The Best 8 Dinghy Sailing Books for Beginners and Experts

If you’re interested in trying dinghy, why not buy a sailing book about it? A dinghy sailing book will help you have an idea on how to start doing it.

To learn and understand dinghy, internet information sometimes is not enough, you need a sailing book. It might be easier to update, but the complexity of the explanation is not as good as a book. Moreover, when the book is written by an experienced dinghy sailor.

Based on the format, listed the types of dinghy books below that can be your information source while learning about dinghy.

List of 8 Dinghy Sailing Books that You can Choose From

Product Names	Product Images	About this Product	Price
Margaret Dye – Dinghy Cruising		This book contains Margaret Dye’s thoughts about dinghy cruising based on her experience for many years. From this book, you can gain a lot of tips and guidance on how to enjoy a dinghy cruising to the maximum level. She also added the practical advice on how to prepare and equip the boat. Anyone with interest in dinghy cruising is suitable to read this book, no matter how old you are.
Peter Schweer – How to Trim Sails: Dinghies to Offshore Cruisers		Peter Scheweer is a professional sailor who mastered sailing on blue water cruising to top-level racing. He also actively demonstrate the sail-trim technique at a European boat show. With this experience, he wrote a book that contains the trimming sails technique using a dinghy. From this book, you can get a practical introduction about trimming sails on any kind of boats, including dinghies to offshore cruises.
John Rousmaniere – The Annapolis Book of Seamanship		Rousmaniere is a professional sailor with around 40,000 miles of blue water experience, including passage, nine Newport-Bermuda Races, and other races in a small and big boat. This book is written based on his experience and contains a definitive guide to the art and science of sailing, including the latest technology and safety standards.
Barry Thomas – Building the Herreshoff Dinghy		Herreshoff is a small yacht in a classical design such as dinghy. Thomas wrote a book about the construction methods which is essential to the replication of traditional boat types. This book is suitable for you who wants to build your own dinghy with exact manufacturing construction.
Roger Barnes – Dinghy Cruising Companion		Barnes is the President of the Dinghy Cruising Association which has dinghy sailing experience for years. He explored many beautiful and remote places in his dinghy and absolutely compatible to record it on a book. This book contains a lot of information and advice on dinghy cruising adventures from idyllic weeks pottering around secluded rivers and coastlines to hair-raising voyages to remote islands. This is a complete guide from finding a proper boat, fitting out for day sailing, engine and oar tips, mooring and anchoring, navigating, to keep yourself comfortable and safe while cruising.
Barry Pickthall – Dinghy Sailing		Pickthall has 35 years of sailing and boating experience and a sports writer and photographer correspondent to The Times newspaper. He wrote this book especially for you who wants to learn the basics about sailing, as well as for an experienced sailor who wants to broaden their skills and increase their technique and knowledge about dinghy sailing. The dinghy sailing guide is written step-by-step which is easy-to-understand by sailing enthusiasts. In this book, Pickthall explained the basic principles, appropriate and proper clothes, sailing preparation, first sail guide, and advanced sailing and racing.
Rupert Holmes – The Dinghy Bible		Holmes has more than 60,000 miles of experience at sea in a large sailing boat and he's a deputy editor of Yachts and Yachting magazine. He is sailing using a wide variety of single and double-handed dinghy, which makes him the right person to write a dinghy sailing guide, or he wrote as the Dinghy Bible. This book is consists of complete guidance of dinghy. It’s user-friendly, and hands-on manual packed with detailed step-by-step diagrams, photographs, and tips on getting the most out of dinghy sailing no matter what skill you have.
William H. Robinson – The International Marine Book of Sailing		Robinson is a sailing instructor, a former SAIL magazine editor, America’s Cup challenger, and an English teacher. Based on his experience and knowledge about sailing, Robinson wrote the International Marine Book of Sailing that follows a sailor’s ideal learning curve. It covers the guidance from the basics to the most advanced techniques and is highly accessible and informative for every level of sailing capabilities.

Pro’s and Con’s of Each Dinghy Sailing Books

A. Hardcover & Paperback

1. Margaret Dye – Dinghy Cruising

Pros:

• Wide area exploration (UK, Europe, North America, Canda, and the North Sea between Norway and Iceland).
• The book does not only contain tips and guide to dinghy cruising for normal people, but also disabilities.
• Up to date, compact size, and lightweight.

Cons:

• Available in English only.
• The exploration area is limited in Europe and North America.

2. Peter Schweer – How to Trim Sails: Dinghies to Offshore Cruisers

Pros:

• The book explains the effect of various controls on the shape and performance sails.
• This second edition has many line drawings presented in two colors for easier understanding.
• Suitable for both beginners and experienced sailors.
• A must-have book for the boat owner who wants to learn trimming sails.
• Lightweight and handy.

Cons:

• A first-timer sailor might have a hard time understanding this book.

3. John Rousmaniere – The Annapolis Book of Seamanship

Pros:

• A definite guide to the art and science of sailing.
• It contains photos of illustrations.
• Discussing health topics (including seasickness) and onboard safety with a lesson learned from on-water tests and studies of a boating accident.
• Suitable for every mariner and first-time sailor.

Cons:

• Since the author is a boat racer, the book is mostly focused on racing sailing rather than fun sailing.

4. Barry Thomas – Building the Herreshoff Dinghy

Pros:

• It contains details on dinghy manufacturing.
• Suitable for boatbuilder enthusiasts.
• Ultra-lightweight in pocket size.

Cons:

• Not suitable for modern manufacturing.

5. Roger Barnes – Dinghy Cruising Companion

Pros:

• Equipped with helpful illustrated color photos.
• Complete guidance from choosing the boat to exploring the remote areas which larger boat can not reach.
• Easy to read and understand, even for beginners.
• Lightweight and handy.

Cons:

• Only covering Europe and mostly America’s continent.

6. Barry Pickthall – Dinghy Sailing

Pros:

• Equipped with illustration and photography.
• Complete guidance on dinghy sailing for both beginners and experienced sailors.
• Based on writers experienced from a long journey in the water.
• Lightweight and handy.
• Available in both paperback and kindle.

Cons:

• The description of each step can be more detailed, but the photograph and illustration can help.

B. Kindle

7. Rupert Holmes – The Dinghy Bible

Pros:

• Equipped with illustrated step-by-step diagrams and live-action photography.
• Suitable for any sailing enthusiast regardless of the capabilities you have.
• Complete guidance from choosing the proper dinghy to the dinghy maintenance.
• Very informative and insightful at the subject.

Cons:

• Only available in English.
• The file has a large size which takes some time for downloading unless you have a great download speed.

8. William H. Robinson – The International Marine Book of Sailing

Pros:

• Equipped with color photos and illustrations.
• Explaining about high-performance Olympic-class sailing dinghies to coastal and offshore cruising sailboats.
• The instructions, guidance, and tips delivered in a simple way so that anyone can understand it easily.
• Collaboration thought from many professional and top sailing writers.
• Suitable enough for self-teaching.

Cons:

• A large book that needs a big size and takes time for downloading.