The ARC, which starts each November in the Canary Islands, is very much a European event and the Americans who run it are often a bit out of the ordinary. Without doubt, the least ordinary American boat in this last edition of the rally was the Gunboat 66 Phaedo.
It used to be that sailors looking to keep their boats moving in light air had fairly limited options. A big overlapping genoa flown from a fixed headstay was the weapon of choice when trying to get upwind in a zephyr. Turning downwind, it was a question of setting a balky hard-to-handle symmetric spinnaker on a pole.
Small-boat sailors strike it rich in the Marquesas
After prudently waiting the better part of a week for Sean to go away and then for a cold front to pass through, the rally organizers finally launched their ducklings on Friday, November 11, into the heart of a big high-pressure cell.
AFTER TWO BOATS HAD BEEN ABANDONED, after people had been hospitalized, after we finally (and gratefully) reached the safety of Virgin Gorda, Steve Black, who had organized the rally, held a “debriefing” session.”This is not something anyone would go through willingly,” he explained to the crowd. “It’s important that sailors have short memories.”
On our Allied Seawind ketch we fly the national ensign from our mizzen topping lift, rather than flying it from a short staff on the rail under the mizzen boom where it would be at odds with the mizzen sheet.
Perfect O-shaped coils of rope look mighty nice when done up properly, and in many cases this is a fine way to make up and stow an idle line on a sailboat. But in some instances lines trained to coil down in ovals develop problems when working. This happens most often with lines that run through a multi-part tackle. If you coil the tail of a line that runs through a tackle in perfect ovals, you’ll soon find the line twists up in the tackle when you’re using it. Eventually you must unreeve the line from the tackle, untwist it so it runs fair again and then re-reeve it. To avoid this, you should coil the line in a figure-eight pattern when stowing it.
Inflatable dinghies are rough and tough, but their skin is thin. If your rubber duck leads a hard life, adding some protective padding in key spots will reduce chafe and help prevent the little boat from developing an odd list when least expected.
I lost at least 25 percent of the storage space in my galley when we installed our watermaker, because the only place it could fit aboard our cramped 37-foot sailboat was directly under the galley sink. Now I’m constantly looking for ways to save space in the galley. Here are a few of my favorites.
Out of 500 organizations, nine were chosen as US Sailing’s Top Community Sailing Centers of 2011. Here’s a look at the winners.
Historic anniversaries have always held a special fascination for me, especially if they mark a significant nautical achievement. In 1992, on the 500th anniversary of
Emirates Team New Zealand unveiled its second-generation AC75 yesterday, joining the other three America’s Cup teams with boats in the water. In just over 100
Catalina Yachts has announced the passing of their founder and CEO Frank Butler. Butler was a sailing icon credited with introducing hundreds of thousands of
It’s been an exciting weekend for some of the participants in the Vendée Globe and for others, not so much. The front of the fleet, led by
Video courtesy of the Vendée Globe: for subtitles in English, click the “CC,” subtitles/closed caption button The Vendée Globe fleet took off from Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday, November
A reefed main and full poled-out Yankee pulled our 56ft, aluminum-hulled cutter, Seal, toward Antarctica. My husband, Hamish, and I were halfway across the Drake
So accustomed are today’s sailors to being able to furl their headsails that we often forget what it was like before this technology became so
A charter isn’t like most other vacations. It takes a good deal of pre-arrival strategizing and loads of onsite tactical execution if it’s to be
Despite this year’s myriad cancellations and postponements, the show will go on for the IMOCA 60 class. The Vendée Globe is scheduled to move ahead
The Vendée Globe kicked off its 2020-2021 edition yesterday and the first 24 hours have led to excitement and disappointment in equal measure. The beloved French race
