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Weather Analysis—Part 1, Tactical
44 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: Weather Analysis—Part 1, TacticalMost discussions about weather reception and analysis in the cruising community end up focused on the tools and technology. But that’s not what matters. In fact, planning fun and safe cruises is all about how we USE the tools and THINK about weather. That’s just what this chapter, based on some 25 years of real cruising experience, is about.
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Spade Anchor Failure, Update and Summary
48 CommentsReading Time: 9 minutesMembers
Read more: Spade Anchor Failure, Update and SummaryA follow-up, with some significant changes, to our article on a failed Spade anchor.
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Weather Analysis—Hardware and Software
42 CommentsReading Time: 11 minutesMembers
Read more: Weather Analysis—Hardware and SoftwareWhich hardware and software should we use for weather downloading and analysis? Lots of good stuff out there. Here’s how to choose.
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Bilge Alarms And Monitoring
43 CommentsReading Time: 13 minutesMembers
Read more: Bilge Alarms And MonitoringVery few boats have a good automated bilge pump and flooding alarm system. Let’s fix that.
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Bent Spade Anchor Analysis
120 CommentsReading Time: 13 minutesMembers
Read more: Bent Spade Anchor AnalysisWhen an anchor many of us have come to trust over two decades fails catastrophically, it’s time to think about why and what we can learn.
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9 Tips to Assess Weather Forecast Accuracy
21 CommentsReading Time: 11 minutesMembers
Read more: 9 Tips to Assess Weather Forecast AccuracyIt’s comforting to believe that weather forecasts are always right, but we all know that’s not true. Here’s how to assess the chances that a given forecast will be wrong in a bad way.
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Easily Driven Boats Are Better
85 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: Easily Driven Boats Are BetterJohn explains one of the most important criteria for selecting an offshore voyaging boat, and one of the most ignored.
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Replacing Diesel-Generated Electricity With Renewables, Part 2—Case Studies
50 CommentsReading Time: 10 minutesMembers
Read more: Replacing Diesel-Generated Electricity With Renewables, Part 2—Case StudiesSo far in this series of chapters we have been looking at the benefits and drawbacks of the renewable options. Now let’s pull it all together.
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Replacing Diesel-Generated Electricity With Renewables, Part 1—Loads and Options
36 CommentsReading Time: 8 minutesMembers
Read more: Replacing Diesel-Generated Electricity With Renewables, Part 1—Loads and OptionsCan we replace diesel fuel generation (main engine or separate) with wind, solar and/or hydrogenerators? Yes, but there’s stuff to know to avoid wasted money and disappointment.
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Adventure 40 Cockpit 2.0
48 CommentsReading Time: 11 minutesMembers
Read more: Adventure 40 Cockpit 2.0The final cockpit reveal, discussing the improvements made since Version 1, including new and very cool renderings.
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Watt & Sea Hydrogenerator Buyer’s Guide—Cost Performance
30 CommentsReading Time: 9 minutesMembers
Read more: Watt & Sea Hydrogenerator Buyer’s Guide—Cost PerformanceDoes buying a Watt & Sea make sense? It’s complicated, depending on boat size and type, as well as usage profile.
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A Coastal Cruiser Reviews A Watt & Sea Hydrogenerator
0 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFree
Read more: A Coastal Cruiser Reviews A Watt & Sea HydrogeneratorAn honest evaluation from a thinking guy, who carefully evaluated his usage before pulling the trigger on an expensive piece of gear, not a fan-boy video.
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10 Tips To Save Your Engine From Overheating
49 CommentsReading Time: 11 minutesMembers
Read more: 10 Tips To Save Your Engine From OverheatingA diesel engine that’s been badly overheated will probably never run reliably again. A total cruise ruiner. Let’s not let that happen to us.
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Fire Extinguishers We Have Bought and Stuff We Learned
46 CommentsReading Time: 10 minutesMembers
Read more: Fire Extinguishers We Have Bought and Stuff We LearnedChoosing fire extinguishers for a cruising boat is a lot more complicated than it may appear. Here’s what Phyllis and John ended up with after consulting experts.
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Liferafts For Cruisers—Positioning and Mounting
24 CommentsReading Time: 10 minutesMembers
Read more: Liferafts For Cruisers—Positioning and MountingFiguring out where to mount and how to secure a liferaft can be one of the most vexing problems in offshore boat preparation.
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Going Up The Mast—More Improvements
19 CommentsReading Time: 9 minutesMembers
Read more: Going Up The Mast—More ImprovementsFurther refinements to the mast climbing system we figured out last year. Even after 50 years of climbing masts, we are still learning.
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Liferafts For Cruisers—40 Years of Real-World Experience
41 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: Liferafts For Cruisers—40 Years of Real-World ExperienceJohn shares which raft he and Phyllis would buy for various cruising scenarios and why.
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Nine Autopilot Usage Tips and Hacks
10 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: Nine Autopilot Usage Tips and HacksSo far in this series we have got deep into the technical weeds of how autopilots work, and how to make them work better. Now let’s look at some simple tips, several of which will help with vane gears too.
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AAC Is 20 Years Old
25 CommentsReading Time: 6 minutesFree
Read more: AAC Is 20 Years OldThe story of our two decades of writing and publishing about offshore voyaging.
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Liferafts For Cruisers—Purchase Criteria
62 CommentsReading Time: 8 minutesMembers
Read more: Liferafts For Cruisers—Purchase CriteriaIt’s tempting to just shop for the “best” liferaft, but it’s way smarter to think first about why we are buying one.
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How To Tune An Autopilot To Steer Better—Part 2
30 CommentsReading Time: 10 minutesMembers
Read more: How To Tune An Autopilot To Steer Better—Part 2How to set gain, counter-rudder, and trim to make an offshore passage faster and more comfortable, and save battery, too.
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Adventure 40 Deck-2.0
212 CommentsReading Time: 13 minutesMembers
Read more: Adventure 40 Deck-2.0Maxime and Vincent have been hard at work over the last couple of months refining and improving the Adventure 40 deck design. Let’s take a look.
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How To Tune an Autopilot to Steer Better—Part 1
21 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: How To Tune an Autopilot to Steer Better—Part 1We can make a huge difference to comfort, speed, and electrical use by manually adjusting our autopilots.
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Autopilot Buyer’s Guide
73 CommentsReading Time: 14 minutesMembers
Read more: Autopilot Buyer’s GuideHow smart and expensive an autopilot do we need for offshore shorthanded cruising? Lots of options. Here’s how to make sure we don’t select the wrong one and that we get what we paid for.
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Storm Strategy—Fore-Reaching
46 CommentsReading Time: 11 minutesMembers
Read more: Storm Strategy—Fore-ReachingComparing fore-reaching to heaving-to and streaming a Jordon Series Drogue as storm survival strategies as well as equipment and techniques required for safe fore-reaching.
