Indulging that strong urge to stamp it with your own character Issue 61: July/Aug 2008 Just after high school, I bought a good old car. The first thing I did was to wrap the sun visors and glove box d...
Pearson Ariel hull #1 sets sail again Issue 64 : Jan/Feb 2009 A few years ago, when my wife, Ann, and I were searching for a boat, we happened upon a beauty. We were in Oxford, Maryland, for the weeke...
Once stranded and condemned, she’s now her salvor’s Ruby Deux Issue 67: July/Aug 2009 In the tradition of all good seafaring stories, this one began on a night dark as pitch. The wind built from the s...
A new old compass goes in the right surroundings Issue 67: July/Aug 2009 When I purchased my good old Hallberg-Rassy Mistral 33, I knew I was in for a lot of work. All the wood above deck needed to be...
Renovating a tender tests a range of skills Issue 68 : Sept/Oct 2009 Picture a boat with cracked and crazed gelcoat, delamination, blisters, composite failures, peeling paint, and holes. If you had no...
Where there’s smoke, there’s a serious Sirius cleanup Issue 69 : Nov/Dec 2009 In early December 2007, while she was alone in her slip, a fire started aboard our J/32 that nearly cost us the boat. All ...
The metamorphosis of a beat-up bargain boat Issue 69 : Nov/Dec 2009 Small-boat sailing on the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay was a part of my life growing up in Maryland in the 1960s and ’70s. I neve...
Could she be the classiest Cal 25 ever? Issue 70 : Jan/Feb 2010 I have always loved boats, the sea, and being by water. I dreamed of one day owning a classy sailing vessel that would have a luxurious,...
A Bristol 30 restoration takes its sweet and proper time Issue 73 : Jul/Aug 2010 Every night for four years, when I came in from the yard after working on my 30-foot sailboat, I heard the same questio...
This one, he swears, is the final vessel Issue 74 : Sept/Oct 2010 There comes a time in the life of every sailor when he must contemplate his final vessel. The one (figuratively, at least) that will c...
Synthetic teak covers a patchwork of repairs Issue 77 : Mar/Apr 2011 After twice repairing the deck in areas with wet core in as many years, finding yet another area with soggy balsa made me look for ...
Sparkle Plenty is an ongoing production Issue 77 : Mar/Apr 2011 In marriage, politics, and business, a matchmaker is someone who puts people together, knowing the synergy or resulting match will make ...
Building a boat while building lives Issue 78 : May/Jun 2011 David Salter is meticulous. You know that the moment you step on the boat, named Opportunity, he and his wife, Eileen, keep moored behind t...
Confronting the details to finish the job Issue 81 : Nov/Dec 2011 A couple of years ago, my wife, Mary, and I decided to renew the worn non-skid on our 30-year-old Pearson 28 with a non-skid paint pro...
A plan for the future and a project for today Issue 84 : May/Jun 2012 When I was in high school, a friend of mine and his father were working to restore a Jaguar Roadster. Anytime I asked when they we...
Years of devotion and labor lifted Spirit Issue 85 : Jul/Aug 2012 Coincidence, destiny, serendipity — call it what you will, chance must play a strong hand in matching aging boats with their rightful ...
A cheap boat and cheaper labor add up to sailing riches Issue 87 : Nov/Dec 2012 I had put our O’Day 22 on the local Craigslist and was hoping to find her a new captain by the end of May. We had sailed...
New sailors freshen up an Irwin 32 Issue 88 : Jan/Feb 2013 I learned to sail when I was 5 or 6 years old on Curaçao in the Caribbean. While I was in my early teens, my family moved to the Netherlands ...
A boat search takes an unexpected turn Issue 89 : Mar/Apr 2013 As I write this, Christine and François Ferbos have returned home to Bordeaux, France. They were in the U.S. to visit their son and his w...
Years of tender care revived a wilting Watkins Issue 90: May/June 2013 Her name is Sundew. She’s a 1978 Watkins 27 shoal-draft cruising sloop. She was named after an award-winning tulip in Holland. Sa...
. . . and an International Folkboat feels the love Issue 98: Sept/Oct 2014 It’s my belief that an obscure gene compels some of us to complicate our lives with elderly boats. In my case, it first appea...
A well-earned renovation for a well-used boat Issue 92 : Sept/Oct 2013 When Ken and Ginny Reinink decided to buy a good old boat, they had a list of criteria. The boat had to be the right size for two...
A good old classified helps a Chris-Craft Capitan Issue 93 : Nov/Dec 2013 It took two men and 16 years to complete an international effort to save Sophie. She was a little blue sloop, just like the bo...
After buying back his boat, he brought her back again Issue 94 : Jan/Feb 2014 The legendary singlehanded sailor looked me in the eye, paused for dramatic effect, and said, “Ray, buy this boat. You wil...
All agree this boat has character Issue 95 : Mar/Apr 2014 A beautifully maintained classic sailboat is sure to attract attention, even among non-sailors. The graceful hull lines and the fine details, ...
. . . but none the worse for the off-road experience Issue 96 : May/Jun 2014 That bright October afternoon, conditions were perfect for our Sunday motorcycle ride. We rumbled along for a few miles in ...
A lack of options pointed to DIY Issue 97 : Jul/Aug 2014 I met my rudder on March 30, 1998. It was attached to a Nicholson 35 that my wife, Mary Broderick, and I were about to buy. Our surveyor had ju...
Essentials first, then the fun parts Issue 97 : Jul/Aug 2014 I first laid eyes on an O’Day Mariner as a teenager while working at my family’s marina in Niantic, Connecticut. It was a derelict, but the...
Only buy new if you can’t make do Issue 99 : Nov/Dec 2014 I have owned my 1967 Alberg 30, Good News, for more than 22 years. While maintenance is always needed on a good old boat — mine is now 46 year...
Her past glory inspired a restoration Issue 99 : Nov/Dec 2014 The Cal 34 Vagus was once a star. That was in the mid-1970s to the mid-’90s, when Lake Michigan’s Bay of Green Bay was busy with races tha...
