This past July, while sailing in Maine, we were surprised to discover there were no lobsters to be had on North Haven Island. Ya got a boat? a woman with no lobsters to sell asked us.As it turns out, this years lobster season hasnt been the best one for Mainers, and youre just as likely to get a fresh catch in Brooklyn as you are in Rockland. Lobster middlemenfloating barges that
We were already sweating when we arrived at Honokohau Harbor in Kailua Kona on the big island of Hawaii. Our truck was loaded to the gunwales with gear, food and beverages for a weekend sail with our friends Brandon and Erin. My wife Joy quickly stowed the supplies on Happy Honu, our 27-foot Lufkin sloop. I busied myself opening sail bags while frenetically defending myself against our
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
Doublehanded sailing is one of the fastest growing sectors of the sport, and a new non-profit aims to keep the momentum up. Offshore Doubles was founded
In a refreshing break from Covid-necessitated regatta adjustments, Marblehead to Halifax race organizers has announced some structural updates prompted solely by the desire to make
For the past month, the WASZP GPS Challenge has allowed sailors from 15 different countries to race against each other in the ultimate community social
Tune in to the latest installment in US Sailing’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Series this Wednesday night at 8pm ET. This week social justice advocate
France’s favorite offshore race can attract millions for the sendoff, but with Covid casting doubt over large gatherings this year, changes had to be made.
The Foil Pro is a lightweight, three-layer jacket, new from Helly Hansen.
The lightweight, three-layer Musto BR2 Sport Jacket (BR2 refers to Musto’s proprietary three-layer, breathable laminate) is expressly configured for inshore racing aboard sport boats and
American ocean racing legends Mark Towill and Charlie Enright are spearheading another attempt at The Ocean Race, once again partnered with 11th Hour Racing. This
Airmar’s new DST810 Smart™ Multisensor not only delivers accurate water depth, temperature, 5 Hz speed-through-water and boat attitude data, it also connects wirelessly to the
