Painful introduction to sailing leads to lifelong passion Issue 61: July/Aug 2008 The mist of a late summer morning was rising from the waters of Penn Lake. It mingled and swirled into the rays of the...
An anxious skipper learns to listen to others Issue 54 : May/Jun 2007 When first conceived, the notion of an overnight sail seemed exciting. Sally and I had been coastal cruising for years, but we alw...
An old affair of the heart still haunts this sailor Issue 54 : May/Jun 2007 A nor’easter is battering the coast of Nova Scotia, causing this old house to shudder. The sump pump valiantly struggles to ...
Supernatural forces chose their boat for them Issue 55 : Jul/Aug 2007 I used to think that buying a boat was a careful, thoughtful, weighing of pros and cons, wishes and budgets, dreams and realities....
If you change the boat, the boat changes you Issue 55 : Jul/Aug 2007 In the old days when quality was truly more important than price, those of us who were charged with designing things that would be ...
Reassurance springs from long hands-on experience Issue 55 : Jul/Aug 2007 After working on our cruiser-in-progress for two months shy of six years, I’m just about done. I don’t think I’m boasting my w...
Scraping off 22 years of fond memories Issue 55 : Jul/Aug 2007 I had been waiting all winter for an excuse to spend some time with my boat. The ice in the Bay of Quinte had started to recede, and a tr...
Making a convincing case for a hard dinghy Issue 55 : Jul/Aug 2007 My first cruising sailboat was an 18-foot William Atkin-designed sloop. I built her and cruised her without a tender of any kind. Sin...
Goodbye to a pocketful of gizmos Issue 55 : Jul/Aug 2007 Call us promiscuous. Jerry and I have been aboard an awful lot of sailboats since we started this magazine. Together, we’ve written three to fi...
A 20-year odyssey approaches a perfect ending Issue 56 : Sept/Oct 2007 On a gray winter day in the middle of the continent, I open a copy of a sailing magazine I’ve just bought at a bookstore in a cit...
The weather laughs at sailing plans Issue 56 : Sept/Oct 2007 It was late May when we took our first sailing vacation of the season. Our vacations come, if at all, between production cycles of this mag...
There are things money can’t buy Issue 56 : Sept/Oct 2007 Haabet, a Pearson Ariel, was listed in Soundings for several months. The owner was asking $12,000 initially and after three months had come do...
An innocent book changes their lives Issue 56 : Sept/Oct 2007 Christmas 1990. One gift, Innocuous enough in size and position in the pile of carefully chosen wrapped packages might well have been shim...
This Rhodes Bounty II finds a safe home Issue 56 : Sept/Oct 2007 Dear Bob, A fine sea breeze is whistling down the companionway as I write this. The sun is setting but it’ll be in the 70s overnight. A...
An old gaffer waits patiently for a love affair Issue 56 : Sept/Oct 2007 Here’s a good old boat in my marina. She turned up maybe a year ago. For the first couple of months she was there, I kept...
One of those times to think of seasons and cycles Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 It’s a funny thing, the way we decide that certain days are unlike other days. I thought about this as I began powering ...
That’s the question. But is there an answer? Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 Very early in the life of Good Old Boat magazine I learned to regret publishing any material about knots. Knots are difficult to un...
Closing his shop conjures up decades of memories Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 Why am I crying? It’s my husband’s shop that we’re dismantling after 21 years, and he’s the one with the whit...
Two efforts to save old boats from our landfills Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 This is the first of a two-part series about sailors who fall in love with old boats, particularly those made of wood, and are ...
Updating skills learned in childhood Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 Until recently the majority of my sailing experience took place between the ages of nine and 16 aboard my father’s 17-foot Siren, Running F...
A dinghy that delighted family generations Issue 61: July/Aug 2008 In April 1959, I bought a new 10-foot, fiberglass sailboat of the Sprite Class from the O’Day Corporation for $450, complete with sai...
Practical lessons gained from a cruising life Issue 61: July/Aug 2008 Looking back over the years, it’s easy to spot lessons we gained from cruising, lessons I’ve been asked to share as part of Good O...
Issue 61: July/Aug 2008 Eleven good reasons for loving her — Andy Vine She’s called Gwyneth, after my mother. A nice Welsh name. A Crown 28 sloop, Gwyneth was built in Vancouver, British Columbia, in ...
Searching for the Holy Grail of yacht tenders Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 It all started 11 years ago, three months before our wedding, when we bought our first home, a 1968 Islander 37. My husband, Frank...
A not-to-be-forgotten experience on the dark sea Issue 57 : Nov/Dec 2007 Everyone remembers his or hers first time with crystal clarity. Mine happened during the past summer, so it is particularly poi...
‘New’ anchor light maintains old tradition Issue 58 : Jan/Feb 2008 One of the pleasures of a traditional-style boat, such as my Persistence, is the encouragement she gives us to practice the old skill...
Don’t judge other sailors for their choices Issue 58 : Jan/Feb 2008 A seed of a concept was planted in my brain, perhaps as long as seven years ago. It has been rolling around in there ever since, gat...
Hefty downgrading leads to happier sailing Issue 58 : Jan/Feb 2008 While climbing the ladder to the deck of my old wooden sloop with yet another can of paint, a disturbing thought occurred to me. I st...
Late-developing passion brings deeper appreciation Issue 58 : Jan/Feb 2008 “Maybe I am too old for this,” I thought. Our shiny new 16-foot Precision’s shoal keel was embedded in the muddy bottom at th...
A 70-year-old gaff schooner sails again Issue 58 : Jan/Feb 2008 Last summer, while puttering around at the mooring, I heard a runabout idling and voices in conversation. The occupants were apparently ...
