Boat Show Blues First, the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival was canceled, due to the pandemic (but they are putting on a fantastic virtual show, with a movie premiere. Next, we heard that the Newpor...
Issue 134: Sept/Oct 2020 If you’re lucky in this life, you uncover, understand, and embrace what makes you happy. And if you’re gifted in this passion, if you can make it the foundation of your purpos...
Best Harbor in the U.S. is… US Harbors surveyed an audience of 5 million and received votes for 786 different harbors as candidates for the best. The winner? Depoe Bay, Oregon. This is a cool pl...
Small Craft Warning? We editors at Good Old Boat are sailors and wordsmiths, a great mesh of interest and vocation. It also means that when the National Weather Service (NWS) proposes a change in the ...
Vintage Racing-Rigging Info Wanted Reader Hal Nash of Waldport, Oregon, wrote asking for our help. We don’t have the knowledge he seeks and we referred him to riggers we know, but offered to also put...
We want to hear from you! We want your help, and we’re willing to offer you something for it. We want to hear from as many readers as possible about the products or services you’ve discovered/purchas...
On February 21, Good Old Boat lost its undisputed biggest fan. Tom Wells died peacefully and unexpectedly aboard his boat in Florida; he laid down for a nap and never woke. His public obituary is here...
Saildrone “You knew it was coming…” is the message Good Old Boat contributing editor Allen Penticoff sent me with a link to saildrone.com. Maybe we should have, seems to be the era of the drone, from ...
Self Sufficient Sailor, by Lin and Larry Pardey (Pardey Books, 2019; 332 pages) There’s no questioning or disputing the sailing (and writing) creds that made Lin and Larry Pardey household names among...
Falling, by Brion Toss (C-Star Press, 2018; 52 pages) Maybe you’ve met people doing what they’re born to do? People who early-on embraced a vocation that was perfectly aligned with their interests and...
A Big Mistake We made it clear last month that we’re offering free Good Old Boat magazine subscriptions to any active-duty servicemember. We failed to make it clear that we were talking about US servi...
A night passage in familiar waters nearly ends in disaster. Issue 132: May/June 2020 I’m not a great sailor, not even a very good one. But I enjoy moving from one place to another in that way, and I’v...
Oh, The Cost Of Getting From One Ocean To Another We last transited the Panama Canal in 1997, aboard our 1980 Newport 27, heading from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It was a rich and exciting ex...
Good Deed, Good Boat, Everyone Happy A couple of issues ago, we announced that Paul Koepf was giving away Bagheera, his turn-key, well-maintained 1981 Morgan 32 for a single US dollar to the writer wh...
Quick and Dry Boat Building Contest Good Old Boat contributing editor Cliff Moore sent the following report from this year’s Boatbuilding Challenge held at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufo...
Compass & Sextant: The Journey of Peregrin Took, by Phil Hoysradt, with Carol Hill (Yankee Publishing, 2019; 157 pages) Good Old Boat uses affiliate links and may earn a small commission if...
Department of Corrections Introducing Ira Klurfield’s “Poem of the Month” in the August issue of The Dogwatch, we got our wires crossed, completely. Ira’s first boat was not a...
Helping the next generation of sailors to find sailing Issue 128: Sept/Oct 2019 In 2016, my family and I were lucky to witness the dawn of the resurgence of youth sailing in American Samoa. I wish eve...
A Dollar and Some Words = a Morgan 32 Do you want to own Paul Koepf’s Bagheera, a turn-key 1981 Morgan 32? She can be yours for $1, and a winning essay. Read on, this is good. First, the essay. In at...
Memories make up for the deficiency in dollars recouped Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Hopefully, by the time this issue goes to print she’ll be gone, out of my life. She’d better be, she’s sitting unattend...
Whether for babies or boats, it’s the human condition Issue 126: May/June 2019 When my first daughter was a newborn, I’d have jumped in front of a car to save her life, not because she was my daughter...
Could the 2018 Golden Globe Race have been fairer and safer? Issue 125: March/April 2019 As I write this column, four of the five sailors remaining in the 2018 Golden Globe Race have rounded Cape Horn...
Learn to refine it by chasing good old boats around the buoys Issue 124: Jan/Feb 2019 I am not a very skilled sailor. I’ve sailed thousands of miles in all types of weather, from Glacier Bay to Panama...
ASA RAISES OVER $40,000 TO BOOST LITERACY The American Sailing Association (ASA), America’s premier sail-education authority, announced last week that it raised $41,379 this fall to benefit Hands Acro...
BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON HONORING HEROES The Association for Rescue at Sea (AFRAS) last month held their annual maritime search and rescue awards ceremony at the Rayburn House Office Building at Washingto...
BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON WE WANT FANCY If you’ve done any fancy rope work on your boat, send us a great photo of it. Maybe you’ve wrapped your wheel or boathook handle. Maybe you’ve wrapped your keel-step...
BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON WE WANT FANCY We have a fantastic readers’ photo spread coming up in the September issue, and we’re already thinking ahead to the next. If you’ve done any fancy rope work on your ...
BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON FREE GOOD OLD BOAT Interested in a sound Albin Vega 27? She’s on the hard in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and reader James Villa is giving her away to a good home. Of course, there ...
BEWARE THE PENETRATION-PROMOTING CHEMICALS There are chemicals in many bottom paint strippers that serve to help the chemicals that break down old paint penetrate layers and layers of old paint...
BY MICHAEL ROBERTSON WHAT’S IN A COLOR? You’re probably aware that the folks at BoatU.S. sell boat name graphics. You’re likely also aware that each year they release a list of the most popular boat n...