Issue 5 : Mar/Apr 1999 At the end of his Mediterranean odyssey, Ulysses was given divine instructions to put his oars on his shoulder and walk inland until people no longer recognized what he was carr...
Issue 8 : Sept/Oct 1999 If your good old boat is powered by an Atomic 4, a valve job is in your future sooner or later. When I purchased my Pearson Triton, I was told the Atomic 4 had been “running fi...
Petite pole packs plenty pull Issue 10 : Jan/Feb 2000 Whisker poles have come a long way since I sailed up the Pleasant River, in Addison, Maine, using a battered broomstick to hold out the jib of my ...
Issue 12 : May/Jun 2000 Most of the people I talk to, including many boating professionals, don’t know the difference between brass and bronze. Many use the words interchangeably. Although brass and b...
Issue 13 : Jul/Aug 2000 While most of the rigging on our boat was very satisfactory when we bought it, the whisker pole and mast pad-eye were not particularly reassuring. The pole was a small-diameter...
Here’s a hard-bottom inflatable you can create in an afternoon for less than $600 Issue 15 : Nov/Dec 2000 When I bought Millennium Falcon, my 44-foot Bruce Roberts-designed steel sailboat, she came wi...
Issue 16 : Jan/Feb 2001 I purchased two sets of new oars more than 30 years ago for use with a beautiful 12-foot Whitehall-type rowing tender built by Jarvis Newman of Southwest Harbor, Maine. The ten...
Issue 16 : Jan/Feb 2001 I had always wanted a small rowing pram for a dinghy, so during our short cool winter, my daughter and I built one in the garage. Like many homemade boats, it ended up a little...
Issue 18: May/June 2001 This was one of the simplest projects we have undertaken, requiring an equally low skill level. We chose brass for its corrosion resistance, ease of forming, and salty good loo...
Issue 17 : Mar/Apr 2001 If you sail in Texas, or somewhere just as hot, you learn to live with the heat. But on those nights when the breeze dies, there’s only one thing to do: head for the marina and...
Lessons in morality from a tiny charcoal-burning stove Issue 17 : Mar/Apr 2001 This is a sonnet, a love song if you will, of appreciation and praise for a stubby little cast-iron stove. In it I will s...
Issue 19 : Jul/Aug 2001 On a small boat, especially a skinny one like ours, storage space is a precious commodity. For several years we carried a rigid swim-ladder — a wonderful bit of gear for those ...
Stanchions: Safe, salty, sturdy Issue 19 : Jul/Aug 2001 Sailor Ron Bohannon fell in love with a Phil Rhodes Chesapeake 32. As is often the case with older boats, she needed work. But he loved the line...
Issue 27: Nov/Dec 2002 CLEAR WINDOW PLASTIC IN SPRAYHOODS AND SAILS TENDS TO deteriorate much faster than the yacht acrylic or sailcloth it’s sewn onto. First it yellows, then it becomes brittle, and ...
Give your fenders a smart new pair of socks Issue 27: Nov/Dec 2002 BOAT FENDERS ARE FUNCTIONAL. They are not meant to be fashionable. We remove them the instant we leave the dock, don’t we? And yet . ...
Issue 27: Nov/Dec 2002 The relative merits and demerits of the two main methods of self-steering — electronic and windvane — are often debated. Both have their merits, but we seem to have forgotten th...
Issue 20 : Sept/Oct 2001 A keyhole saw is invaluable when you need to fit a barometer or speaker into a bulkhead, cut a dolphin-shaped vent in a locker-door, or for any holes you have to cut when — fo...
Issue 21 : Nov/Dec 2001 We bought a pair of gleaming gunmetal oarlocks for our dinghy and were immediately presented with a brain-teaser. Our old oarlocks were rough galvanized affairs with plastic ho...
It’s wise to keep a sextant aboard and to know how to use it Issue 21 : Nov/Dec 2001 Nobody will argue that celestial navigation is simple. But Ken Gebhart is prepared to argue that the basics can be ...
Issue 22 : Jan/Feb 2002 Crack! Not the sound you want to hear as you reach across the bay in a freshening breeze. Especially when the tiller feels as if it isn’t connected to the boat at the same time...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 After repainting the hull on our Yankee Seahorse 24, the rubrail, when compared with the new paint, suddenly looked worse than ever. We tried the Tyco catalog but couldn’t fin...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 Getting back aboard most sailboats from the water without a ladder is next to impossible. Although many sailboats can have a stainless-steel, pull-down ladder on the transom, ...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The traditional way to check your course while belowdecks is with a telltale — an upside-down compass mounted in the skipper’s cabin (see photo of one such compass on Page 30....
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 There is nothing more irritating than the thwack of a hard dinghy against your transom. Cursing, you stomp up on deck, give the painter a few extra feet of slack, and thrust th...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 Having had my wind-whipped luffing sheets, halyards, and numerous other lines foul on cleats, I came up with a solution to this dilemma: a foulproof wooden cleat. A groove cut ...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 One of the most vivid recollections of my childhood is of a boat launching at a local public ramp. A young man and his attractive girlfriend arrived in his new convertible with...
Issue 26 : Sept/Oct 2002 Every sailor is instructed, encouraged, and eventually submits to reading Adlard Coles’s Heavy Weather Sailing. Sometimes we find extreme circumstances at sea. Besides, it’s a...
Issue 28 : Jan/Feb 2003 My good friend, Lloyd Roberts, mentioned that he’d like a boarding gate over the transom of his Ericson 27, and I came up with this fix. It’s an easy modification, and th...
A cost-effective way to convert a mountain bike Issue 28 : Jan/Feb 2003 For our forthcoming trip to the Mediterranean, we wanted folding mountain bikes. But with prices ranging from $600 to more than ...
How to turn a home sewing machine into a macho sailor’s model Issue 28 : Jan/Feb 2003 Helen lived with our family for close to 15 years before her body degenerated into a hunk of oxidized aluminum and...
