skippers, the auxiliary owner, the charterer and day renter — who, I hope, will find this book of benefit and inspiration.
We shall remain strictly upon the subject of How to Sail. We shall touch upon the elementals of seamanship, pilot- ing, boat maintenance, and the myriad allied arts of the owner-skipper, of course — but only enough to enable the reader to care for and protect his craft upon initial owner- ship. For full and detailed treatment of the complicated subjects of navigation, boat operation, handling and mainte- nance, marlin-spike seamanship, signalling, cruising, safety at sea, nautical etiquette and many related subjects, refer- ence should be made to The Boatman's Manual. Indeed, that guide, plus this book, should enable the rankest ama- teur to master the subject of sailing sufficiently well to em- bark upon any inland or coastwise voyage without further inquiry into the mere academics of the art of wind sailing.
Our slope-headed forebears managed, with eminent suc- cess, to navigate their crude assemblies of log hulls and hide sails without benefit of the printed word or the drawn line. That they often met with disaster and discouragement must be admitted. That they also met with adventure and romance and the thrill of discovery is attested by the part the sailing vessel has played in the history of human civilization. That the application of the principles and practices of the ancient art of sailing, as presented in this book, will spare the reader disaster and discouragement and speedily qualify him as master of this strange beast of wood and canvas and mysterious parts so that he, too, may find adventure and romance and those pleasant far places in the blue, is the sincere wish of the author.