Tips, Tricks & Thoughts:
Wow, does this ever hit a sore spot for me. I catch myself doing this all the time. But, worse still, I bet there are more times when I don’t even notice I have succumbed to the behaviour. Still, one of the few benefits of getting older is that time and experience has given me […]
My thoughts on the loss of Gunga Din, a well-built, but older, Sweden Yachts 41.
There’s a headline to attract attention! Fender washers, or penny washers, as guys of my advanced age with British backgrounds call them1, are much beloved by us yachties. Heck, I have a bunch of them, just in case I need one…except now I know I probably never will. Login to continue reading (scroll down) Learn […]
OK, that headline was a test of how clean your mind is. If you didn’t immediately assume that I was writing about my current fixation, bolted joints, you failed.
Not sure if this is a hack, or a kluge…or maybe just half-assed, but the rubber band worked a treat when I needed the VHF plug held still while I soldered the centre pin conductor.
Wow, while Schelling was a public policy wonk, does this ever apply to voyaging, particularly when we have only sailed inshore and so are surprised by how different things are when we head offshore.
Make ’em Long As I mentioned in an earlier Tip, we just bought new spinnaker sheets at not inconsiderable expense. Here’s why. Login to continue reading (scroll down) Learn About Membership Get to know us for FREE
Sure splicing 12 strand Dyneema (Spectra) is easy but I’m also seeing a lot of dangerous mistakes.
Bolting fittings down on deck seems so simple, and it is…as long as we follow some common sense rules.
Some thoughts on snap shackles, particularly for use on spinnakers.
Yes, there are a lot of options out there, but actually making the right call today is simpler than it has ever been before.
Should we order a mainsail with full battens or not?
Possible financial backers have come forward but we still need a project leader.
Like most owners with a new-to-us boat that is far from new, I spent the first couple of winters focusing on stuff that just had to be fixed. This winter I have had the luxury of moving on to things that need doing, but are not immediately obvious. In this case torquing the keel bolts. […]
We have long offered Google searching of AAC, but then a couple of years ago Google started returning a bunch of links to information other than ours, which confused the hell out of people (justifiably), so we added a different program to search the site. It kinda worked, but nowhere near as well as Google, […]
I’m always interested in ways of thinking about risk that we can apply to offshore sailing. Here’s a particularly good one.
Singlehanding is controversial. Some thoughts on that, as well as some tips to make it safer.
Even though this is from the investing industry, it’s relevant to us offshore sailors.
We often get emails from members asking us to make a particularly popular article, usually with a safety theme, free, because they feel that many sailors would benefit from it. And, hey, that’s gratifying, thank you. And, almost invariably, the writer suggests that doing so would increase our membership. Makes perfect sense that showing a […]
I just took the cover off the salt water pump on our engine to find a blade missing off the impeller, despite the pump only having about 100 hours on it. Annoying, but here’s where things really went down hill: Login to continue reading (scroll down) Learn About Membership Get to know us for FREE
John’s thoughts on the probable cause of the loss.
Get together over Zoom with John and a like minded group of cruisers.
For those who put done ahead of perfect.
After 40 years of using furlers John has a palm-slap to the forehead moment.
I have long been concerned about the state of marine journalism, particularly in North America. In my view, most all marine magazines have for decades been little more than extensions of the marketing departments of boat builders and marine gear manufacturers. Heck, it’s been about 20 years since one of my favourite editors, and marine […]