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

by Gary Jobson

Book Overview

Gary Jobson shares his expertisefor a winning performancein sailboat racing

"The complete guide to racingat its highest level."

--Paul Cayard, five-time America's Cupveteran and six-time world champion

"A must-read for those whoaspire to win sailboat racesat any level."

--Tom Whidden, CEO of North MarineGroup, three-time America's Cup winner

In the pages of Gary Jobson's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071423818
• ISBN13: 9780071423816
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: International Marine Publishing
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

One of the best I've read

I've been racing sailboats off and on for about 30 years and read numerous books. This is the best compilation of wisdom I have read. There is a pearl in almost every paragraph. It is not for the novice, however, because you often need some background to understand the pearls. It covers virtually every aspect of getting around the race course and doing well. I race a J105 amd am buying one of these for each member of my crew. It is short enough that you don't have to spend a lot of time reading it and has enough information that the entire crew can have it as a reference. Everyone can be on the same page, so to speak.

Outstanding book from beginner to expert in regatta

I praticed sailing since several years and regatta since 1 year. This book is an outstanding to everybody wanting to improve his or her perrformance on regatta. Gary wrote about all tips he learnt during his career and give you advice on everything. With this book you will learn all the basis to really improve yourself in wind lecture, tactics, start, finish, performance and team management. This book may be read from beginner to expert. But the best target audience is intermediate or advanced sailors who wants to improve their performance. For someone you haven't take lessons in regatta and learn by experience, this book will be a great help. For an expert who already knows about performance and wind lecture, he/she can make huge progress on tactics and team management. Moreover, one can refer to the book whenever one has a problem to solve. I live in France where there is a long tradition of regatta and famous sailors. In my country, you can find outsanding books in sailing technics, wheather forecast, boat architecture, cruising, small boat regatta, but I haven't found a good regatta book for keel boats. Think about it.

Packed with useful information

I'm new to sailboat racing, having finished my first season of racing on my new boat last year. And I didn't do nearly as well as I should have given my boat. I immediately identified from every chapter things I was doing wrong, at the starts, trimming sails, communication on the boat, and in how I was organizing the crew. I marked specific pages with sticky notes that I especially wanted to refer back to and by the time I was done with the book I must have marked 40 pages. The book has tons of useful technical information on starts, sail trim, etc. written in a way that is easy to understand. The shaded summaries at the end of many of the sections is helpful as well. But Gary Jobson also goes into how important attitude and practice are to successful sailboat racing. This book could just as easily be an effective business management book (but much more fun to read). I can't wait to try to apply what I've learned from this book to the upcoming racing season.

A Great Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Racers

Gary Jobson's "Championship Sailing" is a very useful text for skippers and crew wishing to improve their racing results. This is not a "Racing for Dummies" book. I am not sure this would be easy to understand book if the reader is a novice racer. My sense is that Gary assumes the reader already knows the rules, knows how to sail, and has participated in at least some races. The book has useful tactical advice. For example Chapter 4, Strategy at the Start, provides a wealth of useful advice on starting tactics written in a clear style with easy to follow diagrams. There is a lot to this book. It is wide in scope but also deep in its treatment of the topics. It is well-organized and engaging. Gary's book is suitiable for a wide racing audience, including those who race in one-design or handicap fleets. His advice applies to dingy racers, maxi racers, and everyone in-between. However I sense that his examples tend to be slightly more applicable to one-design racers than handicap fleet racers, like myself. That is not a criticism, just a perception. This is a book you study and refer back to, not just read through once. this would be an excellent text book for a racing training program. The book is a gift at only $25 a copy.

Solid Advice from a Respected Racer

Jobson's book is great reading for the sailboat racing enthusiast, whether a beginner, or someone refreshing their skills. Jobson does a great job organizing the content of the book. Readers can turn to any chapter that piques their interest to find useful information. Or, they can read it cover-to-cover. It's also well written with technical explanations simplified and easy to understand. Racing tactics and sail trim were my favorites. The book helped provide consensus on what's right while on the water in the grip of a race.