Must have books for sailors

There are a couple must-have books for sailors…errr, actually, there are loads of great books out there for sailors. I’d be happy to tell you all the great books we have but the best ‘must-have’ books are the one’s that I’ve written. Check the following two books out as I’m positive they’ll be helpful, practical and easy-to-read and digest. I wrote them for myself so everything is totally based on experience.

VHF Radio Checklists and Templates for Sailors – Reducing mistakes & making it easier when speaking over the VHF radio

No one wants to contemplate living through a sailing disaster

When I hear about boats sinking, fires, limbs or fingers being removed, masts falling over or keels dropping off I quickly say to myself, ‘that won’t happen to us,’ and then close my ears to the rest of the story.

That being said, I did take a VHF Radio course in addition to a two First Aid for Boater’s classes. If it wasn’t for my young daughter I probably might have done less but the thought of having a medical issue on board and not knowing what to do scared me most.

No matter where you are, if you’re on a boat, an emergency response team will most likely take hours rather than minutes to get to you.

And that’s if you follow the correct procedure to get an emergency response!

Before setting sail full time I looked for a reference book containing all the standard VHF broadcasts to keep in our navigation table. I wanted something that made it easy for anyone on our boat (me included) to read out a MAYDAY, PAN-PAN, SECURITE or radio for Medical Advice.

I was also interested in finding some practical advice as to calling other boats, radioing marina’s and simple information regarding the VHF. After scouring the Internet I couldn’t find anything. Yes, you can get a book about the VHF if you do a course on the VHF but the book is full of non-essential (and somewhat boring) information. In the case of an emergency I don’t want to file through a course book telling me about history of maritime radio communications!

Amazon Reviews

I needed this to help me get the basics. James Steel

5 out of 5 stars Five Stars. Good. By Ahmed

Having the safety, distress, and urgency wording all in one place with easy to understand instructions makes this a must-have resource for all boaters. I highly recommend it! O. Fetisova

VHF Radio Checklists and Templates for Sailors is a simple reference guide that can be used by anyone to effectively make a VHF broadcast. Read more about this book, and view the table of contents VHF for Sailors or go straight to Amazon (USA or UK) and purchase it for yourself. If you’re not from America or the UK, just go to your local Amazon website and type the name of the book into Amazon’s search box.

Checklists for Sailors: Passage Planning, Sailboat Maintenance, Cleaning, Medical and More – Making it easier to enjoy sailing your sailboat

After my husband and I decided to sell everything we own, buy a sailboat and sail around the world we were overwhelmed by the enormous learning curve. Sailing our new sailboat was one part of the equation but what really baffled us, at the start, were the hundreds of maintenance tasks and cleaning routines.

Actually sailing the boat was the easy part – keeping the boat afloat was a totally different matter!

Almost two years after we started, we’ve learned an incredible amount about sailing, passage planning, anchoring, taking guests aboard, servicing and maintaining our systems (engine, generator, pumps, batteries, and on), cleaning schedules, provisioning, medical concerns and even how to entertain young children on board.

This book has therefore been created as a guide, or a blueprint, to help you mitigate your learning curve regarding a variety of standard tasks associated with sailing a sailboat.

Reviews on Amazon

Don’t leave shore without it! Excellent, comprehensive checklists for every aspect of sailboat ownership. Should be bought and maintained by all serious sailors. Also if you are like me and already have existing lists, this book will help you to rethink and update those lists. Thank you for a fine addition to the ship’s library! Daniel Culpepper

This is an amazing book and a must have for every owner of …
This is an amazing book and a must have for every owner of a boat, sail or power. The author has written the book from her experiences sailing on her own boat with her family and therefore the lists are comprehensive and easy to understand. Every aspect of the yacht is taken care of from weekly, monthly, yearly service schedules as well as check lists for a variety of activities such as leaving the boat, passage prep and welcoming guests. From this book i have managed to draw on the lists and make my own comprehensive schedules and check list for my own boat. It really does take the guess work out of preparing to set to sea seeing you have checked and prepared everything on the boat before you leave. Throughly recommend the book to every sailor and motor boater alike. Thank you for writing it. Regards Paul

Here’s the link to the book at Amazon USA and Amazon UK. If you’re not from America or the UK, just go to your local Amazon website and type the name of the book into Amazon’s search box.

Any questions about either of the books? Email me at Kim@SailingBritican.com