The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site
-
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.
-
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.
-
Liferafts For Cruisers—40 Years of Real-World Experience
39 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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Eight Steps to Get Ready For Lithium Batteries
42 CommentsReading Time: 5 minutesMembers
Read more: Eight Steps to Get Ready For Lithium BatteriesMany cruisers have already made the jump to lithium. But what if we would like to delay the considerable expense and complications of lithium, but want to be ready at a later date?
-
Q and A—Trucking a Boat
37 CommentsReading Time: 6 minutesMembers
Read more: Q and A—Trucking a BoatTrucking a boat can be a viable, and in some cases less expensive option than sailing her, but what are the pitfalls?
-
A Real World Tested Tool Kit For Cruisers
42 CommentsReading Time: 9 minutesMembers
Read more: A Real World Tested Tool Kit For CruisersA recommended kit that weighs less than sixty pounds and tool budgets for coastal and offshore cruising, as well as refits.
-
Five Boat Lift Usage Tips
28 CommentsReading Time: 10 minutesMembers
Read more: Five Boat Lift Usage TipsA hair-raising account of a boat-lift collapse and tips to reduce the chances of this happening to us.
-
Adventure 40 Reveal—Salon and Forward Cabin
143 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: Adventure 40 Reveal—Salon and Forward CabinIn the last interior arrangement reveal article we covered the galley, head, and storage areas aft. Now let’s move forward into the salon and forward cabin.
-
Going Up The Mast at Sea
53 CommentsReading Time: 12 minutesMembers
Read more: Going Up The Mast at SeaUp to now in this series we have been looking at going up the mast in sheltered water, but when we need to go up offshore everything gets hugely more difficult and risky. As usual, preparation is the key to safety and success.
-
A Simple Way to Decide Between Lithium or Lead-Acid Batteries for a Cruising Boat
125 CommentsReading Time: 8 minutesFree
Read more: A Simple Way to Decide Between Lithium or Lead-Acid Batteries for a Cruising BoatWith all the claims and counterclaims for the two chemistries, how on earth do we make the right decision? Good news, it’s not hard.
-
Adventure 40 Reveal—Galley, Head, and Aft Storage
111 CommentsReading Time: 13 minutesMembers
Read more: Adventure 40 Reveal—Galley, Head, and Aft StorageA good galley, storage, and head layout are much of what makes an offshore live-aboard cruising sailboat great. The A40 design nails these requirements.
-
Happy Holidays From Phyllis & John
5 CommentsReading Time: 4 minutesFree
Read more: Happy Holidays From Phyllis & JohnThe world seems messed up, but people are back out cruising and there are other good things to focus on.
-
Gear Leveling and Mounting Hack
20 CommentsReading Time: 4 minutesMembers
Read more: Gear Leveling and Mounting HackBoats are not square so it’s often necessary to mount gear at an angle and/or on a curved surface. Here’s the easy way to do that.
-
Going Up The Mast—Four Dangerous But Common Mistakes
30 CommentsReading Time: 6 minutesMembers
Read more: Going Up The Mast—Four Dangerous But Common MistakesJohn highlights four more dangerous mistakes he has made and seen many others make too. With these mistakes fixed, he is now reasonable happy with his system.
-
Give an AAC Membership For Christmas
9 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Give an AAC Membership For ChristmasStuck for a Christmas gift?
-
How To Do Amateur Engineering¹
21 CommentsReading Time: 7 minutesMembers
Read more: How To Do Amateur Engineering¹From time to time we get a question asking us to opine on whether a modification to the boat or rig will be strong enough. Let’s look at that.
-
All This and Sailing, Too
13 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFree
Read more: All This and Sailing, TooJohn reviews Olin Stephens’ autobiography, just in time for holiday gift giving.
