Sail Trim: Theory and Practice

by Peter Hahne

Good sail trim can mean the difference between winning and losing a race or reaching harbor before the tide turns. This book demystifies the skill of good sail trim with the aid of superb color diagrams and photograph, to enable racers and cruisers alike to sail efficiently and get the most out of their boats.

Taking account of all types of wind condition the author aero and hydrodynamics, rig types, the best way to rig a vessel, sail cloth and cut, the right trim for the mainsail and smaller sails, and sailing before the wind. There is really only one way to set your sails for maximum efficiency; this book explains how.

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ted Conbeer]

You would think a book entitled "Sail Trim" might actually have more than a few pages on that topic.

Instead, you get 20 pages on poorly simplified and misrepresented fluid dynamics, 30 pages on different kinds of boats, 15 pages about a "new" automated sail trim on some crazy German boat, and 2 pages that - with no real explanation - dictate rig tuning and sail trim for a variety of conditions.

I was expecting the "Theory" to inform the "Practice" and hoping to learn something I didn't know about the complex interactions of multiple sails on large yachts and the way to use dozens of different controls to maximize boat speed. But there was none of that. This purchase was a huge failure of Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.

[aaron]

Good intro to theory and physics of sailing.