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Bock Marine Soothes Boatyard Hell
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Read more: Bock Marine Soothes Boatyard Hell“Boat Yard Hell” is our term of endearment for Morgan’s Cloud’s annual date with a boat lift. There just isn’t much fun to it: living at the top of a 15’ ladder, peeing in a bucket, the morning dash to the toilet building, and of course day after day of boat chores as we try […]
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A Professional Skipper’s Take On Heavy Weather
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Read more: A Professional Skipper’s Take On Heavy WeatherWe received an e-mail a few weeks ago from our friend Bob Tetrault who has been following our heavy weather series. Bob went to Maine Maritime, has a master’s ticket, and has fished the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank in all kinds of weather. He currently owns three boats that fish the Gulf of […]
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Real World Test of Relief Band For Seasickness
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Read more: Real World Test of Relief Band For SeasicknessJohn, who figures he’s tried every seasickness remedy out there, gives the ReliefBand a chance.
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A Rugged Boat For The High Latitudes
4 CommentsReading Time: 4 minutesFreeRead more: A Rugged Boat For The High LatitudesA few weeks ago we met up with our friends Michael and Martina on their beautifully designed and built custom Hutting 54 Polaris. They were kind enough to give me, camera in hand, a tour and to patiently answer my many questions.
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Q&A: Un-Stayed Masts
5 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Q&A: Un-Stayed MastsQuestion: I am curious if you are keel stepped or deck stepped. If keel stepped, could you get away without stays since the aluminum deck could be reinforced enough to hold the mast upright? You could keep running backstays in place for heavier winds.
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Q&A: Carbon Boom
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Q&A: Carbon BoomQuestion: Did you change your boom to carbon fiber or just your mast?
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Q&A: Rounding Cape Farewell, Greenland
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Read more: Q&A: Rounding Cape Farewell, GreenlandQuestion: We are planning to cross the North Atlantic east to west via the Arctic route in June on the way to an attempt to transit the North West Passage. We plan to leave from Iceland on a passage to the west coast of Greenland and are wondering how close to round Cape Farewell [south […]
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Better Force 10 Stove Mount
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Read more: Better Force 10 Stove MountIn our view the standard bracket shipped with Force 10 stoves is inadequate and dangerous. Here’s an alternative.
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Q&A: Ice Risk, Eastern Canada To Western Greenland
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Read more: Q&A: Ice Risk, Eastern Canada To Western GreenlandQuestion: We are planning a trip from eastern Canada to south west Greenland and return and have the following questions about ice [see specific questions and answers below summary answer].
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Q&A: Trans-Atlantic In An Old Boat
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Read more: Q&A: Trans-Atlantic In An Old BoatQuestion: I have my 36′ Aage Nielsen yawl in Norway and I need to bring her home to Maine. I would appreciate your comments regarding my choice of routes. One idea is down to the Azores and then over to the eastern US; the reverse of how I sailed to Europe. The other option I’m […]
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Carbon Fiber Masts and Lightning: Myths, Assurances And Risks
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Read more: Carbon Fiber Masts and Lightning: Myths, Assurances And RisksJohn explains why he feels confident that going with carbon fibre for our new mast has given us a stronger mast than could be built in aluminum, as well as a faster, more stable and safer boat. And all without any appreciable increase in lightning strike risk.
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Radio Fear
0 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFreeRead more: Radio FearMorgan’s Cloud was anchored in a snug cove in Maine. We had tied everything down on deck and stripped the headsails from the furlers. Hurricane Kyle was bearing down on the coast with forecast 60 knot winds, gusting higher; no worse than we have ridden out many times before in high latitude anchorages, so we […]
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Carbon Fiber Mast, Costs and Benefits
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Read more: Carbon Fiber Mast, Costs and BenefitsSo, how much did the new carbon fibre mast for Morgan’s Cloud cost? John shares the bottomline.
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Carbon Fibre Masts, Amateur Boat Design
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Read more: Carbon Fibre Masts, Amateur Boat DesignJohn uses simple engineering and yacht design to explain why a carbon fibre mast delivers such astounding increases in performance and comfort.
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The Benefits Of Carbon Fibre Masts
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Read more: The Benefits Of Carbon Fibre MastsPictures of Americas Cup-class boat hulls breaking in half and their masts, supported by a plethora of rigging and spreaders, collapsing in relatively benign conditions, have given structures built of carbon fibre an undeserved reputation for fragility. John challenges this impression.
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Georgia On Our Minds
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Read more: Georgia On Our MindsGeorgia: moss-draped live oaks, barrier island beaches, charming towns, friendly people…an unexpected but fascinating cruising ground.
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The New Mast, Why?
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Read more: The New Mast, Why?The most expensive and stressful part of our latest refit to “Morgan’s Cloud” was the replacement of her mast. So why did we do it? Simple, peace of mind.
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A Top Ten List
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Read more: A Top Ten ListHere is a top ten list (well, nine is pretty close) of what we did during the refit that we really like:
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Boat Refit Overview
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Read more: Boat Refit OverviewSo, what did we do to our beloved Morgan’s Cloud that could possible take four winters of hard labour?
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Q&A: Homebuilding A Boat
2 CommentsReading Time: 3 minutesFreeRead more: Q&A: Homebuilding A BoatQuestion: I am a novice at sailboat construction, but found a beautiful fiberglass hull on eBay and couldn’t resist the challenge of building my own [boat]. It’s 45’ LOA, 36’ LWL, 5’-3” draft, 14’ beam and 9’-6” depth of hull amidships. The hull is believed to have been built in the early 1970s, but there […]
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Q&A: Tef-Gel Versus Never-Seez
3 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Q&A: Tef-Gel Versus Never-SeezQuestion: I am intrigued by your high praise for Tef-Gel. I have not heard of it before, and in the past I have used ‘anti-seize’ for mooring shackles and installing stainless steel fasteners in aluminum. I am curious about your experience with ‘anti-seize’ versus Tef-Gel. In addition, I have had good luck using BP Blaster […]
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Q&A: Sailboat Stability Contradiction
11 CommentsReading Time: 4 minutesFreeRead more: Q&A: Sailboat Stability ContradictionQuestion: I recently had an interesting discussion about stability with a cruising yacht owner, and I thought this topic would be of real interest to any high latitude sailor. And I also suspect that you would have traversed this terrain long ago and have an opinion. After the 1979 Fastnet race, the Joint Committee on […]
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Q&A: Risk Management, Hurricanes
2 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFreeRead more: Q&A: Risk Management, HurricanesQuestion [received July 11, 2008]: We’re in St. John’s, Newfoundland, waiting to cross to Scotland. We’re just about ready to go and the weather forcast is good for leaving. However, Hurricane Bertha is just south of Bermuda. The current forecast is for her to weaken to 55 knots within four to five days, and stay […]
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How To Home Build a Hard Dodger For an Offshore Sailboat
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Read more: How To Home Build a Hard Dodger For an Offshore SailboatAfter reading about our hard dodger, very experienced liveaboard voyagers Lane and Kay Finley sent along a detailed description of their hard dodger, complete with photographs. The advantage of theirs over ours is that it is all hard with glass windows; much stronger and pretty much maintenance free. On the other hand, I like the larger expanse of window, fewer blind spots and curved shape of ours.
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The Real Hard Men
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Read more: The Real Hard MenLobster fishermen in the Bay of Fundy, man are they tough!
