Having capitulated, here’s how to raise the waterl...
September 25, 2026
Solving a perplexing problem led to an explosive discovery Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 I dialed the number and waited through several rings. A man answered, and I told him I was the most recent owner of ...
Sailing other people’s boats is a good way to find the right size Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 The essence of cruising by sailboat is not about crossing vast oceans, but about living by sail. My husband, ...
The case for a well that encloses the tilted-up motor Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Sailboat auxiliary engines, inboard and outboard, have their strong points and weak points, friends and foes. My experien...
A ravenous rat unites a community while wreaking havoc on board Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 At our farewell party at the Club Náutico de Sevilla, Spain, I ate something I shouldn’t have, and on returning...
I want a boat with tan bark sailsTo sail the ocean blueAnd a bow sprit stoutAnd a good long keelTo keep her straight and trueAnd down below a cabin snugWith stove to cut the chillOf mornings up in Noo...
Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Most Good Old Boat readers sail in US and Canadian waters, but our humble magazine crosses other borders to reach a smattering of subscribers all around the globe. Here are a ...
Those nightmare threads that become unthreadable can be avoided Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Sailing is all about feel. And sometimes it’s through feel we get the first hint that things are about to go al...
The visually impaired rely on their other senses to keep them on course Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 We sailors often say that much more than sight is involved in sailing, that feeling is just as importan...
One boat’s discard is another’s chill deal Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 One day at the dock, my slip neighbor James asked me if I had a need for a refrigeration unit on my 1965 Alberg 35. “I had to replac...
. . . and similar, but older, full-keelers Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Analyzing the performance characteristics of the Cape Dory 30 Mk II presents a bit of a challenge. When you look at the boat from ab...
In the same tradition as its predecessor but roomier on deck and below Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 In 1963, Andrew Vavolotis left Boston Whaler and founded Cape Dory Yachts. Until its demise 28 years lat...
We learn to expect the unexpected, then tell the story Issue 122: Sept/Oct 2018 Fifteen miles off the coast of Mexico on a sunny New Year’s Day, 2012, the autopilot steering, my wife, Windy, and I and...
. . . but not one to brag about or to repeat Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 When I was 15 or so I spent my weekends hanging out at the local yacht club looking pitiful until an old man felt sorry for me and ...
Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 Zippers made zippy I love this stuff. E-Z Snap Zipper & Snap Lubricant really works. I had some tough-to-use zippers aboard: the cheap plastic ones sewn into our dodger win...
Full metal jacket replaces aged-out on-deck woodwork Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 My Cal 9.2, Jade, was in a distressed state when I bought her. She’d experienced a chainplate failure and had a large numbe...
Don’t let dock-hose biomass contaminate the boat’s water tanks Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 Every time I take on fresh water, even in my home marina, I get an uneasy feeling. I’ve seen what lives in water ...
Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 In the fall of 2013, I was living in New Bern, North Carolina, and I was in the market for a bigger sailboat. It had to be a good old boat to keep the cost down to something I ...
Staying afloat in good old boats through life’s ups and downs Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 Twenty-five years ago, I stood on a dock in Redondo Beach, California, and watched Windswept, our Catalina 34, sai...
Making it himself, he controlled both the design and the budget Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 While the electrical system aboard our Alberg 35, Tomfoolery, might have been state-of-the-art when she was buil...
With careful planning, a rudder can be unshipped and refitted in the water Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 The lengths that sailors go to avoid hauling out range from the ingenious to the ridiculous. Friends ...
Worldwide connections give a 50-year-old sailboat a new lease on life Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 It’s midafternoon in late August 2015, and the wind is howling at a near gale. We’d put two deep reefs in ...
In “Mounting the Outboard Inboard, Part 1,” September 2018, James Baldwin summarized the pluses and minuses of replacing an inboard engine with an outboard motor, and specifically the benefits of inst...
Notes for creating harmony on board Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 On a torturous August crossing of Lake Superior from Isle Royale to Grand Marais, the wind was either light and on the nose or roaring up ra...
Posting Preface Jim and Connie Grant started Sailrite at a young age, driven by a deep passion for boating and sailing. Beginnings is Jim’s personal recounting of how it all began. The Sailrite story ...
A lovely full-keel cruiser in the classic CCA style Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 Bristol. The very name fires in the imagination of sailors a multitude of visions: Bristol, Rhode Island, the home of the le...
Boat ownership triggers the gene for self-reliance Issue 123: Nov/Dec 2018 Acknowledging a bit of hyperbole, I think that Kenneth Grahame’s Water Rat was right: “. . . there is nothing — absolutely no...
Issue 124: Jan/Feb 2019 Hold that beverage Accon Marine’s quick-release stainless steel drink holders use the same mounts as the quick-release fender hangers I reviewed in the September issue (“Quick-...
Sooner or later the cushions on that “Good Old Boat” will need replacement. Cushions get old. They get worn. They go out of style. They eventually bottom out. They develop hollow spots from frequent u...
Banish the black bane with a simple chemical brew Issue 124: Jan/Feb 2019 As near as I can tell, boating consists of one part blue lagoons and white sails and two parts painting the bottom, fixing eng...
Istvan Kopar’s choice for the solo nonstop race around the world Issue 124: Jan/Feb 2019 When he heard about the Golden Globe Race 2018 (see “Sailing Back in Time,” July 2018), Istvan Kopar had just t...
