The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

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  • A Simple Way to Decide Between Lithium or Lead-Acid Batteries for a Cruising Boat

    With all the claims and counterclaims for the two chemistries, how on earth do we make the right decision? Good news, it’s not hard.

  • Hull Materials, Which Is Best?

    One of the common debates in any sailor’s bar is which hull material is best. John settles the argument…it depends. But he does make some solid recommendations for hull materials most of us should avoid and the one that the majority should choose.

  • 15 Steps To Getting Securely Anchored

    When thinking about anchoring, it’s easy to just focus on gear, but good technique can contribute at least as much to getting securely anchored. These steps, based on 40 years of experience, make getting securely anchored easy and repeatable.

  • 10 Tips to Make Coming Alongside (Docking) Easy

    These tips, which we have developed over two decades of coming alongside double-handed in a 56-foot boat without a bow thruster, will take the stress out of docking and make it easy…even fun too.

  • Reefing Made Easy

    How to reef a sailboat easily and quickly without getting frightened or wet.

  • 4 Vital Anchor Selection Criteria and a Review of SPADE

    Everyone loves to tout the benefits of their favourite anchor, John included, but this article is about much more: how to cut through all the claims to the criteria that really matter when selecting an anchor.

  • 12 Tips To Avoid Ruining Our Easily Driven Sailboat

    We bought a lovely easily driven offshore cruising sailboat, but it’s all too easy to screw her up if we don’t heed these tips.

  • 11 Things We Do To Stay Rational About Safety

    We write a lot about safety here at AAC: crew overboard, storm survival, fire at sea, etc. All important stuff, but we worry about how this affects our primary goal here at Attainable Adventure Cruising of helping you go cruising. So here’s how we balance safety with actually getting out there.

  • Banishing Sidedeck Jacklines Forever

    We have shown that sidedeck jacklines are deeply flawed and may even be more dangerous than no jacklines at all, due to drag risk and the false sense of security they confer. But can we get rid of them and still work our boats efficiently? Yes, we can! Here’s how, with video proof.

  • Stopping Wave Strikes While Heaved-To

    Some of the options that we can use to solve the dangerous problem of wave strikes while heaved-to that I described in the last chapter.

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