On SAIL’s 45th anniversary, we look back at 45 inventions, developments and refinements that changed the way we sail. The year is 1970. Richard Nixon is in the White House. Men wear long sideburns, oversized sunglasses, medallions, velour shirts and platform shoes—
Dawn on the morning of my 40th birthday, singlehanding 300 miles offshore, I had just wrapped up an ambitious, five-year work stint that provided for the sailboat of my dreams plus a kitty to take her cruising.
It doesn’t matter how many children you have, or how much practice you’ve had raising them, one thing holds true: you get to start over with each one.
Why is my family instantly starving the moment we head out to sea? Erik claims it is brought on by boredom, but honestly! We left the anchorage just six minutes ago.
One of the many things I love about sailing is that it is one of the last great freedoms left to us. Raise your anchor and head out to sea and once the coast is a line on the horizon, you’ve left in your wake the world of restrictive regulations and petty laws.
Sitting at a café overlooking “Palace Row,” where the big catamarans floated at the Miami Boat Show, I had a startling realization. Most of the potential buyers I observed being passed from greeter to salesperson to loan specialist to closer were the same people you might see in a Ferrari showroom.
My first boat was a poorly maintained Thompson 21 powerboat that broke down so often I decided to try sailing. After all, having wind as the motive power and an outboard kicker when that failed would, in theory, provide the redundancy to keep me out of trouble and my family safe.
An Englishman I met in British Columbia once told me that sooner or later every sailor falls in love with an older woman. His name was Duncan, and the moment he saw my boat, Drummer, he was awash in longing…
Dropping the hook in remote Bahia Magdalena—on the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja peninsula—I was instantly attracted to Puna, a plucky little fire engine-red cutter anchored nearby.
We have an inflatable globe that hangs in our saloon, and it is ruining my life. It is an innocuous-looking thing: the different countries are decked out in cheery purples and oranges, and a there’s jagged Sharpie line showing our route from the Chesapeake to the South Pacific. But somehow, whenever talk turns to the future, the globe jumps off its perch and into someone’s hands. Mesmerized, we turn it and turn it, trying to take in every country, every possibility, every tiny harbor. And we begin to play an endless game of And Then We Could.
This past weekend was the 25th annual Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, a celebration of sea songs and America’s sailing heritage. The event spanned two days
One family treks off the beaten path, on the lookout for some truly special encounters with nature.
The Slovenian-built Pegasus 50 is a true performance bluewater cruise, and has the abundant carbon, range potential, and price tag to prove it. The boat
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
