Make holding-tank chemistry work in your favor Iss...
March 12, 2026
Dogwatch (n): For sailors, either of the 2-hour watch periods between 1600 and 2000; For journalists, the period after going to press when staff stand by in case breaking news warrants a...
CARIBBEAN EXPLOSION I wonder if any sailor readers in the Caribbean saw this on June 22: earthsky.org –Gregg Bruff, Good Old Boat contributor and reader Thanks Gregg. We didn’t see this but found read...
Fourth of July weekend, all the family gathered at Grandpa’s cottage on Harsens Island in Little Muscamoot Bay. The cousins caught fish off the seawall while the uncles grilled burgers and the aunts s...
Reading 200,000 Miles: A life of adventure, I had the sense of sitting over a cup of tea, below deck, with a sailing legend, while he enthusiastically told me everything I ever wanted to know about of...
Father and son answer a long-dormant desire for coastal cruising Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Since buying back Quelle Vie, the Grampian Classic 31-foot sloop my father bought new in 1966 and I sold in 19...
… and two more proper little yachts Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 The McCurdy & Rhodes-designed Seafarer 26 is a proper little yacht, with full standing head-room, an enclosed head, a full galley...
Leave the weight in the lake and tow a lighter boat Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Water can be used in various ways to increase a boat’s stability. One method is as old as yachting itself. Æmilius Jarvis r...
Set fasteners to the right tightness with a wrench torque Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 “Remember, Eddie, one hand on the socket end of the wrench and your other hand perpendicular to the end of the handle...
The ClampTite alternative is more effective and less injurious Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 When most sailors think of hose clamps they think of the ubiquitous worm-drive steel clamp. Worm-drive clamps ar...
It gets a new look and loses its fishhooks Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 We were in the middle of a race and Sam was up front, jibing the spinnaker pole over to the other side of the boat. “Ouch! Dammit!” ...
Rebuilding an Atomic 4 on a mooring far from home Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Although I lived in Michigan, I bought my 1967 Morgan 34 with a trip south in mind. I thought she would be a good boat for th...
They quell fear of the unknown with caution and careful planning Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Many old nautical charts bore the warning “Here Be Dragons” scribed across uncharted regions. When my husband,...
Where cast aluminum failed, mild steel became the material of choice Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 The cast-aluminum steering quadrant on Rhythm had been in use for approximately 15 years. When I removed a...
Sailing an obscure board boat had big-boat consequences Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 When writer Nathaniel Philbrick felt stranded in mid-life, he dug out the hull of his old Sunfish, the boat on which he...
E10 gasoline is now a fact of life, but its devils don’t have to be Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Why is ethanol problematic for marine engines but not for cars? The only noticeable difference for the fami...
A good and forgiving starter boat for coastal cruising Issue 127: July/Aug 2019 Rich Sutorius first became interested in sailing from watching a 1960s-era National Geographic special about Irving John...
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...
Dogwatch (n): For sailors, either of the 2-hour watch periods between 1600 and 2000;For journalists, the period after going to press when staff stand by in case breaking news warrants a late ed...
PULSATION SOLUTION? Thanks for “The Empirical Battery Test” article (The Dogwatch, May 2019) and for the editor’s notes that followed it. I want to add that there is a solution to de...
On day 20 of a Pacific Ocean crossing, having long-since raided the fresh-food stores, my husband and I were subsisting on cans of chicken and “vegetable medley.” I know now that if I’d read St...
Have you ever heard the machine-gun rat-a-tat of halyards slapping masts? I have, quite often in my marina and marinas I visit. It occurred to me that some folks are oblivious to the need to qu...
Dogwatch (n): For sailors, either of the 2-hour watch periods between 1600 and 2000; For journalists, the period after going to press when staff stand by in case breaking news warrants a late edition....
When they were new, the four Rayovac 6-volt golf-cart (GC2) batteries on Phantom, our Pearson 365 ketch, had plenty of electrical capacity to provide all the power we needed to go three or more days b...
APRIL’S POEM OF THE MONTH Me thinks he watched too much Popeye as a child… I could imagine Olive sitting next to him on the beach! –Daryl Clark Great poem. –Joe Taylor, New Orleans, Louisiana NAME THE...
Orkney-born John Rae (1813-1893) acquired many of his survival skills and his toughness from an idyllic childhood. He became a surgeon for the Hudson Bay Company and soon thrived in the challen...
Anybody who lived through, and was part of, the extraordinary growth in offshore racing in the 1970s will be familiar with the name Ron Holland. He and his friend Doug Peterson, and later, German Frer...
. . . and fellow CCA-to-IOR transition boats Issue 126: May/June 2019 The late 1960s was a period of transition in the history of yachting, when fiberglass construction, combined with a secure and gro...
