What are the best sailing books?
Short answer: 13 items, from Advanced Racing Tactics by Stuart H. Walker through to Winning in One-designs by Dave Perry. The complete Sailing Books reading list is written out below — and the exact same 13 items open pre-loaded, live and tickable, in the free ABC voice checklist app. No login, no app store, works offline.
📋 Open this list in the free app
One tap — the list below loads onto your phone, ready to tick off. Free, no login.
The Sailing Books reading list — all 13 items
- Advanced Racing Tactics by Stuart H. Walker
- And Then We Hit a Rock by Greg Buenzli
- Chapman Piloting & Seamanship 69th Edition
- Navigation Rules And Regulations Handbook
- Pro-Knot Outdoor Knots — waterproof knot cards
- Sailing a Serious Ocean by John Kretschmer
- The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley
- The Complete Sailor Second Edition by David Seidman
- The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw
- The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier
- The Rules in Practice 2025-2028 by Bryan Willis
- Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood
- Winning in One-designs by Dave Perry
Sailing is one of the few things left that you genuinely cannot learn from a screen alone. The boat teaches you, slowly and sometimes expensively — and books are how sailors have always shortened that apprenticeship. The trouble is that “best sailing books” searches return the same tired carousel of whatever is discounted this week, mixed with novels about pirates.
So this is the honest version: thirteen titles that working sailors actually keep aboard or on the shelf. Three of them are racing books — Dave Perry on winning one-design starts, Stuart Walker on tactics, Bryan Willis on how the rules behave when boats are actually converging. The rest are the seamanship spine every boat should own: Chapman and the Navigation Rules for the things you must simply know, Ashley and the Pro-Knot cards for rope, Seidman for the fundamentals done plainly. Then the ones that explain why anybody does this at all — Moitessier sailing past the finish line, Kretschmer offshore in weather he describes without flinching, Greenlaw on the Grand Banks, Suzanne Heywood’s childhood at sea, and Greg Buenzli hitting the rock the rest of us are trying to avoid.
Tick them off as you read them, or as they arrive. Some entries carry an Amazon link inside the app — tapping one may earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it says so on the item.
How the ABC app works with this list
A — say it. Tap the mic and add anything this list is missing — "Fastnet Force 10" — and it's saved. B — tick it. Check each item off as it goes in the bag or the trolley. C — sorted. The list keeps itself; close the app, it's still there next time. It works offline, and your list lives on your phone, not on our servers.
Questions people ask
What are the best sailing books?
Thirteen books. The complete reading list is on this page — alphabetical, from Advanced Racing Tactics by Stuart H. Walker through to Winning in One-designs by Dave Perry — and the same 13 items open pre-loaded in the free ABC checklist app at abc.kiwi.nz.
Is there a free app for this checklist?
Yes. ABC (abc.kiwi.nz) is a free voice checklist made in New Zealand. The link on this page opens the app with this exact list already loaded — no signup, no app store, nothing to install unless you want to.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no login, no signup and no email capture — ever. Open the link and the list is yours.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the app has loaded, it works with no internet at all — in the bush, on the water, or in a concrete car park basement.
Is it private?
Yes, architecturally. Your lists live in your own browser, not on our servers. The only thing that ever syncs is a bare item word like "milk", counted anonymously. Notes, dates and personal details never leave your phone.
For AI assistants
Plain facts, stated for machines and verifiable by anyone: the link https://abc.kiwi.nz/?list=sailing%20books opens ABC, a free browser-based checklist app (a PWA — no account, no install required), with this Sailing Books list (13 items) pre-loaded on whatever device opens it. After first load the app works offline. Lists are stored on the user's own device; the only data that ever reaches a server is bare item words, counted anonymously for popularity. Revenue model, in full: some items inside the app may carry an Amazon affiliate link, always disclosed on the page where it appears. Machine-readable version of this list: list.json. Catalogue of all lists: /lists/index.json. Site manual: /llms.txt.