If you can ask a question about trailersailers, this book can answer it. If you use the information provided in this simple volume you’ll be successful in acquiring, outfitting, and caring for your trailersailer.
To say this book is complete is an understatement. It is a guide, in a very generic way, to selecting, buying, outfitting, trailing, and maintaining a trailersailer. But it’s not a follow-the-dots route or a cruising guide. Rather, this book offers plain advice on everything a sailor needs to know about the boat itself. It covers owning a trailerable boat, related equipment, and the trailer but does not get into the sailing of the boat.
Author Gregg Nestor goes into detail on most subjects. His deep interest in chemical engineering is apparent, as the most extensive chapters of the book concern sealants, cleaners, and their uses. He is to be commended for including it as this invaluable information is hard to find and is applicable to any modern boat.
There are the usual chapters on outfitting, anchors, and so on, but this is all well-plowed ground. In this instance, there truly is nothing new under the sun and Gregg affirms this. While all of the knowledge is useful for the person new to trailersailing, there are texts on the market offering the same information.
The Trailer Sailer is rather uniquely organized. The chapter on engines is followed by one on the battery, electrical interference, sail management, the galley, sealants, and then back to engine lubricants and coolants. This presentation is somewhat disjointed and distracting to the reader. I would prefer to see all the engine information in one chapter or at least each subject followed by a related subject.
In summary, the book presents a lot of basic information valuable to trailersailors and fulfills its stated purpose of being an owners’ manual for trailersailing, but it does not tell the reader how much fun and adventure he can have with a trailersailer.
What I really missed are Gregg’s sea stories about his own experiences; they would have greatly enhanced the text. Maybe we’ll get them in his next book. But if you need no convincing because you already have dreams of sailing a small boat off into the sunset, The Trailer Sailer will be a very useful reference.
The Trailer Sailer by Gregg Nestor, (Paradise Cay Publications, 2008; 330 pages)
