Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing: The Definitive Guide for Skippers, Tacticians, and Crew [Hardcover]

Gary Jobson shares his expertise for a winning performance in sailboat racing

“The complete guide to racing at its highest level.”

—Paul Cayard, five-time America’s Cup veteran and six-time world champion

“A must-read for those who aspire to win sailboat races at any level.”

—Tom Whidden, CEO of North Marine Group, three-time America’s Cup winner

In the pages of Gary Jobson’s Championship Sailing, the author shares more than 30 years of racing and sailing expertise at the highest levels of competition, covering every aspect of racing in one-design or handicap fleets from high-performance dinghies to big keelboats. Readers will learn Jobson’s secrets for:

• Organizing a crew
• Reading the wind
• Simplifying sail trim and rig tuning
• Improving boat speed
• Winning starts and leapfrogging boats at the finish
• Regaining lost ground
• And much more

In a competitive sailing career spanning more than four decades, Gary Jobson has won just about every significant championship. Along the way he has competed against and with the masters of modern competitive sailing--studying, adopting, and adapting their most successful tactics, habits, and techniques. From these ingredients and his own vast experience he has molded and perfected a system that will propel you to the top of the fleet.

In Championship Sailing you'll learn how to win in local, national, and international fleets, whether they are one-design or handicap, high-performance dinghies or big keelboats.

Drawing from his personal experiences in hundreds of dramatic races, Gary shows you how to prepare like a champion, impose order in chaotic situations, recover from mistakes or bad luck, and use both your failures and your successes to become a better sailor.

He guides you through the steps of organizing, training, and leading a first-rate crew; establishing a tactical team and defining their duties; and coping with the emotional highs and lows of a hotly contested race. You'll learn how to examine and analyze the racecourse, read the wind, and choose the best side of the course. And you'll master the finer points of fast starts, upwind and downwind tactics, rounding windward and leeward marks, passing, and maximizing your speed with rig tuning, sail shape, sail trim, and steering.

Complete with in-depth discussions on the best practice methods, the psychology of winning, and so much more, Championship Sailing is the absolutely indispensable guide for anyone who wants to win sailboat races at any level.

Gary Jobson has won ten national one-design sailing titles, the America's Cup, and innumerable ocean races. In 1999 he received the U.S. Sailing Association's most prestigious award, the Nathanael G. Herreshoff Trophy. In 2003 Gary was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame. He is an editor at large for Cruising World and Sailing World and has been ESPN's sailing commentator since 1985.

"A must-read for those who aspire to win sailboat races at any level."--Tom Whidden, CEO of North Marine Group, three-time America's Cup winner

Winning a sailboat race--any sailboat race--is the final step in a process begun weeks, months, perhaps even years before. It involves strategic insight, tactical savvy, and a boat- and sail-handling virtuosity that can only come from many hours of carefully structured practice. In Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing, one of the most successful sailboat racers in history shares more than 40 years of racing and sailboat expertise at the highest levels of competition.

Introducing a proven system developed, fine-tuned, and perfected over more than four decades of sailboat racing, Gary Jobson outlines the skills, reflexes, and instincts you need to become a true champion as he imparts his secrets for:

• Organizing, training, and leading a crew
• Reading the wind and choosing the best side of the course
• Simplifying sail trim and rig tuning
• Improving boatspeed
• Tacking, jibing, and maneuvering for advantage
• Winning starts and leapfrogging boats at the finish
• Regaining lost ground
• Practicing alone, in pairs, and with a fleet

Whether you're racing in one-design or handicap fleets, in high-performance dinghies or big keelboats, Championship Sailing will propel you to the front of the fleet.