Issue 22 : Jan/Feb 2002 I wrote the editorial for the November/December issue on September 10 and handed it in the next day. It made no reference to the events of September 11. When you publish every ...
Issue 22 : Jan/Feb 2002 There is never enough counter space in any galley, or kitchen for that matter, but this is a particular problem in smaller boats like our C&C 30. The galley is aft on both ...
All you need is a simple calculator and Jerry’s magic formula Issue 22 : Jan/Feb 2002 The mathematicians who read this should be prepared to forgive me. It is my only contribution to “applied mathemat...
Simple (not too elegant) gauge for your holding tank Issue 23 : Mar/Apr 2002 Our boat was built with a holding tank, but there was no provision made for determining how full it is. In the early years,...
You’ve got to/you’re gonna hit some docks Issue 23 : Mar/Apr 2002 I’ve heard it said that one of the differences between the sexes is that a woman will hit a dock and say, “I wonder what I did wrong,”...
Four years at the weather mark Issue 24 : May/June 2002 When we adopted the name Last Tack for this column, we had in mind the part of a sailboat race where one has reached the lay-line and thrown the...
Issue 28 : Jan/Feb 2003 We’d let the delivery wait too long. Doing a story in warm, sunny South Carolina made it seem like we had all the time in the world, but on the great prairie autumn was l...
Some sailors need a house just as much as they need a boat Issue 34: Jan/Feb 2004 OVER TIME I HAVE COME TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE MOST CRITICAL item of cruising equipment for us is a house. “E-e-e-k!” sa...
Issue 29 : Mar/Apr 2003 The Slate Islands are a place of beginnings. The concept for Good Old Boat magazine was born there. Five years later, we were back looking for more inspiration. Once the hooks ...
Your boat takes you to places you can’t reach any other way Issue 32 : Sept/Oct 2003 How far is it to somewhere else? It’s a relative thing. It’s straightforward to lay a tape measur...
Two very different aids to navigation Issue 32 : Sept/Oct 2003 Back in 1968 when I was a navigating officer on the USS Newport News, we had a chart table that would hold a full-sized chart without fol...
This is something you don’t see on the Great Prairie Issue 33 : Nov/Dec 2003 We were working our way back home from a wonderful excursion down the middle of the country. We had traveled from near the ...
Lake Huron or bust Issue 44: Sept/Oct 2005 DIFFERENT PEOPLE ARE DISPOSED TO DO DIFFERENT THINGS. When I met my editor and wife, I was happily sailing around triangular race courses on a large lake in ...
Bluewater or coastal, weather controls all Issue 35 : Mar/Apr 2004 Weather cells move through our cruising grounds in about three days in summer and closer to two days in fall and spring. If you sail ...
Issue 37 : Jul/Aug 2004 I’ve singlehanded for a couple of weeks at a time, and I’ve cruised with an all-male crew as well. Both are OK, but not my preference. Joshua Slocum and other singlehande...
A tale of human fallibility and 500-hour alternator brackets Issue 38 : Sept/Oct 2004 The brackets connecting the bottom of the alternator to our engine failed in benign conditions miles from the near...
Sometimes you get lucky. But not this time Issue 39 : Nov/Dec 2004 At some point in the restoration of our (new to us) old C&C Mega 30 — in fact not too long after I started — I knew I would have ...
Whether you use it or not, you’ll be judged by your speed Issue 40 : Jan/Feb 2005 A few years ago, I set out to write a “trilogy of editorials” dealing with time, speed, and distance. The time editori...
Good kayak, but is it a dinghy? Issue 40 : Jan/Feb 2005 Our C&C 30 didn’t come with a dinghy when we purchased her. On a hunch, we bought a 17-foot rotomolded two-person kayak that we manage...
We’ve finally made the dreaded eye-splice Issue 42 : May/Jun 2005 When I was a very young boy, my father told me a story about two snakes. They formed a circle, heads to tails, with each snake eating ...
A strong invisible force dulls the brain, grabs the heart Issue 43 : Jul/Aug 2005 The first time I saw her she took my breath away. She was in the end slip by the sea wall at the Oakland Boat Show. I ...
Boaters need free VHF weather forecasts at sea Issue 45 : Nov/Dec 2005 Now and then our fearless political leaders have a really bad idea. The federal luxury tax on boats, which went into effect in 19...
Wintertime on the Great Prairie Issue 46 : Jan/Feb 2006 Parade rest! The voice shouted at me from long ago and far away. Haulout on the northern prairie is a melancholy time. There was a light frost o...
Here’s a handier way to keep it in place Issue 47 : Mar/Apr 2006 Our boat has halyard winches to port and starboard near the base of the mast and another winch on the boom for the outhaul and reefs. I...
After 29 years, a new genoa Issue 47 : Mar/Apr 2006 Mystic’s 150-percent genoa was made in 1976, as near as I can tell. We’ve made repairs to it in most of the 14 years we’ve owned the boat. I even se...
Learn the only real essentials for success Issue 48 : May/Jun 2006 I recently read a prediction that it only a matter of time before anyone who is so brave and presumptuous as to command a sailboat wi...
Perhaps how NOT to do this Issue 49 : Jul/Aug 2006 The first time I saw a Mega 30 was at a boat chow. She was a new idea, a new design, and newly built . . . all untried and unproven. I wanted one. I ...
Home is where the heart (and the boat) is Issue 51 : Nov/Dec 2006 Our boat had wintered over in Blind River, Ontario. WE had been cruising in the North Channel of Lake Huron off and on for about a yea...
A new concept for “sail training” Issue 51 : Nov/Dec 2006 Our 20-foot Flying Scot had a longer boom than does our C&C 30. With such a short boom, our high-aspect mainsail can’t get into very much ...