Advertisement

storms

Sailing Against the Storm

I lay in my suspended bunk and waited for the next wave to lift me up and slam me down onto the hard bench below.

A Storm by Any Other Name

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hurricanes (the term most U.S. sailors are familiar with) and typhoons are just two different names

Media Addiction at Sea

When it comes to communications technology on bluewater sailboats, I have always been a Luddite. I never had any interest in high-frequency radios and never

Lightning Strike Chaos

In the middle of the night, 400 miles away from the Marquesas, my eyes snapped open.Something had changed; Shapeshifter, our Beneteau Oceanis 423 was heeling

Voice of Experience: Helicopter Rescue

“My name is Petty Officer Jaime Vanacore. I am your rescue swimmer.” Her Dolphin helicopter hovering 70ft over the peaks of the waves, Jaime had

3 Boats and 3 Weather Tactics in Extreme Conditions

Modern weather forecasting is so good that we aren’t often caught out, but we all take a chance once in a while, especially when we’re under pressure to be somewhere else. Coastal sailing in near-gale conditions isn’t the same as ocean storm survival. Instead, we have to think hard about possible shelter and local dangers. Different boats have varying abilities. So do crews. Here’s a hypothetical

A Dragging Anchor in the Middle of the Night

April 29, 2010, began as a day full of promise as I set sail at 0830 from Marina Real on the Sea of Cortez in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. Heading out on My Traveling Star, my Bayliner Buccaneer 22, I enjoyed perfect weather and fair wind. It was the best day of sailing I had enjoyed in the year or so I had owned her.

Heavy Weather Strategies When Sailing a Catamaran

By their nature, larger catamarans are exceptionally safe offshore. It is not unusual to sail through mildly uncomfortable conditions, such as a gale, only to arrive in port and hear sailors on keelboats talk of “surviving” horrendous weather. A large modern catamaran has plenty of buoyancy and exceptional roll inertia.

A Father, Son and a Custom Boat

“It was almost standing waves, and we were hobby horsing. The bow was going whoosh, and we were going nowhere,” says Kevin Starnes, 62. He’s

Weekly Photo: Aloft

Going up the mast can be daunting, but not for this sailor who tackled the task while underway on Narragansett Bay last summer. This year,

Scraping the Sky

Colloquially the term “skyscraper” is used to refer to a tall city building, but nearly a hundred years before its modern architectural association, it had

Today’s Trivia: Old Money

Ireland’s Royal Cork Yacht Club, founded in 1720, holds the title of the world’s oldest yacht club, but Russia’s Neva Yacht Club (1718) could also

Advertisement
Advertisement