This is racing: Tactics and strategy in action

by Richard Creagh-Osborne

This is an updated guide teaching all the skills to ensure accomplished and enjoyable yacht racing. It contains comments on the latest racing rules and original race-winning tactics and discusses the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0914814079
• ISBN13: 9780914814078
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: distributed by Norton
• Length: 179 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great book for starter racer

I am new to racing and this book is a very good starting reference. It contains fundamentals of racing, rules, wind/tide. If I had this book I wouldnt have lost that dinghy race where I was inches away from the boat ahead but couldnt figure out how to pass him.

Great book for becoming the advanced racer

When I wrote my review of this book there was only one other, written by G.M. Kingsley III, which starts with the line: "This book isn't very popular, because it's old and because it's English.", which I found strange as not only was my first reading in a copy out of my local public library here on Long Island, NY. But it was also one of the few books the library had on the shelf dealing with the topic. I can only surmise, knowing what I do about our library's acquisition process is that someone had selected this book based on knowledge that it stood out in its field of study. This is one of the better books that I have read covering a broad spectrum of information on the sport of sailboat racing, but it is not written for someone who doesn't have a good foundation in general sailing knowledge. You really have to know your terminology to read this book as it starts off right away with the basic rules a captain must know in order to race. In the chapters such as "Wind, Weather, Waves and Currents" and " Tactics and the Wind" Creagh-Osborne goes beyond racing providing a level of knowledge that falls under the title of "Seamanship", which is incredibly detailed with information that everyone who skippers a boat of any sort, shape, or size should be "required" to know. If you're looking for a book to develop a foundation in sailing knowledge as well as starting in racing pick up Alan Brown's "Invitation To Sailing", or Stephen Falk's "The Foundations of Sailboat Racing". Brown's objective was clearly to provide a training manual for Junior Sailors, even including a section on how to develop instructors, and is written for someone new to the sport, covering the basics of both sailing and seamanship all the way to starting in racing to intermediate helmsmanship. Brown's book doesn't cover the material at the level of Richard Creagh-Osborne's "This Is Racing". In comparison Falk's book reads more like Creagh-Osborne's, without the level of detail. Osborne's book is a masterpiece all in and of its own but he is writing for a more advanced sailor then Brown or Falk. Brown's diagrams are much easier to understand on a first reading. He covers the topics at hand selectively, and although Falk's are just as selective in their coverage of the topics quite a few of them are unfortunately faulted (in some the sail doesn't appear on the right tack to match the content and in others the text is so small and is unreadable). Whereas Creagh-Osborne's diagrams are extensive, jam packed with details and information covering many more possibilities. Creagh-Osborne also uses a broad spectrum of media from diagrams and photos to photos of models with NFL Football looking play-by-play arrows. Reading these books in conjunction with each other will provide an excellent foundation in both the aspects of seamanship that are missed in most other books and racing from beginning to intermediate and advanced levels. If you are only going to buy two, go with Creagh-Osbo

An excellent introduction to a great sport

This book isn't very popular, because it's old and because it's English. But, it's clearly written, profusely and clearly illustrated, and it covers the important points (tactics, wind shifts, etc) in a very organized and concise fashion. The book's main focus is one-design monohull dinghy racing -- the essence of the sport, in my opinion. And it doesn't have a lot of material on the racing rules, which is good because they change every three years anyway. If you buy any book on this topic, you should also pick up a book on the current (2005 to '08, as of this writing) IYRU rules.