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...
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 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...
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...
Let there be light, even in the cold and wet Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 Before we left home for a year-long land-and-sea cruise around the continent, during which time we would live aboard our 25-foot C...
Trap dirt and sand before they get on the mother ship Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 My sailboat, Pelorus, sits on a mooring about a third of a mile offshore. I get to her by dinghy, a plywood Phil Bolger d...
Turn any flat surface into a workbench Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 What happens if you find yourself on a sailboat and need a vise for holding either wood or metal while you work on it? I have long admir...
Cooking up volts in the galley Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 Jones was a large man who said everything with a smile, even if he was insulting you. As I walked into the marina’s restaurant and bar, a favori...
Outsourcing and insourcing assure the best results Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 With just a few days left until landfall on our 2,800-mile passage from Mexico to the Marquesas, we noticed the steering fel...
Marital harmony restored at a bargain non-marine price Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 After our first summer in our Benford 40 schooner, one of the items high on the refit list was upgrading the control for...
Downwind sailing with a new-tech nuance Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 Square sails have been used on sailing vessels for centuries. There is little argument that these sails, when the wind is dead astern o...
Don’t let wear and tear stymie your cruising plans Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 While we were anchored in Micronesia, a large well-found yacht arrived in port on a tight schedule. She was bound for the Ma...
A fine example of English lines and lineage Issue 105 : Nov/Dec 2015 In the retail publishing business, it’s the cover photo that sells a magazine on newsstands. “Lose 25 pounds in one week!” screams ...
A salad bowl was the dressing it needed Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 When we purchased Sundew, our Watkins 27, she needed love in many areas, (see “Sundew Returns to Bloom,” May 2013). What she did have, ...
A cockpit shelter that gets around a dodger-defeating boom Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 Our San Juan 7.7 has a large mainsail and a low-sweeping boom that prevents the use of a dodger, but we’ve come up w...
Cleaning the mainsail track made easy Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 Some time ago, Don Launer came up with a great device for lubricating the mainsail slot (see “Sailtrack Lubricator,” March 2008) but I ha...
A cardboard box is an instant spray-painting booth Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 Proper anchoring depends on knowing how much rode is out. Fiber rode can be measured by arm span (fathoms) and chain can be ...
She looked the part . . . but now she also walks the walk Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 We bought our CT 54 from a couple who had been cruising on her for a few years, always with at least another couple a...
He was “through with boats” until . . . Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 In 2003, I sold my Catfisher 28, Bullfrog, and moved ashore with my soon-to-be wife, Sue. After 15 years as a liveaboard, living ashore...
Wired to a solar panel, it knows when it’s dark Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016 Wouldn’t it be nice if someone sold an automatic switch for a masthead anchor light? There may be one for sale, probably online...
Thoughts about the little boat that tends the big boat Issue 108: May/June 2016 Conditions at Fire Island Inlet on the south shore of Long Island were “a bit sporty,” as they say in New England, but n...
