(updated 14 August 2020) Uncle Al's answer to The Wayfarer Book. Printing in full colour and at the same high quality as the Wayfarer Book but with far more photos. 100 copies of the 2nd edition (RRS page updated for 2017-2020) just arrived at my home, and they look pretty darn nice.  After hearing painful overseas shipping quotes, I have created a 3rd edition that should be available in the U.K. before the end of August 2020. A4 size pages and all references to "vang" replaced by "kicker" and assorted verbs I have created as parallels to things like "vanged" ...

KISS Your Dinghy

“It doesn’t have to be so complicated!” That is the main theme of my book: How to race and cruise safely and efficiently with minimum wasted effort and money. I like to think that I have distilled 60+ years of very successful sailing experience - mostly racing but a fair bit of cruising each year, also - into this book. I have been Wayfarer Class Coach for North America since 1979. Teaching is indeed a great love for me. In real life, I taught French, German and Latin and was able to get students to tolerate grammar lessons by liberal applications of the KISS principle and humour. I have worked to apply that same principle to my sailing coaching which I do “live” at our regattas, rallies and seminars, by e-mail as well as on line via my two Wayfarer web sites: wayfarer-canada.org and wayfarer-international.org. In the latter web site, I have put together an encyclopedic collection of dinghy sailing information in the WIT (Wayfarer Institute of Technology). The book is largely a well illustrated and polished collection of the best of the WIT with the following set-up:
 
Keep It Simple, Sailor!
KISS Your Dinghy!
Contents
1. boat set-up, gear
2. tuning basics
3. safe, efficient sailing
4. making lighter work of heavier air
5. race tuning
6. boat handling and techniques
7. strategy & words to live by
8. the Racing Rules of Sailing
 
It is hard for me to nail KISS down into one category, and I am hoping it will be seen as unique rather than as a misfit. KISS is a collection of frequently unique things that I have learned, usually the hard way, during more than 60 enthusiastic years of sailing. Those years include a boringly lengthy list of Wayfarer championships won. My acquired wisdom includes a number of techniques that as far as I am aware (I have shelves full of books on sailing) no one else has publicized or promoted. I feel very strongly that they should be published and that actually was the first reason I wanted to write a book.
 
In addition to saving money and effort, I address the matter of priorities. How vividly I recall the light going on for me as Eric Twiname in Start to Win pointed out that boat speed and strategy do not always occupy the same positions in the racing hierarchy of needs, which changes depending on where you are sailing: On open water, priority 1 is speed; on small lakes, strategy takes top spot. Priorities in all areas of sailing are another thing that I address – from vast experience. It makes the sailing life simpler and less expensive to have the many things that need doing prioritized. Few of us can afford them all and in action, all of us often must pick and choose what is the most effort-effective.
 
While largely aimed at people who race non-high-performance dinghies, I believe that what I have to say is useful to sailors across the entire spectrum, high performance to stodgy keelboats. Last but in my opinion not least, I have illustrated everything with lots of photos. The book was first intended to be a companion to The Wayfarer Book published by the UK Wayfarer Association, but sailing friends encouraged me to broaden my focus to dinghy sailors in general, since the same principles apply to all dinghies.
 
Target readership: All sailors except perhaps the total novice.