Gazing upon Cayuga Lake on a calm August day, I am struck now three decades later by my vivid memories of what must be every sailing instructor’s worst nightmare. It was supposed to have been a picnic, a final exam for the summer sailing program at the local yacht club. Instead, in less than 20 minutes, it turned into a terrifying, life-threatening maelstrom of wind and water.
I was on a hunt. A hunt through 20 years of SAIL Magazine history for some of our best ads of yesteryear. The ultimate lesson I learned from this exercise is this: consumerism during the 70s and 80s relied heavily on nearly naked women, unflattering hairstyles and killer mustaches.
Eventually everyone wraps a line around a prop. I was told this on my first-ever job as a captain—leading teenagers on liveaboard dive-training trips in the Leeward Islands—and bragged about being the only skipper not to have done so.
It all started midway through a cruise on Mexico’s Sea of Cortez when we were having dinner aboard Born Free and Chris of Starship announced: “Anne-Marie [his wife] and I have been talking and she agrees, we should do a partner swap.” An uncomfortable silence followed as I failed to respond.
Though we’d dragged our 6,000-pound Balboa 26 over three mountain ranges and through seven passes, our pilgrimage from Colorado to Washington State had been relatively carefree. After that we’d spent three weeks in the Gulf Islands east of Vancouver, all without a serious mishap. Then, as we were moored in Oak Harbor preparing for the final leg back to Seattle, everything changed.
My 42-foot Pearson ketch, Silverheels, was originally built with a shallow anchor well on the foredeck that could not accommodate the long anchor rodes needed for serious cruising. While converting the shallow well to a deeper chain locker, I decided I wanted a fore-and-aft partition so I could carry two separate rodes.
As I write this, I am aboard First Light, our Pacific Seacraft 31, in an anchorage at Isla San Francisco, in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. As usual, ours is the smallest cruising boat in port.
In response to a letter in our July issue, SAIL editor Peter Nielsen asked our readers to spout out on their thoughts on multihulls. Check out reader responses to “Not Everyone’s Cup of Tea”.
Have you ever spotted a lone sailboat anchored in what looks like a dream location—someplace not on the charts—and wondered how the heck they got there?
The 17-foot Old Town sailing canoe that we learned to sail in the 1970s was perfect for camping on the shores of the distant Bahamas. It was small enough for the two of us to lift in and out of the water, but still big enough to carry our camping gear, food, water, clothes and a typewriter. Granted, it did not have enough room to carry us as well. But that is another story.
Celestial Nav 5 – The fifth installment of The Nav Station’s Celestial Navigation series discusses the contents of the Nautical Almanac, and how to use
Ryan Finn’s second attempt at sailing the Cape Horn Clipper Route has begun, after damage to the hull cut his first attempt short last January.
After a few uncertain years waiting to see how the Volvo Ocean Race would be reincarnated as The Ocean Race, the pieces are starting to
Andrés Reséndez, Mariner Books, $28 Conquering the Pacific is a rich historical narrative that tells the story of the last great discovery of the Age
February is National Black History Month, and to celebrate we’re highlighting some of the contributions of Black sailors at the height of the Age of
Fresh out of college, I was working two jobs and living in a basement sublet in the Bronx. Twice per week, I would take the
The nature of sailboat racing is such that the bigger boats tend to get the lion’s share of attention. Recently, though, I’ve found myself especially
The Women’s Sailing Foundation is offering the Sue Corl Youth Sailing Scholarship to one teenage girl, aged 14-19 years old, who wants to expand her
In episode four of The Nav Station’s Celestial Navigation series, learn how to calculate your assumed position and the local hour angle using your Greenwich
The waters off the Atlantic coast of the southern Iberian Peninsula can be tough enough as it is, but in recent months resident pods of
