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Stress-Free Sailing: Single and Short-handed Techniques
This brand new edition of Stress-Free Sailing is the answer to single or short-handed crews' prayers – a step-by-step handbook addressing the most common sailing situations that anyone cruising will have to manage.Here you will find clever, highly effective and successfully tried and tested shorthanded solutions for dealing with everything from getting off and then back onto the dock in a variety of wind and tide configurations, sail setting and reefing, mooring and anchoring, to sailing in heavy weather and new techniques for man overboard, all clearly illustrated with straightforward diagrams and sequence photos. 24 QR codes dotted throughout the book link to online video demonstrations to bring the techniques to life.As single or short-handers you have to plan carefully, prepare properly and be able to anticipate. This new edition will be a godsend with its original techniques for coping in every situation. It will be fully revised throughout with new practical tips and advice on mooring, navigation, anchoring and safety at sea.
154 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 6, 2025
This is a useful manual for adventurers who want to sail around single-hounded or with only one crewmate. Duncan Wells is an experienced yacht master and instructor, who has written other stress-free books about motorboats and navigation.
To get the most out of this book, you need to have some familiarity with sailing – in my case, a couple of basic practical sailing courses and some more advanced online courses – or access to a sailing glossary, as the author uses a lot of technical terms that could be pretty mystifying if you don’t know your port from your starboard or your spinnaker from your genoa. If you can get to grips with the jargon, though, you can enjoy a wealth of practical tips, some humorous anecdotes, illuminating photos and a set of twenty-four videos that you can access on Vimeo using QR codes dotted throughout the books.
The author covers key sailing activities that can be very tricky if you are sailing alone or short-handed, such as mooring and anchoring, heaving to (i.e. getting your boat to stay still when out at sea), coping with stormy weather and rescuing a person overboard. He also covers practical skills like tying knots, predicting the weather and using fingers and pencils to navigate. These are all based on the author’s experience of what works, but he also draws on others’ expertise. For example, he admits that he is essentially a weekend sailor so for blue water (i.e. ocean) sailing he refers to other writers, for example, for sailing in stormy weather. He also provides some fascinating and important information about how to get a half-drowned, hyperthermic person back on your boat without accidentally giving them a heart attack.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn to sail or improve their sailing skills and I will be getting the author’s book on stress-free navigation next.
To get the most out of this book, you need to have some familiarity with sailing – in my case, a couple of basic practical sailing courses and some more advanced online courses – or access to a sailing glossary, as the author uses a lot of technical terms that could be pretty mystifying if you don’t know your port from your starboard or your spinnaker from your genoa. If you can get to grips with the jargon, though, you can enjoy a wealth of practical tips, some humorous anecdotes, illuminating photos and a set of twenty-four videos that you can access on Vimeo using QR codes dotted throughout the books.
The author covers key sailing activities that can be very tricky if you are sailing alone or short-handed, such as mooring and anchoring, heaving to (i.e. getting your boat to stay still when out at sea), coping with stormy weather and rescuing a person overboard. He also covers practical skills like tying knots, predicting the weather and using fingers and pencils to navigate. These are all based on the author’s experience of what works, but he also draws on others’ expertise. For example, he admits that he is essentially a weekend sailor so for blue water (i.e. ocean) sailing he refers to other writers, for example, for sailing in stormy weather. He also provides some fascinating and important information about how to get a half-drowned, hyperthermic person back on your boat without accidentally giving them a heart attack.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn to sail or improve their sailing skills and I will be getting the author’s book on stress-free navigation next.
March 4, 2023
I found many useful suggestions and clear discussions in this book. In cases where it diverged from practices espoused elsewhere, the argument can be made for Wells' methods and everyone knows you just have to decide for yourself what works best. I'm glad I bought the hardcopy to revisit many times while at anchor and mine for ideas.
The title is a bit overselling. It is primarily about double-handed techniques; there are relatively few single-handed topics (except for when briefly single-handing while recovering your COB double-handed partner).
Note that "Stress-free" doesn't apply to _reading_: this book is largely about the stressful situations of awkward docking and COB emergencies, and describes them in ways that inspired more anxiety than relieved it for me. The point is of course to learn tricks for these and practice to de-stress those situations.
The author is very British and comes across as slightly unhinged.
The title is a bit overselling. It is primarily about double-handed techniques; there are relatively few single-handed topics (except for when briefly single-handing while recovering your COB double-handed partner).
Note that "Stress-free" doesn't apply to _reading_: this book is largely about the stressful situations of awkward docking and COB emergencies, and describes them in ways that inspired more anxiety than relieved it for me. The point is of course to learn tricks for these and practice to de-stress those situations.
The author is very British and comes across as slightly unhinged.
October 14, 2024
stress free masterpiece
Great book and excellent companion videos. Easy to follow and learn. These techniques for getting underway and coming alongside have been the most useful in my pursuit to single hand my sailboat. Thanks Duncan Welles!
Great book and excellent companion videos. Easy to follow and learn. These techniques for getting underway and coming alongside have been the most useful in my pursuit to single hand my sailboat. Thanks Duncan Welles!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews