Attainable Adventure Cruising

One of the biggest snow jobs in boat gear sales is the myth of the smart three-stage alternator regulator. In fact, the alternator regulators that have been available to us cruisers for about the last 15 years are not that bright…OK, they’re downright stupid. But, finally, we now have a truly smart regulator. John takes a look and comes away impressed.

It’s all good.

The time is now.

One of the most important decisions we need to make when buying an offshore voyaging sailboat is how much sail area, in relation to displacement, boat type, and draft, is right for our style of cruising.

If we want to verify the integrity of our boat’s keel bolts, one option is to torque them and see what happens. Sounds great, but there are risks, complications, and lots of research that needs to be done first.

If you own and sail boats offshore for long enough, the likelihood is that sooner or later you will be faced with a difficult repair or refit decision. John explores a solution that all others being considered should always be measured against.

The vast majority of used boats out there, which might be bought for a low enough price to make the cost after refit attainable for many of us, have one of two keel types that can cause big-time trouble. So the big question becomes, can we check those bolts without removing the keel? John investigates two options.

Which of the three common cruising rigs is best? Like so many things around voyaging, all three have advantages and drawbacks. John takes a deep dive that will help you pick the one that’s right for your needs and then shares his two favourites, one for offshore and one for inshore.

There are many cruising myths that become accepted as fact because they sound logical and get repeated often. Let’s bust two of them.

John applies risk management thinking to the highly ambiguous subject of keel safety and longevity on older fibreglass boats, starting off with keel types to seek out and those to avoid.

In Part 1, we analyzed the Outbound 46 hull design and compared her to recent designs. Now let’s look at other hull-related stuff, including the keel, rudder, bow thruster or not, and some thoughts on construction, all relevant no matter what boat you are thinking of buying.

Back in February we rolled out (and I wrote about) the first phase of our 2020 improvements to this site, which focused on simplification, improved readability on phones, and speed. That  was all good, but it quickly became apparent that the next thing needed was a damned good housecleaning and re-categorization of our content. Here’s what we did.

There are few things more depressing in cruising than having to live with an unreliable engine. Colin takes a look at the options for rebuild or repower and what all this is going to cost.

There are a lot of wonderful things about cruising, but the most rewarding experiences are often the most unexpected. And, better still, this big fish story is all true.