Sailboat Cruising

The bow is the last place you want extra weight when approaching a windward mark in a tightly packed fleet. Fortunately, there’s a simple way to keep the bowman off the foredeck during sets. It works best on boats with retractable sprit poles, but it can be adapted for boats that use standard poles.The gear All you need is a swivel-mounted snapshackle, some lightweight cord, and some

Because most dinghies have an outboard, it’s not surprising that many sailors neglect the oars. But if you’re not careful, one of them will inevitably come loose when you’re not looking. During the 18 months we spent cruising, we found four dinghy oars floating in various harbors. After we lost one of ours, I made a point of tying a length of cord from the midpoint of each oar to the dinghy. The

Many sailing tales are filled with drama and even life-threatening adventure. In my experience, however, a modern boat with an experienced crew can have an uneventful trip even in heavy weather. This may not make for great literature, but it indicates good seamanship and speaks well of the quality of most modern production boats and their components. I’m happy to leave the excitement and the

To check the condition of your sails, hoist each one individually on a calm day and watch what happens to the shape of the sail when you adjust the luff and foot. You still can get reasonable performance from an old sail if the basic shape remains; if it’s disappeared, take the sail to a sailmaker. He or she may have some suggestions for a recut. If your mainsail uses short battens, make

Tips for safely going aloftThe list of reasons for going aloft is long: checking the rig, rerunning a lost halyard, fixing a broken wind instrument. There are two basic ways to go up the mast: You can climb a halyard or you can be hoisted. While there are a number of devices available to help you ascend, the best method is to use a bosun’s chair or to use a mast-climbing device

Our new boat came with plastic seacocks, and when I closed one of the small ones, the handle broke off along with part of the tapered plug, leaving an open hole in the hull. I immediately pushed the broken piece back in place to reduce water flow, but it was still coming in faster than the bilgepump could handle. I needed a quick remedy. I keep a can of Plumber’s Putty in my toolbox. I

We knew when we moved aboard our 34-foot cutter, Eurisko, and became full-time cruisers that the boat didn’t have a shower. We also knew that using a solar shower on deck wouldn’t work for us on a day-to-day basis. We knew, too, that we couldn’t afford to stop at a marina every few days. Our solution was to modify a 21/2-gallon pressurized garden sprayer by attaching a spray nozzle

Fewer Fouled SheetsIf there is a topping-lift bridle on your spinnaker pole, there’s a good chance—depending on how the spinnaker-pole uphaul is rigged—that the bridle could foul either the jib or spinnaker sheet. This happens often enough that foredeck crews on many raceboats—especially in one-design fleets—have changed their pole lifts to minimize the chance of fouling. Here’s how