DIY: Cruiser’s Navigation Lights
July 14, 2016
Unlike the owners of many new production boats, we planned to use our brand-new 44-foot sloop, Red Thread, as our family home for five years.
Unlike the owners of many new production boats, we planned to use our brand-new 44-foot sloop, Red Thread, as our family home for five years.
Wiring a boat for shore power is a by-the-numbers project requiring more care than skill. Alternating current (AC) can be as dangerous as a cornered
Exclamation marks, curse words…honestly I had trouble holding myself back when Furuno and Garmin both announced new solid-state radars at the Miami Boat Show in
I often see poor electrical installations on boats, but here is a real classic. The owner of this boat wanted to install a switch for the air conditioning water pump, but there was no room for it on the shore power breaker panel.
It was easy to gather a slew of devices on board Gizmo that hunger for a USB power supply at least occasionally. Heck, when the Verizon Android Galaxy phone is providing an LTE Wi-Fi hotspot and also streaming Bluetooth audio to the Fusion IP700 stereo as it is now—
The frozen Raymarine aSeries MFD had almost finished a two-day low temperature test, but that was only the beginning of its suffering. Next it had to run another two days in a high-temperature cabinet with 85 percent relative humidity, followed by 19 more days of torture as part of Raymarine’s ERT (Early Reliability Test) Qualification Process.
The Vaavud wind meter (currently being distributed in North America by Ronstan) is both accurate and truly pocket-friendly, with a compact two-cup durable plastic rotor and low friction PTFE bearings.
In recent years it has become more feasible than ever to navigate using a smartphone or tablet. Apps have improved to the point where they rival paper charts and chartplotters. With so many good navigation apps available, the question is: which is best for you?
Having had so much fun upgrading the systems on our project Norlin 34, it came as something of a shock to realize that after installing a windlass, propane system, new winches, new portlights and new genoa sheet tracks in the space of three years, I had run out of things to do.
If your boat has a holding tank, chances are it doesn’t have a level gauge. This is odd, as you’d think they would be standard on all new boats, but in fact, just the opposite is true.
Though they’ve made sailing easier and more accessible, electric winches must be treated with appropriate caution.
Sometimes it’s the imperfections that make things perfect.
Six IMOCAs are lining up in New York this week for the inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic, a fully-crewed sprint from New York City to Lorient, France.
Tank water can easily be contaminated with anything from a lingering bad taste to dangerous bacteria. Installing a triple filtration set up on Ben-Varrey helped.
The effort to save Maine’s classic plastic fleet began—as so many great things do—with three friends and a foolish idea.
Boat meets spaceship at the luxury end of the market.
Tides are an essential part of coastal sailing, so don’t forget to look at the moon once in a while.
The Magenta Project seeks applicants for their 2026-2027 mentorship program.
Twist: The Big Question When asked to help out onboard, I’m sometimes surprised to find how many skippers only have a vague notion of how
The sailing world has lost another great this week in the passing of John Rousmaniere, author of Fastnet Force 10 and numerous other sailing texts.
