Make them the right length for any job Issue 85 : Jul/Aug 2012 Bungees of the “loop and ball” type are very handy around sailboats. I needed some larger than those commercially available for tying up ...
A pretty sturdy trailersailer with a swing keel Issue 87 : Nov/Dec 2012 The lovely lines of the dark blue hull caught my eye one weekend while sailing on Lake Mendota near Madison, Wisconsin. I said t...
A versatile trailerable that’s as divisive as it is popular Issue 90: May/June 2013 Perhaps there will never be a more controversial sailboat to appear on the pages of Good Old Boat than the MacGregor...
A stout bilge-keeler from across the pond Issue 91 : Jul/Aug 2013 What were you doing in 1975? John Vokaty, then 48 years old, was working in corporate accounting when his wife, Helen, strongly sugges...
It’s neither mediocre nor boring Issue 98: Sept/Oct 2014 We go to Florida in January to get away from the cold north, but Florida weather conditions allowed the boat I tested near Jacksonville to live...
A popular cruising catamaran Issue 92 : Sept/Oct 2013 When Henry and Linda McKevitt traded in their S2 9.2 center cockpit in October 2011, they had been looking for a comfortable boat for cruising the...
He founded Westerly Marine Construction and launched a thousand dreams Issue 96 : May/Jun 2014 Denys Rayner was born in the outskirts of London, England, in 1908. As a boy, he was smitten with boats, ...
Performance in Starck-ly beautiful French style Issue 97 : Jul/Aug 2014 A problem many inland sailors face is that they eventually get tired of sailing the same water. Two years ago, that is what poss...
A big trailerable boat with a lifting keel Issue 100: Jan/Feb 2015 Reviewing the 1980 C&C Mega 30 owned by Good Old Boat founders Karen Larson and Jerry Powlas is something of a daunting project. ...
They are more than a buffer twixt butt and deck Issue 102 : May/Jun 2015 Closed-cell-foam seat cushions are available at home centers. I found ours at Menards under their house name Guidesman (SKU 175...
An inexpensive LED shows the way Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 We all know about using dollar store LED yard lights for finding our way home in an anchorage. Another handy use we’ve found aboard Thebote, o...
A wet towel puts a damper on a loose helm One morning, we were at anchor in a pretty cove when an empty water bottle blew overboard. We raised the anchor and chased down the errant bottle. Once the an...
A twin-keeler from across “the Pond” Issue 108: May/June 2016 First we’ll address the elephant in the room: the wild paint job is the result of work done by William Barnhart of Mesa, Arizona, for an I...
Useless spaces can earn their keep Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Our MacGregor 26D, Thebote, has a tiny sink area that is relatively useless. For a long time it held the wastebasket. Recently, at the requ...
A quick trailerable that does the small things right Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 R K. “Kim” Hogan, a retired airline captain, and his wife, Karen, have been sailing their 1996 Precision 23, Willow, on t...
A cat-rigged unballasted sharpie for gunkholing Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 John and Julie Mohr of Seymour, Indiana, own a 1992 Bay Hen 21 named Orca. John, a cartographer, was looking for a simple boat ...
A versatile ’80s-era racer/cruiser from the world’s largest builder of sailboats Issue 109 : Jul/Aug 2016 A classy car and a boat with a storied history say a lot about Wayne Barnard and his wife, Mar...
A daysailer with gunkholing aspirations Issue 110: Sept/Oct 2016 What better place to review boat than in my own backyard? The Slipper 17 that is the subject of this article came into my care when a m...
A handy trailer-sailer that’s easy on the boating budget Issue 112: Jan/Feb 2017 Boats to review often come to me via interesting paths. In response to a request by Good Old Boat editor Karen Larson f...
A versatile boat for different owners Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 For this review of the Glastron-built Spirit 28, I looked at two boats with identical hulls that have taken on vastly different character...
Dash off little jobs with dispatch Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 When I’m desperate to get a relatively small teak finish job done in a hurry I . . . Allen Penticoff, a Good Old Boat contributing editor, i...
An update of a longtime favorite Issue 120: May/June 2018 I came upon this classic good old boat at Mazanet Marina, up the Yahara River in Madison, Wisconsin, but I was puzzled as to what it was. Andy...
A Cruising Rocket Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 New Zealand designer Ian Farrier, who died in 2017, is legendary in the multihull community for his concept of folding trimarans. His patented Farrier Folding...
Eight-track audio tape makes for perfect telltales. Issue 132: May/June 2020 When I first began sailing my own boats, I tied yarn to the shrouds to use as telltales. This common, quick-and-easy method...
A Beamy, Obliging Pocket Cruiser Issue 132: May/June 2020 A sailor’s reasons for buying a boat are myriad and often mysterious; in the case of James and Barb Shroeger of Traverse City, Michigan, James...
A Maine-Built Sailing Master Issue 141: Nov/Dec 2021 When Dave and Sharon Nehring of Racine, Wisconsin, began searching for a boat to serve largely as a comfy floating summer home as well as for cruis...
A Low-Priced, Water-Ballasted Trailer-Sailer Issue 142: Jan/Feb 2022 Bill and Marianne Blaschka of Madison, Wisconsin, have been so blown away by the Hunter 260 that they’ve kept theirs for 12 years—a...
A modern racer-cruiser with two helms Issue 151: July/Aug 2023 This 2013 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 379 was less than 10 years old at the time of my review, providing a great opportunity to look at some of ...
A Head-Turning Shoal-Draft Cruiser. Issue 135: Nov/Dec 2020 Lake Mendota, just north of Madison, Wisconsin, is my home water; it’s also where the late, great Buddy Melges sailed. Wide and deep, it’s a...
A well-planned economy cruiser Issue 148: Jan/Feb 2023 Rich and Carolyn Sutorius of St. Charles, Missouri, sailed a Seafarer 26, Manana, for more than 30 years. We reviewed the boat in the July/August...