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...
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 ...
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...
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...
Our customers’ biggest concern is often “What measurements do I need and how do I use them to create a proper fit.” Let me respond to that question first. The key dimensions for any ...
Getting tasty water from your boat’s tap isn’t a pipe dream if you follow some basic steps. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 Stagnant, skunky, tank-sourced drinking water is one of the less romantic aspects of...
A new life for an abandoned good old boat turns a lubber into a sailor. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 It all began on a sunny mid-August Saturday seven years ago, my two boys and I walking along the harbor ...
An alternator puzzle leads down an illuminating electrical rabbit hole. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 For several days while anchored off a remote Pacific island, wind and solar power took care of the batte...
Understanding what’s happening on the bottom goes a long way to improving anchoring success. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 Any article about anchoring can smack of fear mongering. And the audience is ripe b...
Rethinking a battery lifting strap results in a longer-lived piece of essential boat gear. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 Batteries are heavy. In a sailboat they are best positioned low, near the centerline,...
Adding a gate in the stern pulpit makes for easy in, easy out. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 We love our 40-year-old Catalina 27, but it has the old-style stern pulpit with no easy access to the swim ladder...
Here’s how to put a quick, easy stop to a free-spinning prop and shaft. Issue 130: Jan/Feb 2020 Under sail aboard Soggy Paws, our CSY 44, the flow of water past our hull makes our fixed-blade prop spi...
From Carbon Wings to Polytarp Lugs and Beyond: The Complete Guide to What’s Flying in 2025 The wind hasn’t changed, but the cloth catching it has never been more diverse. On one marina dock you’ll fin...
During a running refit, a boat imparts life and sailing lessons. Issue 132: May/June 2020 It all started on a freezing winter’s day in a boatyard at the French Canadian-New York border. The decks of t...
A new mainsail puts a spring in a good old boat’s step. Issue 132: May/June 2020 I slept with my sail in my bunk for a month before I finally set it. That hadn’t been the plan. The plan had been to me...
Buckets, sawdust, and a clever seat make a functional dry marine toilet. Issue 132: May/June 2020 When our son, John, moved aboard his Baba 30, the marine head was inoperable and unrepairable. He saw ...
Eight-track audio tape makes for perfect telltales. Issue 132: May/June 2020 When I first began sailing my own boats, I tied yarn to the shrouds to use as telltales. This common, quick-and-easy method...
Need emergency running lights? Try soda caps, PVC, and a little ingenuity. Issue 132: May/June 2020 On a recent sail approaching our anchorage at dusk, I switched on the running lights and saw the sta...
Issue 133: July/Aug 2020 In the introduction to their book Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, Don Casey and Lew Hackler suggest that, “The applicability of the philosophy of Thoreau to the activ...
This refit of a proven, 1970s-era racer maximized performance for speed, safety, and fun. Issue 136: Jan/Feb 2021 Three months after selling my Cal 2-29, Loophole, I found myself pining for another bo...
A bracket fabricated from Coosa board keeps an outboard tiller out of mischief. Issue 136: Jan/Feb 2021 The outboard tiller had been bothering me for a while. The friction lock on the engine side—the ...
Fabricating a spray hood changes the companionway game. Issue 139: July/Aug 2021 Our 1965 Alberg 35 has been a wonderful boat to us, but there are a few places where she could stand to be a little mor...
Worry about a bobstay failure inspires a rigging and anchor locker redesign. Issue 139: July/Aug 2021 Over the years, I’ve come to know my 1978 Allied Seawind II pretty well. Yet, that part of my boat...
