Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The harbor is still this morning; the water smooth as a mirror. At the top of the ramp I stop for a long look at our 41-foot ketch, moored just beyond the oil skimmer boat . ....
Four years at the weather mark Issue 24 : May/June 2002 When we adopted the name Last Tack for this column, we had in mind the part of a sailboat race where one has reached the lay-line and thrown the...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 “Are you nuts?” “Go for it!” “Don’t you have enough problems?” “Life’s too short. Do it while you can.” The contradictory voices I heard from other people were no differ...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 After repainting the hull on our Yankee Seahorse 24, the rubrail, when compared with the new paint, suddenly looked worse than ever. We tried the Tyco catalog but couldn’t fin...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 Getting back aboard most sailboats from the water without a ladder is next to impossible. Although many sailboats can have a stainless-steel, pull-down ladder on the transom, ...
Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The traditional way to check your course while belowdecks is with a telltale — an upside-down compass mounted in the skipper’s cabin (see photo of one such compass on Page 30....
Having capitulated, here’s how to raise the waterline Issue 24 : May/June 2002 In the course of family boating history, some truths become self-evident. One of these is that boats get smaller. Sailing...
Defeating the feathered menaces that alight in your rigging Issue 24 : May/June 2002 How many times have you scrubbed your deck only to notice, scant minutes later, a juicy purple Rorschach pattern vi...
A system for cruisers that steers better than any crew and doesn’t drink your beer Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The wind is blowing 30 on your quarter, and the rain is coming in sideways. The seas and you...
It ain’t brain surgery, but pampering your head will save your sanity Issue 24 : May/June 2002 A popular saying goes: “To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” Perhaps this is why my ...
This unconventional two-master boasts speed and simplicity Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The first thing you notice is the freestanding masts. Next you see the wide sidedecks, which are clear of chainplate...
He put Americans on the water in affordable, trailerable sailboats Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The boating industry attracts people to it in different ways. Some people like to build things. Others like ...
Things you need with you when you get away from it all Issue 24 : May/June 2002 Successful cruising is largely about independence — not in the sense of being indefinitely self-sufficient, but in that ...
What you need to know about them — and how to replace them Issue 24 : May/June 2002 Few of us ever give a thought to Cutless bearings until it’s time to replace them. Then we wonder why the yard charg...
A cherished 28-foot sloop is blown ashore in a freak gale Issue 24 : May/June 2002 Weatherman Don Kent, of Boston’s WBZ-TC, called the easterly gales of May 9 and 10, 1977, a “historical storm.”...
Don’t wait until it happens; get your boat ready now Issue 24 : May/June 2002 My first memory, as a small child, was being in the middle of a hurricane in the North Atlantic. It was the 1930s. Our fam...
The rise and sudden fall of a boatbuilder with thousands of boats still in use today Issue 24 : May/June 2002 Columbia Yachts. Ever heard of them? They were one of the largest manufacturers of product...
Built for cruising and round-the-buoys fun Issue 24 : May/June 2002 The Sabre 30 is a fine example of the modern club racer/coastal cruiser and stacks up very well indeed against much of the competiti...
Sabre 30 provides solace and cruising adventures for Maine couple Issue 24 : May/June 2002 I don’t want to drift around in those rag boats,” David Taft remembers complaining when his father forc...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 I sometimes feel that I have been swimming and sailing upstream all my life. I am one of the few sailors who has, over the years, moved down, rather than up, in boat size. But ...
Ample food gives you more cruising choices Issue 27: Nov/Dec 2002 WHETHER IT’S FOR A WEEKEND OR a season, I provision with every calorie, can, vitamin, and victual I can cram in. Excess food is cheap ...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 At our dock we have three shore cables: the 35-amp AC power cable, the telephone cable, and the cable-TV. To keep the shore-end plugs of these cables out of the weather when th...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 There is nothing more irritating than the thwack of a hard dinghy against your transom. Cursing, you stomp up on deck, give the painter a few extra feet of slack, and thrust th...
Rigorous and expensive surveys lead to yacht certification Issue 27: Nov/Dec 2002 MANY READERS WILL HAVE HEARD of Lloyd’s Rules or, perhaps, seen ads boasting that this or that yacht has been designed...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 We’ve known for a long time that dark colored plastic water jugs far outlast clear or white ones. Seems the color gives UV protection. We noted colored dacron sails seem to out...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 Having had my wind-whipped luffing sheets, halyards, and numerous other lines foul on cleats, I came up with a solution to this dilemma: a foulproof wooden cleat. A groove cut ...
Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 One of the most vivid recollections of my childhood is of a boat launching at a local public ramp. A young man and his attractive girlfriend arrived in his new convertible with...
Mold? Rust? Wasps nests? Plastic goo? Your deck vents have surprises in store for you Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 Have you ever looked under your vacuum-type deck vent? You could be in for a shock. My boa...
Good safe coastal cruiser, but no world-girdler Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 In the mid-to-late 1960s, many designers, myself included, were turning out full-keel auxiliaries such as the Luders 33, my own ...
A Puget Sound sailor sets his retirement dream in motion Issue 25 : Jul/Aug 2002 A really big boat and a really small house is Walt Pierce’s ideal retirement setup. He hasn’t exactly achieved that goa...
