Henry Meyer of Chicago, Illinois asks:”I’m thinking about getting a satellite radio receiver so I can download all the marine weather products that are available these days. But I’m curious: Will I have to mount one of those softball-sized antennas above my deck?”Gordon West replies:Before you do anything about mounting the antenna, first
Gene Cramer of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, asks:”Where can I get a galvanic isolator of the sort you mentioned in your excellent piece on wiring a boat for shore power? Also, the circuit you described in that piece doesn’t seem to provide ground-fault protection either for the battery charger or for other branch loads, such as the water heater, which would be hard-wired to the
Karl Westman of Ocean City, New Jersey, asks:”Is it all right to use magnetic headings on my chartplotter to adjust a new compass?”Tim Bartlett replies:In theory, definitely not. But in practice I’d have to give you a very guarded “maybe.” The problem, of course, is that your heading is the direction your boat is pointing in. Your
Mark Karwowski of San Francisco, California, asks:”Recently we had trouble starting the diesel engine aboard our Nordic 40. Although all the lights and other electrical equipment aboard worked fine, whenever I touched the starter button, the starter motor hesitated at first then sped up. We checked the batteries and found that they were eight years old, so we decided to
If your sails are made from laminated materials there’s a good chance that you’ve struggled with ways to keep mildew from getting a toehold in the fabric.”Many of the sails made today are constructed with laminated materials,” says Jeff Andersen, President of the New Hampshire-based Sailmaking Support Systems. “Although a laminated sail will be lighter and potentially faster than a woven
Dragonfly is a sweet 1983 Bristol 35.5, based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She still sports most of her original deck gear and the old Merriman genoa lead cars and tracks, while still functional, had seen better days. Owner Tim Sheehy sails shorthanded and wants to get the best performance out of his new suit of North sails, so he decided to upgrade to Lewmar sliding bolt track and
Dragonfly is a sweet 1983 Bristol 35.5, based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She still sports most of her original deck gear and the old Merriman genoa lead cars and tracks, while still functional, had seen better days. Owner Tim Sheehy sails shorthanded and wants to get the best performance out of his new suit of North sails, so he decided to upgrade to Lewmar sliding bolt track and
Dragonfly is a sweet 1983 Bristol 35.5, based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. She still sports most of her original deck gear and the old Merriman genoa lead cars and tracks, while still functional, had seen better days. Owner Tim Sheehy sails shorthanded and wants to get the best performance out of his new suit of North sails, so he decided to upgrade to Lewmar sliding bolt track and
My last two columns discussed the high cost of generating electricity with a diesel engine and the relatively short payback period for solar panels on liveaboard cruising boats. The problem with solar is that it requires a lot of surface area to produce significant amounts of power. This is relatively easy to find on catamarans, but not so on monohulls.Coincidentally, I received an email
Your mast is back in the boator it may have been there all winterthe shrouds are tuned, the engine is checked, and all the battens are in the sails. You are ready for your first sail of the season. Without doubt, many boatowners follow this path, but if youre one of them, be ready to act quickly if a piece of gear holding the mast suddenly fails and the rig begins to
When Cole Brauer crossed the finish line of the Global Solo Challenge in A Coruña, Spain, early today, she was met with scores of fans
The April issue of SAIL is here, and we’ve got your wanderlust covered as we head into spring. Here’s a preview of what you can
Go ahead. Tell me who you love most in this world. I’m willing to bet that your boat makes the top five, perhaps the top
“When I saw the Horn at 3 o’clock this morning it gave me chills,” John Kretschmer said in a grainy video from the deck of
When it comes to West Coast sailboat construction, images of California’s fiberglass heyday or the deep, cold waters of Puget Sound come to mind. But
Neil Evans has been talking about the merits of Harken’s T2 Soft-Attach blocks—most significantly the soft Dyneema shackle as its attachment point, rather than a
Taking cues from its award-winning big sister the Outremer 55, the new VPLP-designed Outremer 52 has been optimized for performance and long-distance bluewater sailing. Technologies
The family of two cruising sailors who have gone missing and are feared dead have asked the cruising community to “stand down” to let local
John Stone is the kind of seafarer who has applied the adage “keep it simple” throughout his sailing life. This maxim has enabled him to
The Salty Dawg Sailing Association says that two of its members have vanished and their boat found anchored and abandoned off St. Vincent. Ralph Hendry
