You’ve compiled a list of racing questions but don’t have the nerve to approach and ply your local rock star. Don’t worry, Tom Hubbell sat down with one-design guru and North sailmaker Greg Fisher and broached the conversation for you in Sailboat Racing with Greg Fisher.

Hubbell and Fisher used the Coach-TCA course, a Thistle Class Association intermediate-level racing clinic, as the basis for a 150-page running dialogue that discusses everything from small one-design boathandling and sail trim to compass work and crew dynamics. Hubbell asked the questions, and Fisher provided the answers. "We wanted a course that would focus on the most important skills in racing, a sort of Boat Racing for Ordinary Mortals," says Hubbell in the book’s introduction. "Greg provided the expertise and credibility. I provided my perspective as an ordinary mortal."

With 56 instructional photographs and easy-to-read bullet-point lists, Sailboat Racing with Greg Fisher gives its readers the opportunity to be a fly on the wall during a tell-all chat with one of the masters. See Sailing World’s June 2000 Boatspeed column for a glimpse of Hubbell and Fisher’s conversation. Hathaway-Jones Publishing ($25), www.gofastsailing.com.