Having capitulated, here’s how to raise the waterl...
September 25, 2026
Silent power for home comforts afloat Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 There are only two practical ways to get AC power on board when not plugged into shorepower: with a generator or with an inverter. Althou...
See, be seen, and talk about it Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 “This is sailing vessel Entr’acte WYR 3025 — at latitude 24 degrees 16 minutes north, longitude 97 degrees 14 minutes west — calling the cargo ...
Proven procedures keep the juice flowing Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 I joined the Navy right out of high school many years ago and they saw fit to teach me to be an electronics technician. Throughout my ...
A foil made with fiberglass, foam, and ingenuity Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 One of the appealing things about Nurdle, my Bristol 35.5, is that she has a centerboard. I knew this would be an ongoing main...
Separation achieved Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 In part 1 of this series about the evolution of keels (May 2015), we looked at the early use of external ballast let into the keel timbers of early British...
Nature and lack of nurture take their toll Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 We had just crossed the equator northbound on passage from the Solomon Islands to Micronesia when we saw a squall approaching from t...
A Pacific 30 — possibly the last one — sails again Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 Every marina has a few neglected boats. Their owners, enthusiastic at first but now distracted by daily life, have left thes...
A handy sailing rig for dinghies and small trailerables Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 The gunter rig was developed by Edmund Gunter in the late 1700s. It has always been popular in Europe and, during the a...
Two Chris-Craft 35s illustrate the designer’s dilemma Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 When doing design comparisons for our feature boat articles, it’s important to find the proper variation of the model in ...
. . . and center-cockpit contemporaries Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 The center-cockpit layout creates an ideal accommodation plan for cruising, especially for those cruising with another couple or kids. ...
A pedigreed early center-cockpit design Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 Calypso music played in my head as I photographed Yellowbird, a 1972 banana-colored Chris-Craft Sail Yacht 35. Abeam of the photo boat,...
The ever-narrowing gap twixt cup and lip Issue 103 : Jul/Aug 2015 A search on the Internet would have you believe that the term “slippery slope” has been in use since 1951. In the grimmest of definiti...
A new role brings a fresh identity Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 I renamed my boat. For several years, I’ve made my home aboard a 1967 Irwin 27 . . . just another narrow-beamed mass-produced vintage sloop...
Useless spaces can earn their keep Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Our MacGregor 26D, Thebote, has a tiny sink area that is relatively useless. For a long time it held the wastebasket. Recently, at the requ...
Eye-catching reflective tape adds color Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 The reflective cove stripe on our 1981 C&C Landfall 35 had faded badly. To refresh it, we used a type of pressure- sensitive adhes...
Heat the food, not the cabin and crew Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 I should put this on the table right now: I am a vegetarian. When every other boater in the harbor is preparing dinner on an outside gri...
A thoroughbred at home on rivers, lakes, and oceans Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Phil Bills began sailing in 1960 when he was 15. He grew up in Delaware, Ohio, north of Columbus, and sailed the Douglass ...
A drop-in refrigerator delivers the cold Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Whether to have an icebox or a refrigerator on a sailboat has always been a difficult choice, especially on a small boat with limited...
Karma and kind strangers made it happen Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 One desk-bound afternoon in May, as I juggled two phones, carrying two calls to two different area codes in a foreign country, while f...
A stitch in time can extend the life of a sail Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 The monsoon season was upon us. Each day we spoke by high-frequency radio to friends clawing their way toward Palau aboard a 50...
Find the fault with a multimeter and a flowchart Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 When one of your engine instruments stops working, it’s good to be able to diagnose the problem yourself. If you know how to ...
Out with the old . . . er, not so fast! Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Why was there water in my normally dry bilge? Rain, I suspected. I checked all the hose clamps on the deck drains and the portholes, t...
A holding tank vent revamp clears the air Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 I found an easy, inexpensive way to improve my boat’s holding-tank system. It cost $10, the stink is gone, and the catastrophe the o...
Welding plastic for a superior sanitation system Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Our 1978 Bristol 29.9 had been experiencing a number of “holding tank issues.” Despite new hoses, we’d been getting frequent ...
High-level protection at a low price Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 Sometime before we left — towing our 25-foot Catalina C250 WB (water ballast) — for a yearlong “road and float” 17,000-mile cruise around...
Bites, sweep, fins, bulbs, wings, and winglets Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 In Part 1 (May 2015) and Part 2 (July 2015) of this narrative, we explored the evolution of the keel from a longitudinal struct...
Exercise that gets you somewhere on the water Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 For many of us, our very first boat was a rowboat — in my case an old and leaky one — so every outing is a trip down memory lane...
A quick trailerable that does the small things right Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 R K. “Kim” Hogan, a retired airline captain, and his wife, Karen, have been sailing their 1996 Precision 23, Willow, on t...
Familiar waters feel like a fond hug Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015 We had just seen a favorite kid play the role of a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz when we untied our docklines in late June for a 75-nautic...
A loyal, uncomplaining member of the crew Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 We lost a treasured sailing companion several years back and sailing hasn’t been quite the same since. By all appearances that August...
