All-inclusive fleets welcome novice racers at the starting line. Issue 124: Jan/Feb 2019 When I was a child, my family would spend every summer cruising and sailing out of our home port. Years later, ...
Learn to refine it by chasing good old boats around the buoys Issue 124: Jan/Feb 2019 I am not a very skilled sailor. I’ve sailed thousands of miles in all types of weather, from Glacier Bay to Panama...
In warm weather, full-length foul-weather pants are rather uncomfortable to wear for too long...
Editor’s note: Has this happened to you? You’re out for a sail and realize the cockpit-led reefing line or mainsheet that has sailed many years with you is showing signs of wear or UV damage. Back at ...
As our boat is 40 years old, she’s not free of blemishes but so far there is no indication of chalking on the gelcoat. Accordingly, every year when my wife, Eileen, and I polish the hull of our good o...
A ravenous rat unites a community while wreaking havoc on board At our farewell party at the Club Náutico de Sevilla, Spain, I ate something I shouldn’t have, and on returning to Entr’acte, I lay down...
We occasionally go to potluck events in our marina where four or five couples are trying to cook their food on a single gas/charcoal grill. There is usually too much food to cook on the grill at one t...
Editor’s note: A Taste of Sail! I love this concept and I know it’s practiced at clubs all over. But if it doesn’t happen in your community, hopefully you’ll be inspired by A Taste of Sail to start so...
2017 was a disastrous sailing season for the boaters of the lower Great Lakes. At launch time in late April, the water was several feet higher than normal. Owners donned rubber boots to wade through s...
Keeping up an older boat pays back in family time, not dollars What is the point of all the effort and expense I put into owning a good old boat? I often find myself asking this question, usually afte...
This project, like so many others, just didn’t go as planned. A surveyor had pointed out the need to replace a failing exhaust hose on Second Star, the 1993 Sabre 362 I’d just bought. Complying ...
The best fishing is behind my boat, a 1967 Morgan. I know this because every time I settle into a new anchorage, one, two, or more fishing boats inevitably appear, only a fish’s throw from my cockpit....
Many of us have Barient winches on our good old boats. If you’ve got them, you may have noticed that they aren’t what they once were. My late 80’s cruiser/racer has 8 of them. Years ago, servicing the...
In late September, our marina manager asked if I would be interested in salvaging a few sailboats in the winter storage yard. All had been neglected and eventually abandoned by their owners. In each o...
I stood in the cockpit of our boat, my trunks dripping wet from the swim out. Usually being aboard releases a spurt of euphoria within me. If I’m on the boat, most likely I’ll soon be sailing. Instead...
Novice, beginner, nimrod, greenhorn; we have all been this kind of sailor at one time or another. Many of us still are, and so this is written for you. You are the ones who have not (yet?) sail...
I am somewhere between the middle and end of refurbishing for fun and charter my 1982 Islander 48, Crescendo, hull number 1. She’s just about ready to move from Port Charlotte, FL where she’s been on ...
I rush to the Chesapeake Bay to fill up on sailing adventures. I explore the Bay with my boyfriend, Jordan, on Base Camp, our simple and reliable Pearson 31. You too may know the magical moments: smoo...
A friend and experienced boater related an interesting story over lunch. He’d recently had trouble backing his boat into a slip. The wind was on the beam and his bow would blow off, keeping him ...
Well-drilled junior sailors help save a mast To the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song . . . Let me tell you a little story ’bout an engineer named Tom. Had a little boat that he sailed upon t...
I drag the dinghy down the dune to the beach. The water lies so calm only an occasional ripple slurps ashore. I set my knapsack on the bow seat and shove off, the scrape of the hull on the sand giving...
About 27 years ago, a group of sailors at Yankee Point Marina, off the Rappahannock River in Virginia, decided that a sailboat race in November would make a fine climax to the sailing season. Some of ...
A tour of the marina was illuminating My good fortune to live on a small barrier island in Florida is offset by the misfortune of full-time employment that requires me to commute to the mainland daily...
A sailing legend puts a wayward boat’s demise in perspective In June 2013, at about the time the remains of a century-old Lake Superior shipwreck, the freighter Henry B. Smith, were discovered 30 mile...
Excerpts from the logs aboard Mystic, the C&C 30 sailed by Jerry Powlas and Karen Larson. They purchased Mystic in the fall of 1992. Their log began in earnest the summer of 1993. Karen reviewed a...
Getting a magnetic compass to tell the truth about North Most recreational sailors today navigate their craft using electronic devices. This is all well and good until an electrical failure on board s...
This a followup to Durkee Richards’ article “A Boat Explodes” in the July 2012 issue. When the boat next door explodes . . . Catherine Bilyard described Invictus, their Shannon 38 ketch, as “a b...
May 2012 Landfalls with Bull’s-Eye Precision From how far away can you see a lighthouse from the deck of your boat? Well, it depends. It depends on the height of the lighthouse above sea level, ...
Robert K. Johnson, N.A., is the founder, chief designer, and CEO of Island Packet Yachts of Largo, Florida. The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the boatbuilding business, specializing i...
Two famous boatbuilding names — and a line of classy bluewater voyagers Hallberg-Rassy has the longest standing and strongest North American presence of any Swedish boatbuilder, with two dealers on th...
