Want to help your young beginner opti sailor get started on the right foot? Get a copy of Kiwi Goes Sailing.

Rob Coutts’ years as a professional sailing coach in New Zealand inspired this book. Rob saw the need for a basic book of illustrations to show young sailors, in picture format, concepts of launching and retrieving boats, steering and associated body movements, capsize drills and boat rigging. The book compliments a sailing program by providing information for sailors to take home and share with their family.

SailZing reviewed this book after a contributor told us it was the best book he’d seen for young sailors and parents to learn about the Opti together. After getting a copy, we agree. The book manages to hit all the essentials for new sailors in 57 pages of single-topic illustrations. The illustrations are very clear and the few well-chosen words focus your attention on the important concept.

Parents, get this book and invest some time going through it with your new opti sailor.

Kiwi Goes Sailing was published in 2009, but is not that easy to find. We found a source at Dinghy Racing USA.