Modern braided ropes have transformed sailing with incredible strength from ever smaller thickness. They are a godsend to the racing sailor who is always looking for strength without additional weight.

The nature of these ropes requires different techniques to join them together or make eyes to attach to fittings and this is where this book comes in. It provides a guide to the different types of braided ropes – where to use them and how to splice them for typical uses on a racing sailboat.

It provides clear easy-to-follow photographs and is splash-proof and spiral bound, which means that it is perfect to take into the dinghy park or onboard and use where you need to do your splicing. It lays out flat, so you don’t have to hold it open as you follow the sequences with ropes in your hand!

The Laser was launched just over 50 years ago and has now been renamed the ILCA dinghy and moved to multiple licensed builders. To reflect this change, the leading book on Laser Sailing since 1979, The Laser Book, has now been renamed The ILCA Book. In this latest update, it has also moved from a single author, with ILCA guru, Jon Emmett, joining the original author, Tim Davison.

Since the development of the International Moth into a fully foiling dinghy there has been an explosion in the popularity of the class with some of the world’s top sailors competing in it and many others enjoying the exhilaration of ‘flying’. However there is no doubt that it is a challenge to learn to fly a Moth and other designs are being introduced which are easier to sail and provide foiling opportunities for less dedicated, larger and less agile sailors.

The wind powers everything a sailor does and this book will help you to understand it. As a result you will be more prepared for your race, able to anticipate changes in the wind better and know what to do when they come. The first edition of this book was published in 1986, and it has been the go-to wind book for dinghy champions ever since. This new-look fourth edition is fully updated for modern forecasting and analyses a revised set of popular racing venues around the world: unveiling what to expect from the weather at over 25 regatta locations, it will get you ahead of the competition and powering up the leaderboard.

Tactics are vital to winning sailboat races. Multi-champion, Nick Craig, shows you how to develop a strategy and what tactics to adopt on every leg and at every mark of the course.

His first book, Helming to Win, was described as “original, thought provoking… like no other that has gone before it”. He now turns his highly analytical mind to the subject of tactics. He discusses the inputs into strategy, starting and the race plan (going through each leg in turn). Nick then tackles mark tactics, covering every different type of mark, and fleet tactics on every leg of the course. He finally focusses on boat-to-boat tactics, again on every leg of the course. In each situation he covers attacking and defensive tactics, either to get ahead or make sure you stay ahead.