SAIL.SailMagazine

Wax your bottom (April 2006)

We sail in the Pacific Northwest and use our inflatable dinghy year round. We had a real problem with marine growth on the dinghy’s bottom until we tried waxing it. We’ve found that waxing the bottom lets us keep the dinghy in the water for up to four weeks without problems. Then all we need to do is lift it out, wash it clean, and, after it dries, rewax

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Chart Smart (July 2006)

We arrived off Suva, the capital of Fiji, after a 10-day passage from New Zealand. While we knew the island of Viti Levu was about 5 miles off our bow, we couldn’t see it because of a heavy rainstorm. My husband, Bob, turned on the computer and looked at the electronic charts we had added to our navigation suite a few weeks earlier. We wanted to use them to

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This month: rafting safety; making a chain collar; waxing your dinghy; and the Flemish coil.

Seamanship

Avoid Damage AloftOne potential danger when sailboats lie alongside one another for a convivial night is that if they roll to a wash or begin to move in an unexpected sea, the spreaders can clash together and suffer catastrophic damage. Always look aloft

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In July, my husband, John, and I and our son, Jack, sailed across the English Channel, and motored through 176 locks, taking seven weeks to travel from Le Havre in northern France, to St. Louis, on the Mediterranean, on our Moody 38. Below are some notes for a successful canal cruise.

Bicycles. Useful for riding to the bakery or just exploring the countryside: The steep hills

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A Cutter that Cuts It (August 2006)

For many cruisers, a cutter rig is the one that works best—so long as the staysail is cut for windward work, fairly flat with its draft well forward. A staysail also needs a good sheet lead. Sheet tracks and leads for many staysails seem to be placed more for convenience than effectiveness and often fail to take into account the staysail’s dual

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