Any boat under way in a crosswind, whether it’s a rowboat crossing a lake or a powerful cruiser reaching along the coast, will be pushed sideways to some extent. The effect is called “leeway,” and even big ships are subject to it. Sometimes leeway is insignificant; often it is not.
Getting a sail cover on and off a mainsail is often harder than it should be. Once it’s off the sail, it can be hard to tell which end goes where, and when you spread it out to check, the wind will wrestle you for control of it.
If there’s one thing I hate more than varnishing it’s not having all the tools at hand to do the job right. Besides brushes, old cans of varnish, new cans of varnish and thinners, there is the sandpaper.
When Mark Edwards, a rigger from Auckland, New Zealand, molded the deck for his 50-footer Relapse, he deliberately included raised toerails that trap water on deck for most of the length of the boat: as in, all the way back to the fill-point for the water tanks.
When we talk about downwind sailing, the debate often seems to be about the relative merits of symmetrical versus asymmetrical spinnakers, or gybing a headsail to go goose-winged. It’s easy to forget there’s more than one way to pluck that particular goose.
No one loves twin-keel boats like British and French sailors, except maybe the odd Canadian. And few photos better illustrate the chief advantage of a twin-keel boat.
No afternoon at October’s U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis is complete without at least one of those delicious rum drinks called a Painkiller. Indeed, the Annapolis show and the Painkiller are inextricably entwined in the minds of regular showgoers.
In my early 30s I went on an Outward Bound expedition. It was designed for adults and boasted an alluring theme: life renewal. Like any Outward Bound experience, the trip was intended to push a participant’s physical and emotional limits, and it delivered in spades.
Everyone knows the Answering Pennant (AP or “Cat in the Hat” flag) means racing has been postponed and that the “P” flag means a standard starting sequence. But what about the “M” flag, an “N” flag over an “A” flag, or an answering pennant flying above Pennant 2?
We left the hustle and bustle of Charlevoix, Michigan, just in time to make the second drawbridge opening of the morning as we pointed our bow toward Beaver Island, an isolated destination about 32 miles offshore in the middle of northern Lake Michigan. There was a thick fog, and a light drizzle fell from the sky. Thanks to our chartplotter, I knew our position and the proper heading to the island, but having no radar I remained wary.
A Superbowl is a Superbowl, and a World Series is a World Series. Sure, the names of the players and the teams change from year-to-year,
Over the next few weeks, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team, the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic effort and INEOS Team UK will all battle
Emirates Team New Zealand Defender, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Though pulling off an event like the America’s Cup during a global pandemic was never
The past year has been a strange and tragic one, to say the least. A funny thing happened, though, on the way to everybody just
The first five Vendée Globe boats have passed Cape Horn and are beginning the final leg through the Atlantic, back to Les Sables d’Olonne, while
I am writing this a few days before Christmas in the awful Plague Year of 2020 and am marveling at the great Double Alignment. Can
Sportscar builders say, “Speed costs, how fast do you want to go?” This is also true of boats. And if you can foot the bill,
After 45 years with Catalina Yachts, including four decades as chief yacht designer and executive vice-president, Gerry Douglas says he will be retiring in 2021.
Our Nautor’s Swan 59, Icebear, was as close to Bermuda as we were going to get on our passage south to the BVI from the
Fresh from the 2020 Düsseldorf boat show where one of his boats won a number of major awards, you might have expected French naval architect
