Make holding-tank chemistry work in your favor Iss...
March 12, 2026
A long-admired boat, finally acquired, revealed its shortcomings Issue 126: May/June 2019 After waiting years, I found the right boat at the right price in the right location. But was she needed to ca...
A few — of many — rules to race by Issue 126: May/June 2019 Robb Lovell introduced readers to the fun of racing (“Testing the Waters in PHRF Part 1,” January 2019) and shared tips on how to sail fast ...
A garden-variety geotextile is a perfect protective sock Issue 126: May/June 2019 Having spent a substantial sum for a new foam-luff cruising genoa to fit the CDI furler on our Catalina 22, Bright Eye...
When winter impounds the keelboat, the trailer-boat heads south toward spring The voice of Elvis Presley is running through my brain once more as I write. It’s the same refrain that played often durin...
A distinctive big, fast sloop from the giant of West Coast boatbuilders Issue 126: May/June 2019 Craig Shaw’s search for a racing sailboat ended when he found a Columbia 43. That was 35 years ago. Tho...
Losing the steering is not necessarily the end of steering Issue 126: May/June 2019 Loss of steering is possibly the most common reason boats sailing long offshore passages are abandoned. The inabilit...
Given new feet, they’ll last a few more years Issue 126: May/June 2019 By owning five boat stands for more than 20 years, I have saved the annual rental cost of $25 per stand when my Grampian 30 is ha...
How to (and not to) install hardware to cored laminates Issue 126: May/June 2019 Installing hardware on boats, a seemingly straightforward procedure, is fraught with pitfalls: failure to reinforce the...
Too wide for a container’s door? Turn the problem on its side. Issue 126: May/June 2019 My best friend, Ante, and I have been small-boat owners all our lives. Growing up in Croatia, on the Adriatic Se...
They put a check on electronic noise from RFI and EMI Issue 126: May/June 2019 Have you ever tried to listen to someone transmitting on their VHF whose voice was almost drowned out by an annoying buzz...
An old design puts cheap wheels under a long-loved tender Issue 126: May/June 2019 When I moved from New Jersey in the spring of 2018, I sold, gave away, or abandoned a lot of my stuff, including the ...
A couple of days’ work extends into an odyssey Issue 126: May/June 2019 Way in the back of the long-term storage lot where old boats go to die, I looked at my Catalina 34, Ukiyo, and thought of an ins...
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...
A hand-powered pump, glass jars, and ingenuity are the recipe Issue 126: May/June 2019 About 30 years ago, at the Houston Boat Show, I saw a product called Pump-N-Seal, a device that restores a vacuum...
Where wind and tide play tag beyond Seal Rocks Issue 126: May/June 2019 The sail hangs limp. The tiller swings free. I let the mainsheet slither out of my fingers to the deck. My wife, Ellen, yawns an...
Add-ons made a luggage cart multi-purpose Issue 126: May/June 2019 A handcart is handy to have aboard a boat. We wanted one that could adapt to carrying a variety of items, support a considerable payl...
Good Old Boat contributor Chas Hague turned us on to Sailing Soulianis, and now we want to share. This young couple is squeezing all they can out of life and today that life centers around their good ...
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....
Most of us know Michael Palin from his days with Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but he has also produced several superb BBC travel documentaries. It was probably his fame from the former and inv...
Peter Brennan has “wrung more salt water out of his socks than most of us have sailed over.” This memoir encompasses 10 voyages the author has made aboard his Pearson 30, Happy Times; on Mists ...
THUMBS DOWN FOR PFD PERSPECTIVE I just have to comment on the most recent The Dogwatch Mail Buoy conversation about pictures of kids without PFDs (“Thumbs Up For Depicted PFD Use,” March 2019). I foun...
Singlehanded sailing and photography don’t always go together. Throw in some brisk wind, maybe a tender boat, perhaps no autopilot, and capturing the moments and scenes on camera can be a real challen...
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....
We tend to forget how much GPS, accurate weather forecasting, and modern hull, sail, and communications technologies have improved our ability to get around faster and more safely on the ocean. Oh, an...
Margaret Roth died February 25 in Easton, Maryland. She was the legendary sailing first mate aboard several boats she and her husband, the late Hal Roth, cruised extensively over the years. Hal was a ...
THUMBS UP FOR SHOWING PFD USE Glad to see you’ve got a photo of a kid with a PFD on. Last year’s discussion on this topic was unnerving for me, and I was quite disappointed that some on your end defen...
Over the past several years, the sailing community has been blessed with the publication of several excellent biographies of prominent yacht designers, including those of L. Francis Herreshoff by Roge...
Glen Patron was born, as he says, “on the wrong side of the docks,” and grew up on Great Neck, on Long Island, New York. As a young boy, Glen developed a love for all literature that had anything to d...
A fresh-air solution for a boat that lacks a locker Issue 125: March/April 2019 In the 1970s and ’80s, a lot of production sailboats were equipped with alcohol-fueled galley stoves. Accordingly, there...
