Sails

Rigged!

by Sail Staff, Posted August 22, 2008

Castaway gets a new sparFor the last two years we’ve been involved in the full refit of Castaway, a 1978 Ericson 34T. We recapped the story of this BoatWorks Bailout project in the January issue, and now the boat is at last in the water. Any old-boat project runs into some kinks, and we hit a literal kink with Castaway when the mast was found to be so badly

Adding Mast Pulpits

by Peter Dubler, Posted August 21, 2008

Call me old-fashioned, call me daring, call me crazy, but I prefer not to have my cockpit full of lines that have been led aft. I enjoy going forward and working at the mast. It hasn’t always been that way. During my first crossing from Isla Mujeres, Mexico, to the Dry Tortugas off Florida many years ago as crew on an Irwin 38, each trip forward was a crawl on my hands and knees. Oh, how I

Coil with the Sun

by Tom Cunliffe, Posted August 21, 2008

In general, a line is happier and therefore behaves better if you coil it in a clockwise direction. Any three-strand line will try to kink up if you force it the other way. A multibraid line may be able to go in either direction, but the habit of right-handed coiling should be so ingrained that you couldn't do it counterclockwise if you wanted to. Old-time sailors called it "coiling against the

Boom Time

by Sail Staff, Posted August 21, 2008

"Yachts shall comply with the US SAILING recommendations of OSR 5.11, Preventer or Boom Restraining Device. The boom-restraining device shall be installed and demonstrated at the time of the yacht's mandatory courtesy inspection. A process and plan for its use shall be part of the crew's training and practice."This paragraph, from the Notice of Race; Special Requirements for the