John muses on why doing basic seamanship tasks, like moving heavy weights safely and efficiently using only the boat’s own gear, are so satisfying…and why the practice is important too.
Setting up a rig to be safe and functional offshore is all about getting the details right. Here are some vital things to know and do.
It’s tempting to assume that the bigger a battery bank is on a cruising boat the better, but past a certain point that’s not necessarily so. It all depends on our usage profile. And sometimes there are much cheaper and easier ways to reduce charging time.
John bored you to death with a lot of mast tuning theory in the last chapter, but here’s the pay off: a step-by-step guide that will yield a good tune every time.
In Part 1 we got the mast upright in the athwartship plane so it was not leaning over to one side or the other. Now let’s set the fore and aft rake and bend. But before we set off on that long and winding road we need to make sure we know what the destination is, and that’s what this chapter is about.
John gets a fright and is once again reminded of that old law of boats: Anything that can happen, will happen, and at the worst possible moment.
Getting the rig properly tuned is vital for any sailboat, but it’s not easy to do right. John takes the mystery out of the process with a step-by-step procedure that works.
In case we didn’t manage to cure your insomnia with Part 1, we now have Part 2. The good news is that this is the last one that’s relevant for members, and now we can all get back to something we actually care about: offshore voyaging.
Fire at sea. Those three words strike fear into the heart of any prudent mariner. John takes a look at a new fire extinguisher that may be uniquely suited for use on cruising boats.
With all the recent hullabaloo about internet privacy, it’s time to update our privacy policy. Here it is in plain old English with some interesting stuff mixed in to keep it from being boring and it might even help you decide what to do about practices on other sites.
John takes an in-depth look at the benefits and drawbacks of carbon foam, liquid filled, and AGM lead acid batteries, and then reveals his thinking if faced with battery replacement today.
John recently replaced the house battery bank on “Morgan’s Cloud”. But before starting the project he had a big decision to make: which battery type. Here’s a look at the options he considered, starting with lithium.
The loads on a modern offshore cruising boat are substantial so we sailors need to really think about how we handle them. John discusses two common mistakes and what we can all learn from them.
Colin and Jean-Francois Eeman, Boréal Yachts’ Managing Director, pick up where they left off in Part I and talk about Boréal’s plans for the future—it’s exciting stuff.
Eight years ago a new boat builder launched one of the most innovative cruising boats we have seen in a generation. Since then, Colin has been an eye witness to, and participant in, making those boats ever better. Now he and Managing Director Jean-Francois Eeman sit down to discuss what Boréal has accomplished and reveal some of their plans for the future.
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