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Read more: Dinghy Tow Rope Q and A
A few years ago I wrapped the dinghy’s painter round the prop while manoeuvring to anchor in a very crowded anchorage. I don’t like towing a dinghy at sea but we had only come round the corner from a lunch spot and I forget to shorten up the line. My question is: would we be […]
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Read more: Sail Care Q&A
What’s the best way to pack and store sails? I am unable to fold the hank on sails properly on deck, in a blow, solo. So I somewhat stuff it in the bag. Then on a nice and calm day, I will dry them by hoisting, and try to fold it as neatly as I can (not […]
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Read more: Why We Use Knots and Nautical Miles
A nice post over at Sailing Scuttlebutt on why we don’t use kilometres at sea and shouldn’t be using metres per second in marine forecasts. I couldn’t agree more.
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Read more: An Amazing SalvageThere has been a huge amount of internet coverage of the tragedy south of Nova Scotia in which Volker-Karl Frank and Annamarie Auer-Frank were fatally injured on the CNB 66 “Escape”. Here’s the story of the boat’s safe recovery by a crew from Nova Scotia.
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Read more: Wichard Self-Locking ShacklesWe had the jib off, so I just replaced all the standard Harken shackles our new furler came with with Wichard self-locking ones. We have been using these things for decades in places where wiring the shackle is not a good idea (spinnakers are expensive) and never had one back out on us. Highly recommended […]
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Read more: Hack To Stop The Headstay Pumping
On a lot of boats with a roller-furling foil, and particularly with no sail rolled on it, the headstay will start to pump once the wind gets up, sometimes to the point it gets quite alarming. Not only that, all that pumping can do real damage to the rig if left long enough. But there’s […]
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Read more: Nice Bags and No Hole Mounting
I like these sheet and odds and ends bags from Blue Performance a lot, but I hate drilling holes in our boats. So I ordered these snap together fastener strips with adhesive backing to stick on the boat, and disks without adhesive to bolt the little mounting doodads the bags come with to. Seems to […]
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Read more: Harken Bosun’s Chair
I let my much-loved and venerable Hood Sails bosun’s chair go with her when we sold our McCurdy and Rhodes 56. Just received this replacement from Harken. After a quick look over, I’m liking what I’m seeing a lot, but of course I will know more once I have used it and will share that […]
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Read more: Cross-Bank Battery Charging—Splitters and RelaysA well set up cruising boat electrical system separates the house and engine start batteries. Here’s how to make sure both are properly charged.
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Read more: Cruiser Under $20K, Bayfield 29
My last post got me thinking about the importance of just getting out there in some boat, any boat, if we really want to go cruising and make a success of it. We can always buy a bigger and better boat later. With that in mind, there’s a Bayfield 29 we go by on our […]
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Read more: A Boat While You Wait To Go CruisingI came across this cool article on old small boats available for less than the cost of a good dinner out. One of these would make a great project while waiting and saving to go cruising: Learn some useful skills while fixing the boat. Then hone sailing skills. The O’Day Day Sailer for US$78 jumped […]
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Read more: Brion Toss Splicing WandI have owned this great tool for at least 25 years. I don’t use it that often, but when I do, it saves so much agro. The photo to the right shows the way I was using it locked in a vice to Brummell splice 1/2″ Amsteel. No way my little D-splicer was going to […]
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Read more: Getting Ready for a Hurricane
The North Atlantic heating up in the last week got me working on preparing our new-to-us J/109 for a strike. We have always added a backup pendant before expected winds of storm force or over, but in the past it was chain. Now, with a smaller boat and the availability of high-modulus rope, we are […]
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Read more: Justifying Expensive ToolsThe enjoyment of one’s tools is an essential ingredient of successful work Donald Knuth This quote makes me feel a lot better about blowing the price of a nice second hand car on new tools after we sold the McCurdy and Rhodes 56 with all my old tools. Thanks to Stan Honey for the heads […]
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Read more: Battery Bank Separation and Cross-Charging Best PracticesWe all know that any cruising boat should have the engine and house banks separated, but that’s just the start of what we need to know.
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Read more: A Fractional Rig is Like a GearboxAbove is with the backstay set for light air (about 7 knots true) and mast on our J/109 pretty much straight. Big time power in the mainsail and lots of sag in the headstay powering up the jib. This is the same two sails in 14 knots true at which point we de-powered by pumping […]
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Read more: 49er, 49er FX and NACRA 17 WorldsA friend invited me along to watch some of the races. Amazing how performance sailing has changed since my days in the 505, and yet, in some ways, is still very much the same. Also interesting that of the few races we watched, the women’s teams in the FX seemed by far the most aggressive, […]
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Read more: Don’t Ever Lie AhullI can’t believe that experienced ocean sailors are still making the mistake of lying ahull in heavy weather and then blaming a freak or rogue wave when they get rolled. We have known for over 40 years how dangerous lying ahull is. Extra big waves are a reality in anything over gale force offshore, not […]
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Read more: Slippery Deck Shoe Fix
My Gill deck shoes were completely losing their grip. We are talking scary-slippery, to the point I nearly went on my ass, and overboard was a real possibility. We have seen this before. Seems like whatever material deck shoe soles are being made of these days, it develops a hard yellowy layer way before the […]
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Read more: Why We Need a Traveler
We increasingly see boats without travellers, but that’s a big performance hit, particularly in light air going to windward where we want the boom on the centreline but the sheet not too tight. To make that happen the traveler car needs to be well to windward of centre. Check out the nice twist and leach […]
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Read more: Demo of In-Boom Furling
My friend Hans, who advised me while I was writing the article on the tragedy aboard Escape, took me out on his Farr 56 for a demo of hoisting, reefing, and furling, using his in-boom automated mainsail-handling system. Hans is an incredible resource, since he has owned boats with slab, in-mast, and in-boom furling, as […]
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Read more: Safer Transom Ladder
Our new-to-us J/109 has a robust transom swim ladder that could definitely enable someone who fell overboard get back into the boat, at least in smooth water. But check out the photo above: There’s no way for someone in the water, particularly wearing a lifejacket, to deploy the ladder unassisted. The angle is just wrong […]
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Read more: Nylon Line In Europe 2The plot thickens. I came across this product page at RobLine an Austrian rope maker and they have a bunch of lines for mooring, docking, that will be good for anchor snubbers. Interesting quote from that page: Robline caters to the trend toward using different fibers for mooring and anchor lines, depending on the specific […]
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Read more: John and Andy Schell PodcastAndy Schell and John Harries do a podcast together. Lithium batteries, seamanship, refits, and much more.
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Read more: Starlink MaritimeStarlink are going to provide a solution for moving vessels, but before we get too excited check out the price! Think US$10,000 for the unit and US$7000/month for service! Looks like I will be right that Iridium will the solution for most of us for some time to come. In 2019 I predicted 10 years […]
