My ketch Silverheels didn’t have any cockpit canvas when I bought her, just an old two-bow dodger frame. I had visions of installing a hard dodger and bimini, but a lack of time, patience and skill caused me to opt for a hardtop for the dodger frame instead.
Like most long-range cruisers I carry a lot of anchor chain, but I was having a problem with pyramids in my chain locker. When weighing anchor my chain piled up beneath its deck pipe, sometimes reaching up high enough to block it, so that the chain being fed in would suddenly jam the windlass gypsy.
Every cruising boat should carry a sailmaker’s palm along with a kit of essential sail-repair tools
The vertical windlass on my boat is designed to handle only one anchor. Like many cruisers, however, I carry two bow anchors and occasionally need to use both. The problem is my windlass, like most vertical windlasses, feeds just one anchor rode through a deck pipe built into its casing.
For years I’ve been using a 3-gallon insecticide spray can as a portable pressure-water dispenser. You’ll find these in any hardware store.
The first time I tried to pick up a mooring singlehanded in a stiff breeze, I approached from dead downwind in the usual manner and stopped the boat with the pickup buoy right where I wanted it.
One of the more mundane aspects of bluewater cruising is having to clear in and out of all the foreign countries you visit. The task is often routine, but can sometimes be frustrating, perplexing or even hilarious. We have found this to be true on any number of occasions.
When an offshore earthquake near Japan resulted in a destructive tsunami in March 2011, I, along with sailors everywhere, held my breath. My eyes were glued to the Internet. I watched videos of massive volumes of water rushing ashore, displacing families, killing people and destroying villages.
Prop walk, the tendency of a turning propeller to push a boat’s stern sideways, can be a real nuisance when maneuvering under power. Or it can be your biggest ally. The trick is to understand it, anticipate it, and make it work for you.
There’s no longer any reason to rely on frozen water to cool your food and beverages
The Biscontini-Nauta designed Oceanis 52 has a lot in common with the 47, but the extra five feet really do make space for some extra
42 years ago today, Dennis Connor and his team aboard Liberty lost the longest winning streak in sporting history when Australia II beats them in
When fog sets in or the weather turns, it’s nice to have a second set of eyes on watch. Especially in high traffic areas. I
This past weekend, Baltimore’s Downtown Sailing Center hosted its annual regatta supporting an array of community partnerships and accessible sailing offerings.
Oracle Team USA comes back from an 8:1 deficit in the 2013 America’s Cup, winning 8 consecutive races to beat Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
You ask, we answered: Ask SAIL is back. Send your questions to sailmail@sailmagazine.com to be featured in the magazine. We have a whole bag of lines
Based on its pieces, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that the compound word “overbearing” is a term with nautical origins. This synonym for
A sailor debates costly rig upgrades for his Olle Enderlein 36, weighing performance, value, and passion. Is it ever “worth it” with old sailboats?
After six weeks of racing, it all came down to a single day for four of the seven teams competing in The Ocean Race Europe.
With The Ocean Race Europe drawing to a close this weekend, we look back on a very different race finish in 2023, where the teams
