From essential spar to useful accessory Issue 113: March/April 2017 Once upon a time, all sailboats that carried headsails had bowsprits. In the days when masts were cut from trees, there was a defini...
A latecomer to rowing dips in her oar Issue 113: March/April 2017 The title of Richard Bode’s wildly popular little book says it all: First You Have to Row a Little Boat. I don’t know how many copies ...
Do not poo-poo the smarts of swallows Issue 114: May/June 2017 Birds and other wild creatures that inhabit our boating waters are tough, adaptable, and innovative — and sometimes annoying. But always ...
Issue 114: May/June 2017 While the first fiberglass auxiliary sailboats were introduced in the mid-1950s, and the 28-foot 6-inch Pearson Triton (1959) was widely considered the most successful series-...
Love at first sight and its consequences Issue 114: May/June 2017 Long before he belayed himself to the legendary Spray, Joshua Slocum found himself taken by the Northern Light when she sailed into th...
Learning from adventures in anchoring Issue 114: May/June 2017 For the first two months of cruising on MonArk, our 1979 Dufour 35, I barely slept at anchor. I was too nervous about the possibility of ...
A shocking danger is ever imminent Issue 114: May/June 2017 Marinas are usually situated in places that offer good protection from storms. During the summer months, those locations can shield marinas ...
Scenes from a sailing season Issue 114: May/June 2017 Friday, May 22 On the water at last! I step into the cockpit and feel Finn dip toward me as if in greeting. I scull away from the boat ramp past t...
Mystic sometimes hosts very special guests Issue 114: May/June 2017 Our Mystic is no ordinary C&C 30. Not only has she been featured in this magazine uncountable times, she’s had two sailing lumin...
A fellow sailor’s life viewed with a little envy Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 I was shocked when I saw her standing there . . . stark . . . alone . . . desolate . . . a solitary silhouette against a blazi...
Reentry after cruising has its ups and downs Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 Not too long ago, we returned from our longest sailing adventure to date, almost a year of cruising from Tennessee to the Bahamas ...
The Cuban yo-yo takes up no space yet hauls in dinner Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 I’m a fishing sailor. Fishing passes the time during periods of light winds, and there is no finer dining than on a fish ...
A high-schooler falls for a derelict in the woods Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 Do you remember when you were younger, before you’d been thrown a few surprises and knocked around a bit by life? Back then, ...
Don’t leave anything to chance Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 During the seasonal cruiser migration along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW), it is quite common to see boats bottle-necked before a dr...
. . . to a fresh crew of familiar old hands Issue 115: July/Aug 2017 In early April, Jerry and I experienced “the first day of the rest of our lives.” This followed my waking one morning in late Febru...
The novelty of a first sail is a source of joy Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Avital Keeley was 13 last summer when she spent a couple of days as a guest of Good Old Boat founders, Jerry Powlas and I, aboar...
Dash off little jobs with dispatch Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 When I’m desperate to get a relatively small teak finish job done in a hurry I . . . Allen Penticoff, a Good Old Boat contributing editor, i...
It uses a feature common to many devices Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 It started with a search for an anemometer, as I was curious about wind speeds while sailing my Seaward 24. Sure, I had an idea of wha...
Keep out their prey and spiders won’t move in Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Over the more than 40 years that I’ve been messing around in boats, I’ve had to deal with a variety of uninvited guests that have...
Well-drilled junior sailors help save a mast Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 To the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song . . . Let me tell you a little story ’bout an engineer named Tom.Had a little bo...
The practiced art of setting and weighing anchor under sail Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 In four years of cruising aboard MonArk, we’ve lost our engine twice. On the second occasion, in San Francisco Bay,...
No deviations in Good Old Boat’s wake Issue 116: Sept/Oct 2017 Back in 1998, when Loran-C was in widespread use and the world’s attention was focused on Y2K, a couple of Great Lakes sailors noted that...
A father and son rediscover an old family “friend” Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 For 22 years, we didn’t hear much about Quelle Vie, the boat my grandfather purchased in 1966. She was a Grampian Classic 31,...
A simple springline takes the heat out of docking Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 Many boaters, power or sail, have a little trouble docking cleanly, sometimes made worse by a “helper” on the dock taking char...
Generations bond while stitching and gluing Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 When my grandson Ryan was born, in 2007, I was reminded of the fact that I never knew my grandfathers, as both had passed away befor...
Its master commands it by radio Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 Shortly after becoming a sailboat owner, I became intrigued by the idea of building a radio-controlled model sailboat that performed like the re...
Objets d’art emerge from an off-season pastime Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 When my boat is under wraps for the winter, I seek outlets that help me preserve my sailing sanity. One of my off-season pastimes...
Signature sailboat designs seem to have gone by the board Issue 117: Nov/Dec 2017 Doug Peterson drew a 35-foot sailboat, borrowed money from his grandmother to have it built in his hometown, raced it ...
The McBride knack for sidestepping misfortune Issue 118: Jan/Feb 2018 Sitting in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, four weeks after the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Maria missed us by a few miles, with no ...
An older boat is good enough for a crew of older sailors Issue 118: Jan/Feb 2018 This adventure started just like our last one (“Narrowboat Adventure,” July 2016), over a bottle of wine in the cockpit...
