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.
Are catamarans really more comfortable than monohulls? What about trimarans? Like with most things, it depends.
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.
As boats get smaller, building a system gets more difficult and more compromises must be made, but it is doable.
Bolting fittings down on deck seems so simple, and it is…as long as we follow some common sense rules.
New sails are expensive, here’s how to get the most for your money.
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.
In the last chapter we examined the risks of being dragged and particularly tether tension. Now let’s relate that to the jackline systems we see out there in use.
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.
TeamO are selling the BackTow lifejacket and harness as the answer to the risk of drowning while being dragged after falling overboard attached to a tether. Is that true? Let’s take a look. We also compare the TeamO against the Spinlock Deckvest.
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 […]
Hard won practical tips from 50 years of standing watches at sea.