The word on the grapevine is that the 2nd edition of Frank Bethwaite’s epic High Performance Sailing book is about to go to press.

This is both good and bad news - good news in that the sailing world will gain a further insight into the theories of one of the sport’s most respected authorities. The bad news is that once again we shall have to cope with feeling about as confused as Paris Hilton at a Particle Physics Summit.

 That’s what High Performance Sailing does to me - when reading it, I feel like what I am reading is profound and groundbreaking, yet I’m never quite able to grasp exactly what he’s actually saying - even after reading single paragraphs for about the gazillionth time. I think he’s just an a higher plane of intelligence than me.

High Performance Sailing is now 12 years old, but it is based on 25 years of Bethwaite’s research. I just pray and hope that the 2nd edition is an Idiot’s Guide to the first edition, but I have a nagging suspicion that there’s been a lot of progressin the last 12 years…

Either way, this is the Harry Potter “Deathly Hallows” equivalent for the sailing world. It’ll be sleeping bag and thermos flask waiting in line outside my local chandlery for this one

What do you expect Bethwaite to cover in his new book? Which of his concepts did you find most fascinating yet most inaccessible? We’d love to hear from you, you can post your comment at the end of this post.