Cruising Tips

A handy technique for rereeving lost halyardsBy Ann HoffnerWith our Peterson 44, Oddly Enough, snug in a slip in Darwin, Australia, we stripped the gear off her deck before flying home for an extended visit. I bought three small bales of light polypropylene line and rigged messenger lines so I could rereeve the halyards when we returned. But I was distracted by the

By Peter NielsenBoats tend to get a thorough inspection in the spring, when commissioning demands the attention of the owner, the yard, or both. It happens again in the fall, when everything is being winterized. Problems, however, don’t usually have the good grace to wait until the end of the season. Some pre-emptive action during the summer could save you a big headache. Why not

Every sailor yearns to voyage beyond the horizon, but most of us have to settle for an annual cruise of a week or two. Make sure your boat is well prepared, and you’ll go far toward guaranteeing that you’ll spend your time trimming sails, chilling out in quiet anchorages, and enjoying early-morning swims rather than visiting the nearest boatyard. Know your boat “As a rule, every

I have not used and we do not carry either a drogue or sea anchor. This is not that we are opposed to these devices, it is just that when we started out cruising we didn’t know what we wanted, we didn’t have a budget for everything, and ‘these were not high priority. Plus, there is a storage issue; we don’t carry anything on deck or on the cabin sole and all the below deck lockers were full. For

Five pirate attacks in 24 hours? That’s the report from “Dolphin” skipper Johan Lillkung, en route north through the Gulf of Aden and bound for home port in Palma de Mallorca. Are the waters off lawless Somalia so dangerous that the international community will be forced to intervene in this tragic country? Lillkung expresses hope for intervention in this missive, which he seeks to have widely

It was a beautiful afternoon with a gentle breeze from the southeast. My wife, Catherine, and I were out for a romantic sail. What could go wrong?I was eager to set off in our recently acquired boat, Ruach, a 13.5-foot trailerable Expo Solar Sailer designed by Garry Hoyt, Ted Hood, and Everett Pearson. Cath, a first-timer, was nervous, but throwing in a picnic

This month: Steering toward a buoy, trip lines, a Cutter that cuts it, and how to change an impellerMaintenance A “Burned” ImpellerImpellers for the engine’s raw-water pump don’t last forever. Even if they aren’t destroyed by having been run dry following a blockage in the raw-water line, they still deteriorate over the years. If you’ve never had to change one,

Bad Backs and Boats (May 2006)Several months ago I wrote that I had to be very careful of my back when I was on board a boat. Since then I’ve received a number of letters from sailors asking whether I do anything specific to protect my back when I’m sailing. The answer is that I’ve tried many things over the years to reduce my back pain, including limited surgery, visits to