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Win Fowler

Ask Sail: Full Battens or Not

I’m in the process of ordering sails for a 40-foot cruising boat. I’m looking for good performance, but I’m not racing. I’ve heard conflicting views on short vs. full battens in a mainsail.

Ask SAIL: Coming Unfurled

I have a Code Zero-type headsail with a torque-rope luff I’ve been flying with a continuous-line furler on my 40-foot cutter

Ask SAIL: Refitting Shrouds and Backstays

The shrouds and backstay on my 17-foot Montgomery trailer-sailer are maybe an inch or so too long, even with their turnbuckles screwed down as short as possible.

Ask SAIL: Tuning the Rig

Rig tuning is a subject worthy of many pages. Rather than trying to answer your specific questions, I will offer some general principles to guide you.

Ask SAIL: Old Boat, New Rig?

My brother and I own a 1966 Hinckley Pilot sloop that has been in my family for two generations. We love the boat dearly and normally spare no expense maintaining it. However, my brother now wants to install a carbon-fiber mast, and I’m wondering if it’s worth the money. Will it really make much of a difference on a heavy boat with a full keel? He’s talking about fiber rigging, too, which also has me worried.

Ask SAIL: Staysail Support

I am retrofitting a removable staysail stay to a 1982 Bristol 40 sloop. The existing standing rig has both forward and aft lower shrouds. Do I need to add more support behind the mast to support the staysail stay when it is set up? I would like not to have to do this. If I do have to do it, what’s the most efficient, least expensive way to go about it?

Ask SAIL: Replacing Running Rigging

 I’m planning on replacing all the running rigging on my 1978 Tartan 37 this spring for the first time since I bought the boat over 10 years ago. 

Ask Sail: Vanged if You Do

One thing I need to install is a liferaft, and I may want to put it on the coachroof right behind the mast, but the solid boom vang prevents this.

Ask Sail: An Older Rod Rig

This past summer I purchased a used Valiant 40 with rod rigging. Though the rigging is about 20 years old, the seller assured me he recently had it reheaded and that it should last several more years.

This 2026 Top 10 winner is a functional and fashionable update to the 410.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 415

Developed in record time and on a shoestring budget, a new design hits the bullseye of the cruising market. 

Boat under shrinkwrap

Selecting a Marine Pro

Note: This story is excerpted from SAIL Contributing Editor Christopher Birch’s upcoming book The Four Seasons of Boat Maintenance—a compendium of lessons learned during his

Squalls at night are no joke, but good preparation will get you through safely. Photo courtesy of Andy Schell

Storms & Sea Stories

The wind built faster than it was forecasted to. We ate dinner with full sail, close-reaching on a building SSW’ly breeze. Before dark we had

Photo: Lisa Smith Molinari

A Charter Passage Rewritten

Sailing on a schedule is famously a recipe for disaster, but on charter you don’t have much of a choice. The adventure is what you make of it. 

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