SAIL.SailMagazine

This wasn’t the first VHF call I had taken from someone seeking advice for an onboard problem, and the caller was clearly distraught. He had accidentally filled his diesel tank with fresh water. To make matters worse, when he tried to start the engine, fresh water had been sucked through the fuel system. Always interested in a challenge, I went over to his boat. Together we fixed the problem

As you get older, you usually discover it’s a little harder to climb on and off a boat. At least, that’s what’s happened to me. Attempting to improve my lot, I tried out several commercially available boarding steps. Some had good features, but I wasn’t really happy with any of them. Then one day Vince and Dianne Purcell stopped by aboard Finn MacCool, their classic Bill Tripp–designed

Installing a new pedestal from Edson gave us space for a number of instruments, with the C80 display taking center stage. The C80 acts as a chartplotter, radar display, and, with optional modules, can be

The original steering pedestal on Castaway, a 1979 Ericson 34T, was serviceable, but it was old and in need of some TLC. We could have reused it, which would have involved refinishing it and replacing the control cables—but it would still have lacked a

BoatWorks Bailout was conceived as a project that would generate a series of stories for BoatWorks. We would take a reader’s tired old boat and bring it up to modern standards using equipment donated by manufacturers—a “pimp your ride” for the marine industry. The fortunate owners would get a