Waterspouts are not just tornadoes over water. Meteorologists admit they still have much to learn about these phenomena, but there is a typical waterspout cloud that usually generates them. These dark, flat-bottomed cumulus clouds generally get no taller than 20,000 feet. As clouds go, this is noticeably low. Waterspouts get their energy from heat in the water, so they are most frequently
Like most cruisers, I was happy to ditch my symmetric spinnaker and defect to a more easily handled asymmetric kite, but I cant deny that the symmetric sail has its advantages. It works better on downwind runs with the apparent wind at 140 degrees or more, and on most older boats it has the considerable virtue of already being on board (no need to spend money) and is probably lightly
During the summer of 2010 my husband, Skip, and I had an oppor-tunity to take a six-week vacation. It was a long-awaited chance for us to cruise to places more distant than those we normally visit during our usual 17 days away.
My favorite possession as a child was not a toy or a pet, but a life jacket with the characters from Disneys The Little Mermaid printed on the front. Flounder sat smiling on my right shoulder, while Ariel floated elegantly on the bottom left. To me, the lifejacket being dragged out of the basement was the most exciting part of the summer. It meant Daddy was taking us sailing!Fifteen
The summer season is upon us and all manner of cruising sailors are wandering about trying to find interesting places to park their boats. Maybe youre a novice eager to explore, but are daunted by the mysterious art of securing your boat to the bottom of the sea with a curiously shaped lump of metal weighing just a few pounds. Or maybe youre a marina creature, flitting from
When I boarded Mercantile, an 80-foot schooner docked in Camden Harbor, Maine, my iPhones battery had about five minutes of life left on it. Heydo you have an iPod dock or outlet on board? I asked a scruffy-looking young man who could have walked straight out of a modern-day Moby Dick casting call.Aw, lady, you dont know how much fun yer gonna have once that things
Driving up to Lake Champlain with our 21ft San Juan sloop Puffin in tow, my wife Dawn and I felt our excitement mounting. Wed had plenty of sailing experience on our home lake in New Hampshire, but this would be our first time on the big body of water in the northwestern corner of Vermont. We were looking forward to a week-long sailing vacation in a beautiful locale.A light rain
A rose is a rose, it is said, and smells just as sweet by any other name. Would that it were true of boats. In fact, it seems many boats these days have perfectly horrible names. Glancing around at transoms in marinas and mooring fields, I must blush and/or wince at half the names I see.I realize this is a subjective topic and that one mariners bon mot is anothers bad
A rose is a rose, it is said, and smells just as sweet by any other name. Would that it were true of boats. In fact, it seems many boats these days have perfectly horrible names. Glancing around at transoms in marinas and mooring fields, I must blush and/or wince at half the names I see. I realize this is a subjective topic and that one mariner’s bon mot is another’s bad word.
Luxury meets functionality in Garmin’s new MARQ Captain watch. Advanced sailing-specific features include GPS technology to help pinpoint your starts on the racecourse, a tack-assist
Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, with its teal-blue waters and balmy breezes, beckons many a West Coast sailor. Good anchorages, desert islands, huge game fish, colorful
Often referenced and sometimes misquoted, the idea of a finished product being more than just the sum of its parts was first introduced nearly 2,400
Profurl NEXe motorized flying-sail furlers make it possible for shorthanded crews and solo sailors to handle large reaching sails, like gennakers, Code 0s and other
Zack Carver’s film titled The Race to Alaska has earned a spot in the Vancouver International Film Festival. This film follows the five-year evolution of
Twin-rudder raceboats have been with us since the mid-1980s. In the last 10 years or so, they’ve also become increasingly popular aboard cruising boats, including
Newport welcomed America’s ocean racing home team, 11th Hour Racing, back to its waters earlier this week for the start of their autumn training season.
The BVI Tourist Board has set December 1st as the date visitors will be allowed to return to their territory, just in time for the
The Danish builder X-Yachts does not simply stick taller or shorter rigs and keels on the same hulls to create boats for both cruisers and
. In a video posted yesterday, Peter Harken cheerfully announced that his company, Harken Inc., the trusted hardware brand bearing his last name, which was
