With a few inexpensive parts and some free software, you can enable your boat to call your cell phone.

Have your boat text you when it’s in trouble Issue 83: March/April 2012 Recreational boats can lead a lonely life. On the weekends, it’s party time with lots of guests and action. During the weekdays,...

Over many years, reflected UV glare degraded even the underside of this deck ventilator.

It’s invisible, insidious, and destructive Issue 83: March/April 2012 Everyone today knows we shouldn’t go out in the sun without wearing adequate protection, but it wasn’t always so. Noel Coward wrot...

Illustration of charting desk on a boat

How we see in the dark, or not Issue 83: March/April 2012 We live in a world of constant bright light: sunlight during the day and artificial light at night. As a result, we may not realize that there...

Joe bought a used instrument pod but couldn’t use its faceplate . . .

A new faceplate accommodates new gadgets Issue 82 : Jan/Feb 2012 After more than 25 years sailing, I decided it was time to get an autopilot for Unicorn, our Catalina 30. When it came to installing th...

Ken’s new holding tank is plumbed and secured in place with webbing straps, on facing page. He made a pattern for each side of the male mold, at right, and placed the mold on a laminate surface from which the laminated tank would easily release, below.

Its irregular shape dictated DIY Issue 82 : Jan/Feb 2012 My 1986 Pearson 28-2 had a rubber-bladder waste tank that had seen its day. After being filled and emptied many times since it was installed, i...

Illustration of being anchored on a tree

Coming to an anchorage near you Issue 82 : Jan/Feb 2012 During a 2010 cruise to Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver, we found ourselves anchored for two days in a tree. Not tied to a tree, bu...