Make holding-tank chemistry work in your favor Iss...
March 12, 2026
Make holding-tank chemistry work in your favor Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 You’ve polished the gelcoat, cleaned the seat covers, and put out matching towels, and yet when guests visit the head, their rea...
Insurance against the 0-dark-thirty cartridge change Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 I well remember the first time I had to change a diesel fuel filter under duress. We were on our first trip away from the ...
. . . and two early IOR cruiser/racers Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 Here is a trio of moderate 28-foot cruiser/racers from the 1970s. This was an extremely popular size during this period and builders oft...
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...
. . . to a fresh crew of familiar old hands Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 In early April, Jerry and I experienced “the first day of the rest of our lives.” This followed my waking one morning in late Febru...
The novelty of a first sail is a source of joy Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Avital Keeley was 13 last summer when she spent a couple of days as a guest of Good Old Boat founders, Jerry Powlas and I, aboar...
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...
It uses a feature common to many devices Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 It started with a search for an anemometer, as I was curious about wind speeds while sailing my Seaward 24. Sure, I had an idea of wha...
Keep out their prey and spiders won’t move in Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Over the more than 40 years that I’ve been messing around in boats, I’ve had to deal with a variety of uninvited guests that have...
A water-cooled fridge keeps its chill in warm waters Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Sailing in any region where the water is warm — the Tropics, Florida, and the Bahamas come to mind — can impose a real str...
Weighing cruising gains vs. performance losses Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 By modifying the keel on his Tartan 37 to reduce its draft (see “A Keel Too Deep”), Tom Wells has taken a step that many sailors...
Turning a deep-draft racer into a shoal-draft cruiser Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 As we approached our retirement, Sandy and I confronted a dilemma. We had owned our Tartan 37, Higher Porpoise, since 199...
Well-drilled junior sailors help save a mast Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 To the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song . . . Let me tell you a little story ’bout an engineer named Tom.Had a little bo...
A cannibalized cockpit enclosure provides versatile shelter Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 How much shelter from the weather does a sailing crew need? Some sailors look at their bare unprotected cockpits an...
A beloved family member receives a whole new cockpit Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Our 1961 Alden Challenger yawl, Christmas, has brought us joy season after season for many years. She is one of 53 Alden C...
Is it real? Is it laminate? No, it’s paint! Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 My good old boat is a 1979 San Juan 28, a plastic production-line IOR fin-keeler. When I had her hauled one recent fall for a multi...
The practiced art of setting and weighing anchor under sail Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 In four years of cruising aboard MonArk, we’ve lost our engine twice. On the second occasion, in San Francisco Bay,...
A new alternator delivers on the promise of faster charging Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Electrical systems aboard cruising sailboats hang by two threads: the capacity and reliability of the batteries and...
. . . evolve alongside a contemporary cousin Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 The Viking 33 is one of a small number of boats designed for another builder by C&C Yachts after the company’s creation in 196...
A rakish C&C design that races and cruises equally well Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Restoring an old boat is much like falling in love. Not much about it is logical or rational, but when we fall for ...
No deviations in Good Old Boat’s wake Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Back in 1998, when Loran-C was in widespread use and the world’s attention was focused on Y2K, a couple of Great Lakes sailors noted that...
A father and son rediscover an old family “friend” Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 For 22 years, we didn’t hear much about Quelle Vie, the boat my grandfather purchased in 1966. She was a Grampian Classic 31,...
A simple springline takes the heat out of docking Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 Many boaters, power or sail, have a little trouble docking cleanly, sometimes made worse by a “helper” on the dock taking char...
Securing non-human crew against the unexpected Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 We were hand-steering my Southern Cross 28 in rather blustery winds on a fairly smooth Conception Bay, headed for the Royal Newfo...
Anyone handy and well tooled can make them at home Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 Over the course of 30 years, the unfinished handrails on my friend’s 35-foot Bruno & Stillman powerboat had become whittl...
Generations bond while stitching and gluing Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 When my grandson Ryan was born, in 2007, I was reminded of the fact that I never knew my grandfathers, as both had passed away befor...
The onboard “just in case” locker supplied the parts Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 Over the years, our method for boarding the boat from the dinghy has changed. In our South Coast 25 days, we used the swim ...
Years and years of antifouling succumb to chemical stripping Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 After a pressure washing at the boatyard, the hull of our new-to-us Morgan 382 did not present a pretty picture. Wh...
Replacing them with shelves created more storage space Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 When our youngest son, David, his wife, Hannah, and their toddler, Ashleigh, began the transition to being liveaboards tw...
A deflated blow-up makes way for something solid Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 We bought our Mercury inflatable dinghy 11 years ago, despite some misgivings about the concept of its inflatable floor. The di...
