A big trailerable boat with a lifting keel Issue 1...
May 6, 2026
Writing a cruising guide provides a new perspective on home waters. Issue 131: March/April 2020 “Just turn right at the lights,” an experienced cruising sailor told me when I first arrived in Santa Ba...
An evolving passion for sailing helps define a path forward. Issue 131: March/April 2020 The day my younger brother, Mitch, suggested that we charter a sailboat for a week on Traverse Bay, it seemed l...
An old instrument’s housing provides a platform for its replacement. Issue 131: March/April 2020 When we bought Phantom, our 1981 Pearson 365 ketch, in 2001, she had old Signet Marine instrumen...
…and Two More Bright, Solid Cruising Performers Issue 131: March/April 2020 The late powerboat designer Tom Fexas once published a provocative article entitled “Sailing Is Silly” in which...
With Corian countertop material as a core, a new centerboard takes shape. Issue 131: March/April 2020 I’m one of the lucky few. Not only do I sail a boat with a centerboard, the centerboard on my Alli...
Last year, as hurricane Dorian headed for Florida, I was forced to evacuate, leaving my schooner Britannia to fend for herself in a Cape Canaveral marina. For two days I worried about how she was fari...
We launched Christmas the first week of June 2019 and hauled her out late October 2019. This is our typical five-month sailing season on the coast of Maine. Before launch, I prepped the prop (which wa...
Equalizing batteries can improve performance and extend their lifespan. Issue 131: March/April 2020 Lead acid house batteries aboard boats that spend most of their time in a slip and connected to shor...
A Raised-Saloon Cruiser for Two Issue 131: March/April 2020 For 14 years, Rosie and Carl Anderson sailed their Bombay Clipper 31 throughout the coastal waters of western Florida. But after an e...
Shooting stills and video for cruising articles To get photos with a difference, take your boat away from marina situations and find surroundings that are out of the ordinary. Magazines need photograp...
Shipwreck! What does that word conjure in your mind? Adventure, mystery, cold dark places, treasure, risk, betrayal, intrigue? All of it is delivered generously in this book. A cast of fourteen Atlant...
Pirate is an NYU professor’s telling of his adventures aboard Pirate, a 1974 Swan 38 he purchased in 1989, only four years after he learned to sail. The number of miles that pass beneath a yacht’s kee...
Even Older We received the following letter on March 18, from our friend Jeanne Socrates, who last year became the oldest person to have ever sailed solo, unassisted, and non-stop around the world. He...
Vintage Racing-Rigging Info Wanted Reader Hal Nash of Waldport, Oregon, wrote asking for our help. We don’t have the knowledge he seeks and we referred him to riggers we know, but offered to also put...
Ensconced in the cocoon-like security and comfort of our home, a Freedom 38 sailboat named Her Diamond, I turn my attention away from the 24-hour coronavirus news cycle and I reflect. I am saddened by...
When I was with Mark Ellis Design in the mid and late 1980s and early 1990, Mark was in the process of successfully incorporating more powerboats into his design portfolio. I expect that was the reaso...
Jimmy Buffett, the novelist. Who knew? Well, apparently a lot of people. After all, this is his third book for adult readers, including his autobiography, A Pirate Looks at Forty. But, in a way, Jimmy...
Highly Questionable I could not believe that you published this short article (“Easy Charting,” February, The Dogwatch). Taking a picture of a chart on a smartphone? Really? While I’m not sure, ...
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On February 21, Good Old Boat lost its undisputed biggest fan. Tom Wells died peacefully and unexpectedly aboard his boat in Florida; he laid down for a nap and never woke. His public obituary is here...
My previous boat was a traditional cutter with an outboard rudder and boomkin, precluding the use of a common stern swim ladder. The wooden side ladder she came with was cumbersome and difficult to st...
Clever surgery on a standard bed mattress improves a V-berth’s sleepability. Issue 131: March/April 2020 When we bought Phantom, our Pearson 365 ketch, in 2001, my wife, Barbara, and I slept on V-bert...
Is The Tears of Dark Water a novel about sailing? It begins on the water. Daniel Parker and his 18-year-old son, Quentin, are well-weathered Americans long into a circumnavigation aboard their ...
There’s more to going offshore than buying a boat and outfitting it. It’s also an unbelievably emotional journey. It turns your world inside out. Often, books about going offshore will only broach the...
Saildrone “You knew it was coming…” is the message Good Old Boat contributing editor Allen Penticoff sent me with a link to saildrone.com. Maybe we should have, seems to be the era of the drone, from ...
Another Lesson for Lee? After reading Lee Brubacher’s story about anchoring with two anchors (“Twice Hooked,” The Dogwatch, January 2019), I think that, in addition to his conclusion about when to use...
I sail a MacGregor 26D. It does not have a chart table. We don’t even carry much in the way of charts, because using charts in the cockpit takes a lot of room and just when we need to look at de...
Self Sufficient Sailor, by Lin and Larry Pardey (Pardey Books, 2019; 332 pages) There’s no questioning or disputing the sailing (and writing) creds that made Lin and Larry Pardey household names among...
