“What are the best books about Sailing (Fiction & Nonfiction)?” We looked at 123 of the top Sailing books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 31 titles, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Sailing” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 75+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 31 Best Sailing Books

31 .) 500 Days Around the World on a 12-Foot Yacht written by Serge Testa

Lists It Appears On:

• American Sailing Association
• Sail Universe

Alone aboard “Acrohc”, the tiny yacht he designed and built, Serge Testa sailed around the world and into the Guinness Book of Records. Exotic landfalls, cyclones, encounters with whales and a nearly fatal fire at sea make this a gripping story. Told with understatement and humor, this account of a unique voyage of discovery and endurance appeals to the adventurer in all of us.

30 .) Close to the Wind written by Pete Goss

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• Goodreads

On November 3, 1996, former Royal Marine Pete Goss embarked on the most grueling competition in his sailing career: the Vendée Globe, a nonstop, single-handed round-the-world yacht race. For the next seven weeks he met every challenge in his stormy path, from combating waves the height of six-story buildings to grappling with his spinnaker in high winds. Then everything began going wrong: His sails were destroyed, his navigation equipment proved useless. And on Christmas Day his radio picked up a Mayday that a French competitor was sinking 160 miles away. Turning into the hurricane-force winds, Goss set out to rescue a near-dead man on a life raft somewhere in the vast wilderness of the merciless southern ocean. How he did it makes this extraordinary tale as amazing as it is thrilling.

29 .) Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage written by Alfred Lansing

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Halcyon Yachts

This is a new reading of the thrilling account of one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded. In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world. Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean on the globe and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains. The book recounts a harrowing adventure, but ultimately it is the nobility of these men and their indefatigable will that shines through.

28 .) Left for Dead: 30 Years On – The Race is Finally Over: The Untold Story of the Tragic 1979 Fastnet Race written by Nick Ward

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• Halcyon Yachts

The second edition of the Sunday Times Sports Book of the Year is updated with a new chapter describing Nick’s eventual completion of the Fastnet Race thirty years after his first, ill-fated attempt. The world-famous Fastnet Race takes yachts from the Isle of Wight to the Fastnet Rock off the southwest coast of Ireland and back. The 1979 race began in perfect conditions, but was soon engulfed by the deadliest storm in the history of modern sailing. By the time it passed, the havoc caused was immeasurable, and fifteen sailors had lost their lives. It had been Nick Ward’s childhood ambition to sail in the Fastnet Race, and being asked to join the crew of the 30-foot yacht Grimalkin was a dream come true. But then the storm hit. Grimalkin was capsized again and again. With the skipper lost overboard, after hours of struggle three of the crew decided to abandon the boat for the liferaft. Nick and another crewmember, both unconscious, were left on the beleaguered yacht in the middle of the Irish Sea. Both were presumed dead. Gerry died a few hours later, and Nick was left to face the storm alone.

27 .) Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time written by Dava Sobel

Lists It Appears On:

• Boat International
• Goodreads

Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that “the longitude problem” was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land.

26 .) Master and Commander written by Patrick O’Brian

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads

1800s. Britain’s Nelson leads Navy against Napoleon’s France. Captain Jack Aubrey, newly promoted to old, slow HMS Sophie, is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. Aided by friend and skilled ship surgeon Stephen Maturin, Aubrey and crew win clashes, finally hopelessly outmatched by a mighty Spanish frigate.

25 .) Moby Dick written by Herman Melville

Lists It Appears On:

• Boat International
• Goodreads

“It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships’ cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it.” So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author’s lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

24 .) Red Sky in Mourning written by Tami Ashcraft

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• How Not To Sail A Boat

New available in paperback, a true-life adventure story with everything: page-turning suspense, remarkable acts of courage, wrenching despair, and a triumphant, life-affirming ending. Red Sky in Mourning is the story of Tami Oldham Ashcraft’s 41-day journey to safety, which she survived through fortitude and sheer strength of character. Interspersed with flashbacks to her romance with her doomed fiancé Richard, this survival story offers an inspiring reminder that even in our darkest moments we are never truly alone.

23 .) The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing written by David Seidman

Lists It Appears On:

• Cruising World
• Goodreads

Covers navigation, boat design, and seamanship. This work conveys the magic as well as the techniques of sailing. Among other topics covered are: anchoring, rope work, rigging, weather, rules of the road, trailering, and working the winds.

22 .) The Perfect Storm written by Sebastian Junger

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Water Borne Mag

“Takes readers into the maelstrom and shows nature’s splendid and dangerous havoc at its utmost”. October 1991. It was “the perfect storm”–a tempest that may happen only once in a century–a nor’easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards its hellish center.

21 .) The Riddle of the Sands written by Erskine Childers

Lists It Appears On:

• Boat International
• Goodreads

While on a sailing trip in the Baltic Sea, two young adventurers-turned-spies uncover a secret German plot to invade England. Written by Childers—who served in the Royal Navy during World War I—as a wake-up call to the British government to attend to its North Sea defenses, The Riddle of the Sands accomplished that task and has been considered a classic of espionage literature ever since, praised as much for its nautical action as for its suspenseful spycraft.

20 .) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea written by Jules Verne

Lists It Appears On:

• Boat International
• Pages To Passport

French naturalist Dr. Aronnax embarks on an expedition to hunt down a sea monster, only to discover instead the Nautilus, a remarkable submarine built by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Together Nemo and Aronnax explore the underwater marvels, undergo a transcendent experience amongst the ruins of Atlantis, and plant a black flag at the South Pole. But Nemo’s mission is one of revenge-and his methods coldly efficient.

19 .) Two Years Before the Mast: A Sailor’s Life at Sea written by Richard Henry Dana Jr.

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads

Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr. written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. While at Harvard College, Dana had an attack of the measles, which affected his vision. Thinking it might help his sight, Dana, rather than going on a Grand Tour as most of his fellow classmates traditionally did (and unable to afford it anyway) and being something of a non-conformist, left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn on the brig Pilgrim. He returned to Massachusetts two years later aboard the Alert (which left California sooner than the Pilgrim). He kept a diary throughout the voyage, and after returning he wrote a recognized American classic, Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, the same year of his admission to the bar.

18 .) Wanderer written by Sterling Hayden

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• JM Peltier

Since its publication in 1963, Sterling Hayden’s autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer–bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography. It is the candid, sometimes painfully revealing confession of a man who scrutinized his every self-defeat and self-betrayal in the unblinking light of conscience.

17 .) Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea written by Steven Callahan

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Water Borne Mag

Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan’s dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days out. Adrift is a must-have for any adventure library.

16 .) Fastnet, Force 10: The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing written by John Rousmaniere

Lists It Appears On:

• American Sailing Association
• Goodreads
• Sail Universe

It began in fine weather, then suddenly became a terrifying ordeal. A Force 10, sixty-knot storm swept across the North Atlantic with a speed that confounded forecasters, slamming into the fleet with epic fury. For twenty hours, 2,500 men and women were smashed by forty-foot breaking waves, while rescue helicopters and lifeboats struggled to save them. By the time the race was over, fifteen people had died, twenty-four crews had abandoned ship, five yachts had sunk, 136 sailors had been rescued, and only 85 boats had finished the race. John Rousmaniere was there, and he tells the tragic story of the greatest disaster in the history of yachting as only one who has sailed through the teeth of a killer storm can. With a new introduction by the author.

15 .) Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft written by Thor Heyerdahl

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Water Borne Mag

Five men in search of a mythical hero journey from Peru to Polynesia in this classic account of nautical adventure. This enriched classic edition includes: Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work A unique visual essay of the voyage

14 .) Once is Enough written by Miles Smeeton

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• Atlas And Boots
• Halcyon Yachts

The Sailor’s Classics library introduces a new generation of readers to the best books ever written about small boats under sail When the 46-foot “Tzu Hang “sailed from Australia into the vast Southern Ocean in December 1956, her crew of three couldn’t know what terror awaited them.

13 .) Swallows and Amazons written by Arthur Ransome

Lists It Appears On:

• Boat International
• Goodreads
• Pages To Passport

The first title in Arthur Ransome’s classic series, originally published in 1930: for children, for grownups, for anyone captivated by the world of adventure and imagination. Swallows and Amazons introduces the lovable Walker family, the camp on Wild Cat island, the able-bodied catboat Swallow, and the two intrepid Amazons, Nancy and Peggy Blackett.

12 .) The Annapolis Book of Seamanship written by John Rousmaniere

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• Cruising World
• Goodreads

Since the publication of the widely hailed first edition in 1983, The Annapolis Book of Seamanship has set the standard by which other books on sailing are measured. Used throughout America as a textbook in sailing schools and Power Squadrons, The Annapolis Book of Seamanship thoroughly and clearly covers the fundamental and advanced skills of modern sailing. This edition of Annapolis is a major overhaul. Over half the book has been revised; old topics and features have been updated, and many new ones have been introduced. The design has been modernized, and many color illustrations have been added. As big and detailed as Annapolis is, the wealth of technical information (including dozens of step-by-step instructions) is presented here in a way that is uniquely readable; it’s both useful and easy to use. This is because John Rousmaniere and artist Mark Smith bring to Annapolis decades of experience both as sailors and as professional communicators. Annapolis emphasizes the standard skills and proven methods that eliminate error and confusion, ensure security in emergencies, and allow every sailor more time for enjoyment on the water. Much has changed on the water since 1983 when this book was originally published. Black buoys are now green, the Global Positioning Satellite navigation system (GPS) is almost universally used, new types of anchors and sails have appeared, safety skills and gear are vastly improved, many more women are commanding boats, and catamarans and trimarans are common where only monohulls used to sail.

11 .) The Old Man and the Sea written by Ernest Hemingway

Lists It Appears On:

• Boat International
• Goodreads
• How Not To Sail A Boat

Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

10 .) A Voyage for Madmen written by Peter Nichols

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• How Not To Sail A Boat

In 1968, nine sailors set off on the most daring race ever held: to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It was a feat that had never been accomplished and one that would forever change the face of sailing. Ten months later, only one of the nine men would cross the finish line and earn fame, wealth, and glory. For the others, the reward was madness, failure, and death. In this extraordinary book, Peter Nichols chronicles a contest of the individual against the sea, waged at a time before cell phones, satellite dishes, and electronic positioning systems. A Voyage for Madmen is a tale of sailors driven by their own dreams and demons, of horrific storms in the Southern Ocean, and of those riveting moments when a split-second decision means the difference between life and death.

9 .) Godforsaken Sea written by Derek Lundy

Lists It Appears On:

• American Sailing Association
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Sail Universe

“The best book ever written about the terrifying business of single-handed sailing–. Lundy tells a harrowing tale, as tight and gripping as The Perfect Storm or Into Thin Air.”–San Francisco Chronicle A chilling account of the world’s most dangerous sailing race, the Vendée Globe, Godforsaken Sea is at once a hair-raising adventure story, a graceful evocation of the sailing life, and a thoughtful meditation on danger and those who seek it. This is the story of the 1996-1997 Vendée Globe, a solo sailing race that binds its competitors to just a few, cruelly simple rules: around the world from France by way of Antarctica, no help, no stopping, one boat, one sailor. The majority of the race takes place in the Southern Ocean, where icebergs and gale-force winds are a constant threat, and the waves build to almost unimaginable heights. As author Derek Lundy puts it: “try to visualize a never-ending series of five- or six-story buildings moving toward you at about forty miles an hour.” The experiences of the racers reveal the spirit of the men and women who push themselves to the limits of human endeavor–even if it means never returning home. You’ll meet the gallant Brit who beats miles back through the worst seas to save a fellow racer, the sailing veteran who calmly smokes cigarette after cigarette as his boat capsizes, and the Canadian who, hours before he disappears forever, dispatches this message: “If you drag things out too long here, you’re sure to come to grief.” Derek Lundy elevates the story of one race into an appreciation of those thrill-seekers who embody the most heroic and eccentric aspects of the human condition.

8 .) Love with a Chance of Drowning written by Torre DeRoche

Lists It Appears On:

• Atlas And Boots
• How Not To Sail A Boat
• Pages To Passport
• Sailing Europe

Love can make a person do crazy things. . . A city girl with a morbid fear of deep water, Torre DeRoche is not someone you would ordinarily find adrift in the middle of the stormy Pacific aboard a leaky sailboat – total crew of two – struggling to keep an old boat, a new relationship and her floundering sanity afloat. But when she meets Ivan, a handsome Argentinean man with a humble sailboat and a dream to set off exploring the world, Torre has to face a hard decision: watch the man she’s in love with sail away forever, or head off on the watery journey with him. Suddenly the choice seems simple. She gives up her sophisticated city life, faces her fear of water (and tendency towards seasickness) and joins her lover on a year-long voyage across the Pacific. Set against a backdrop of the world’s most beautiful and remote destinations, Love with a Chance of Drowning is a sometimes hilarious, often moving and always breathtakingly brave memoir that proves there are some risks worth taking.

7 .) The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst written by Nicholas Tomalin

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• Halcyon Yachts
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads

The Sailor’s Classics library introduces a new generation of readers to the best books ever written about small boats under sail In the autumn of 1968, Donald Crowhurst set sail from England to participate in the first single-handed nonstop around-the-world sailboat race. Eight months later, his boat was found in the mid-Atlantic, intact but with no one on board. In this gripping reconstruction, journalists Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall tell the story of Crowhurst’s ill-fated voyage.

6 .) Gipsy Moth Circles the World written by Francis Chichester

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• American Sailing Association
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Sail Universe

When 65-year-old Francis Chichester set sail on his solitary,eastward journey around the world in 1966,many believed he wouldn’t return alive. But when the old man returned in his 53-foot ketch Gypsy Moth IV nine months later,he had made history’s fastest circumnavigation. Gipsy Moth Circles the World was an international best-seller when it appeared in 1967. It inspired the first solo around-the-world race and remains a timeless testament to the spirit of adventure. The Sailor’s Classics presents the best writing about the sea as observed from the perspective of a small boat under sail. The stories range from pensive cruises in sheltered waters to tales of endurance and high adventure and each one features an introduction from Jonathan Raban,whom The Guardian has called “the finest writer afloat since Conrad. “The delight in stories well told is as intrinsic to who we are as a species as toolmaking or song. And from time immemorial,few narrative genres have had the power to so stir the emotions or captivate the imagination as the true account of a lone adventurer’s triumph over the titanic forces of nature. Among the handful of such tales to emerge in the twentieth century,one of the most enduring surely must be Sir Francis Chichester’s account of his solitary,nine-month journey around the world in his 53-foot ketch Gipsy Moth IV. The story of how the sixty-five-year-old navigator single-handedly circumnavigated the globe,the whole way battling hostile seas as well as his boat’s numerous design flaws,is a tale of superhuman tenacity and endurance to be read and reread by sailors and armchair adventurers alike. This handsome first volume in The Sailor’sClassics series restores in its entirety for a new generation of readers Francis Chichester’s extraordinarily candid personal account of his adventure. First published in 1967,just months after the completion of Chichester’s historic journey,Gipsy Moth Circles the World was an instant international best-seller. It inspired the first solo around-the-world race and remains a timeless testament to the spirit of adventure. The Sailor’s Classics edition features a new introduction by series editor Jonathan Raban.

5 .) Maiden Voyage written by Tania Aebi

Lists It Appears On:

• American Sailing Association
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• How Not To Sail A Boat
• Sail Universe

Tania Aebe was an eighteen-year-old dropout and barfly. She was going nowhere until her father offered her a challenge. He would offer her either a college education or a twenty-six-foot sloop in which she had to sail around the world alone. She chose the boat and for two years it was her home, as she negotiated weather, illness, fear, and ultimately, a spiritual quest that brought her home to herself….

4 .) The Proving Ground written by G. Bruce Knecht

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• American Sailing Association
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Sail Universe

On December 26, 1998, 115 sailboats set out on the annual race from Sydney to Hobart; only 43 would make it to the Tasmanian city, the race having turned into the worst modern sailing disaster since the 1979 Fastnet Race. Combining the best elements of The Perfect Storm (W.W. Norton, 1997) and Barbarians at the Gate (HarperCollins, 1990), “The Proving Ground” is a gripping narrative that follows the fates of three yachts, including Sayonara, owned by Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle.

3 .) A World of My Own written by Robin Knox-Johnston

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Halcyon Yachts
• Pages To Passport
• Water Borne Mag

On Friday 14 June 1968 Suhaili, a tiny ketch, slipped almost unnoticed out of Falmouth harbour steered by the solitary figure at her helm, Robin Knox-Johnston. Ten and a half months later Suhaili, paintwork peeling and rust streaked, her once white sails weathered and brown, her self-steering gone, her tiller arm jury rigged to the rudder head, came romping joyously back to Falmouth to a fantastic reception for Robin, who had become the first man to sail round the world non-stop single-handed. By every standard it was an incredible adventure, perhaps the last great uncomputerised journey left to man. Every hazard, every temptation to abandon the astounding voyage came Robin’s way, from polluted water tanks, smashed cabin top and collapsed boom to lost self-steering gear and sheered off tiller, and all before the tiny ketch had fought her way to Cape Horn, the point of no return, the fearsome test of any seaman’s nerve and determination. A World of My Own is Robin’s gripping, uninhibited, moving account of one of the greatest sea adventures of our time. An instant bestseller, it is now reissued for a new generation of readers to be enthralled and inspired.

2 .) Sailing Alone Around the World written by Joshua Slocum

Lists It Appears On:

• Aleria’s Adventures
• American Sailing Association
• Goodreads
• Halcyon Yachts
• Sail Universe
• Sailing Europe
• The Week
• Water Borne Mag

The classic travel narrative of a Don Quixote-of-the-seas – the first man to circumnavigate the world singlehandedly. Joshua Slocum’s autobiographical account of his solo trip around the world is one of the most remarkable – and entertaining – travel narratives of all time. Setting off alone from Boston aboard the thirty-six-foot wooden sloop Spray in April 1895, Captain Slocum went on to join the ranks of the world’s great circumnavigators – Magellan, Drake, and Cook. But by circling the globe without crew or consorts, Slocum would outdo them all: his three-year solo voyage of more than 46,000 miles remains unmatched in maritime history for its courage, skill, and determination. Sailing Alone around the World recounts Slocum’s wonderful adventures: hair-raising encounters with pirates off Gibraltar and savage Indians in Tierra del Fuego; raging tempests and treacherous coral reefs; flying fish for breakfast in the Pacific; and a hilarious visit with fellow explorer Henry Stanley in South Africa. A century later, Slocum’s incomparable book endures as one of the greatest narratives of adventure ever written.

1 .) The Long Way written by Bernard Moitessier

Lists It Appears On:

• American Sailing Association
• Atlas And Boots
• Goodreads
• Halcyon Yachts
• How Not To Sail A Boat
• Pages To Passport
• Sail Universe
• Water Borne Mag

The Long Way is Bernard Moitessier’s own incredible story of his participation in the first Golden Globe Race, a solo, non-stop circumnavigation rounding the three great Capes of Good Hope, Leeuwin, and the Horn. For seven months, the veteran seafarer battled storms, doldrums, gear-failures, knock-downs, as well as overwhelming fatigue and loneliness. Then, nearing the finish, Moitessier pulled out of the race and sailed on for another three months before ending his 37,455-mile journey in Tahiti. Not once had he touched land.

The 75+ Additional Best Nonfiction and Fiction Sailing Books

17 Best Sailing Novels And Books Sources/Lists