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When designing an offshore motorboat one of the first decisions we must make is what we intend to do if the main engine fails far from land or help. John takes a deep dive into this complex issue.

Colin carries on with his analysis of boat heating systems covering propane heaters and diesel furnaces, both forced air, and water circulation as well as radiators that harvest waste heat from the engine.

So how can we be sure whether or not heaving-to will result in a knock-down or roll-over in heavy weather? John tackles this difficult but vital question.

If your boat is not equipped and set up right, the most skilled crew in the world will have trouble coming alongside. John looks at 10 things you can change on your boat to make docking easy.

You don’t need to be heading for the high latitudes to appreciate the benefits of a boat heater. Just drying the boat out can be reason enough to make installing a heater worthwhile. But which type is best? Colin shines a light on the options.

Alternatives to an aft-running spring at the boat’s balance point, as well as how to determine where that magic aft spring fairlead should go if you decide to install one.

Now we get to the good stuff: a step-by-step guide, with diagrams and video, that makes coming alongside easy, even short-handed and when the wind is up.

Changing survival strategies in the middle of a storm at sea is not something that any of us want to be faced with, but here are some thoughts from John about how that might be done safely.

There have been a couple of well-publicized cases of series drogues, based on Don Jordan’s research and design, deteriorating after as little as ten hours’ use in strong gale conditions. John investigates and shares what he intends to do to upgrade his drogue.

In the last chapter, John wrote about the two different types of tethers he and Phyllis use on Morgan’s Cloud. In this chapter he follows up with the details of how they build each type.

Our project to improve person overboard prevention systems has been a long and winding three-year-to-traverse road. But we are nearly there. Here’s the first of two chapters on tethers.

Colin and John have teamed up to share the fruits of some 70 years of combined radar use experience much of it in the foggiest (Atlantic Canada) and highest traffic (English Channel) areas of the world.

Let’s face it, cruising boats are horribly unreliable, and gear failures are the most common cruise-ruiner. But we can reduce the problems a lot by thinking about fault tolerance. Here are three real world examples you can use right now to make your boat better.

Navigating with tablets and phones is here to stay, but what are the dangers? And what can we do to make sure we don’t have an iThing-assisted wreck? Here are ten tips.