The premise is that you already know these people. They are in your club and just substitute the appropriate names in your mind. 

The book goes through situations with Deep Dakron in the middle of the race asking questions. And Scratchen Sniff shouts "Be silent and steer!". Doesn't this sound familiar? Other conversations occur at the loft, yacht club bars. How about Deep Dakron giving Kent McBatten a call for advice during pre-start? Except that after getting the advice, Dakron gets warned that he just lost the race since one cannot get outside help once the starting sequence has begun.

This book deals with practical situations and the light hearted conversation occurring between the cast of characters gets the point across as if you were riding on their boat and listening in on the discussions.

I found many advanced racing tidbits in this book that I haven't seen discussed in detail in other advanced books so it was worth it. But don't expect a deep discussion of the "whys". To keep the writing light, the explanations from the rock star tactician, the sailmaker, or the club know-it-all are concise and assumes that the reader is currently a racer and is trying to move up a notch to the next level. 

This is not the first book I would suggest to a new racer since some of the concepts may pass from one side of your head and out the other but once you got the basics down, this is helpful to gaining that extra edge and is similar to the experience of having a live sailmaker sit with you and give you tips. Of course, it is not equivalent to a live instructor but it offers more than a standard textbook.

Linksey addresses 50 common racing situations in this book. The issues are the ones intermediate racers encounter and the book is up-to-date. But in this sense, since it addresses some specifically highlighted problems, it is not meant to be reference manual. The writing is unconventional but thoroughly entertaining.

According to the author, a lot of the techniques and ideas expressed in this book came from his experience sailing with Dave Ullman, which may explain the advanced discussions in this book.