With an Olympic silver medal in his trophy case and a Beijing 2008 campaign underway, Joe Glanfield is one busy sailor. Yet between races, training, coaching and family responsibilities, Joe has managed to find the time to produce the first of a new series of books, Crew to Win.

Sequential instruction, accompanying photographs and illustrations will guide participants through every stage from getting started, creating a winning team, fitness, goal setting, tactics, strategy, trapezing and event preparation. This book covers all the technical essentials needed to succeed in crewed dinghies.

The extent and quality of instructional detail mean that this book will appeal to a wide audience, from those new to sail racing to veteran coaches.

We caught up with Joe to get the inside information on his new book.

What is your book about?

Crew to Win takes an in depth look at the role the crew plays while sailing any kind of dinghy and covers hiking and trapezing boats with both asymmetric and symmetric spinnakers. Most of the book looks at different aspects of racing, for example goal setting, tactics and event preparation, but we have included several chapters that focus on developing specific techniques such as sailing the boat fast and boat handling skills.

Do you have to be an experienced sailor to understand the book?

The book is of use to anyone who races a dinghy. The boat handling sections will help sailors new to crewing, while other chapters are quite detailed and technical and will be of interest to crews that are already finishing at the front of the fleet.

I deliberately wrote the book in a way that would be easy to apply when out on the water.

When I was younger I read so many books that made the sport sound like rocket science, when at the end of the day, even at Olympic level, racing is really not that complicated.

I hope that people who read Crew to Win will learn specific skills and also pick up how I go about my training and my mentality towards the sport as this is as important as having the skills.

The book contains a lot of information and tips. Where or who did you learn from?

I have learnt things from so many different people, especially from people I have sailed with. Every sailor has slightly different ideas, styles, strengths and weaknesses and when you sail with someone for a bit you really get a feel for the things they are good at and the things you could do better as a team.

Nick Rogers is a fantastic helm and often makes me look like a tactical genius by steering the boat faster then everyone else! He goes about things in a different way to me and I have learnt a lot from him.

Two coaches that have influenced me a lot are Jim Saltonstall who coached me as a youth sailor and Hamish Wilcox who coaches me and Nick now. Jim was and remains a fantastic motivator and always made sure I was getting the basic sailing principles right before worrying about more complicated techniques. Hamish has also been a brilliant coach and is superb at the technique and racing skills. Hamish quickly brought Nick and me on to the next level when we started sailing in a 470.

Why did you decide to write a book?

Writing a book was not something I planned to do, but when the opportunity came knocking I thought it would be a good challenge and would do me good to try and put some of the things I do onto paper.

What was the most enjoyable part of writing the book?

The most amusing part of writing the book was probably doing the photos. We went to Portland in July with a 470 and 49er. It was absolutely howling but we thought we would give it a try. Nick and I went out in the 470 but because it was so windy we struggled to do any of the sequences and eventually zoomed off downwind and capsized.

I then went out with Stevie Morrison in a 49er. We were pretty out of control and a bit shaky as I had never sailed a 49er in that much wind. Full credit to Stevie though as we didn t capsize and I don't think the boat staying upright had much to do with me!

The most challenging part of writing Crew to Win was deciding what should and shouldn't go in the book. There are so many different classes and so much information but we ve picked out the techniques that will be useful to all dinghy sailors.

Will you be writing another book in the future?

For now I will be putting my head down and concentrating on sailing, but I certainly would not write off the idea of putting together another book in the future. I felt that some of the chapters in Crew to Win could have been made into a book themselves so there is definitely room for another book!

Crew to Win is available from the RYA Shop for 13.99. To order your copy please contact 0845 345 0372 or visit www.rya.org.uk/shop