Since this book was written over 30 years ago by the great British sailor K. Adlard Coles, it has become the standard work on seamanship under gale conditions. More than 100,000 English-language copies have been printed, and there are editions in French, German, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, and Spanish.

The thirtieth-anniversary edition of this classic includes sections on parachute sea anchors and drogues, crew fitness, and management advice, and new material on meteorology and on seasick remedies. Ample advice from great sailors such as Oiln Stephens, Robin Knox-Johnston, and Val Haigh is augmented by new material by Dag Pike and Mike Golding. Also new in this edition is a section on multihulls in heavy weather.

Part 1 provides expert advice for crews of any vessel that ventures out of sight of land, whether for racing or cruising. It gives a clear message of seamanlike design features, preparations, and tactics that should be considered against the time when it comes on to blow. Part 2 offers hair-raising accounts of sail and power yachts overtaken by heavy weather. New in this edition are accounts of the 1998 Sydney - Hobart disaster, the 1994 "Queen's Birthday" storm off New Zealand, as well as other storm stories from the world's oceans. No one who goes to sea in his or her own craft can afford to ignore the advice in Adlard Coles' Heavy Weather Sailing. Dramatic black-and-white photos of storm seas combine with 60 new color shots throughout the book.