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Read more: Apps to Manage Boat Maintenance and CruisesThe apps to use on computers and smartphones to keep track of tasks on a cruising sail or motorboat.
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Read more: Two Books That Will Help Us Go Cruising—Part 1Managing our money and saving to go cruising is way more difficult than it was. Here’s a book recommendation to help with that.
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Read more: Managing Boatyard Costs—Part 2John provides specific tips, including a meeting script and scope of work outline, to help you get a quote or an estimate from a boat yard and then manage the project to stay at least close to that agreed price.
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Read more: Managing Boatyard Costs—Part 1Many boat owners just shrug and say to themselves that all boatyards are a bunch of incompetent crooks and we are going to get screwed no matter what we do. But it does not have to be that way. John shares what he has learned over some forty years of managing boat projects, both large and small, about how to keep costs at least semi-reasonable and how to decide what tasks are best delegated to a boatyard.
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Smartphone (CrewWatcher) or AIS-Based Crew Overboard Beacons?
151 CommentsReading Time: 9 minutesMembers
Read more: Smartphone (CrewWatcher) or AIS-Based Crew Overboard Beacons?An in-depth analysis and comparison of Bluetooth smartphone-based crew overboard beacons as against AIS beacons.
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Read more: Severe Weather Probability Forecast ProductJohn writes about a new weather forecast product that just might be the most significant weather advance for offshore voyagers since the GRIB file.
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Read more: Coming Alongside (Docking)—Backing In, Part 2John continues to make backing-in approaches easy, with four detailed step-by-step recipes (complete with diagrams), one for each wind direction.
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Read more: Coming Alongside (Docking)—Backing In, Part 1The general wisdom, repeated over and over again on wharves, in sailors’ bars, and on the forums, is that it’s difficult to back a boat into a tight space, and impossible if said boat has a long keel. But that’s just dead wrong. John shares backing techniques that will work, and even make the process easy, with most any boat.
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Read more: Surviving The Boatyard—Part 2Managing a boatyard stay is all about good planning and getting the details right. Colin provides vital tips that will help from haul to re-launch.
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Read more: Working While Cruising—Our Offices on “Morgan’s Cloud”More and more cruisers are working while cruising at jobs that require long hours at a computer. And even among cruisers who leave their jobs completely behind when they head out, many are blogging as well as editing photographs and video; all computer intensive. Here’s a look at the gear we use and where we work day to day.
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Read more: Surviving The Boatyard—Part 1A simple guide from Colin on how to select, manage and (perhaps?) enjoy your stay in the boatyard, wherever it may be.
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Read more: Which Is The Best Boat For Offshore Cruising?The debate is incessant in the cruising community: what is the best cruising boat? John comes up with an answer that may surprise you.
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Read more: Running Rigging Recommendations—Part 2How to select the right rope diameters, attach sheets and halyards to sails the right way, and keep chafe from ruining your day.
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Read more: Weather Routing In ActionAndy shares how he used his understanding of the weather and strategic route planning, together with high-tech tools, during his recent Atlantic crossing, to make a faster and better passage than just sticking with the normal route would have.
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Read more: Running Rigging Recommendations—Part 1Detailed recommendations, including brand names, for running rigging for cruising sailboats.
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Read more: 29 Aluminum Boat Care Tips—Part 3The final chapter in John’s magnum opus on aluminum boat care. Includes some good news about how durable the material really is and some thoughts on why you might want to buy a boat built of it.
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Read more: John’s Thoughts & Photos—November 2017John’s thinking about food (always), cool tools, stinky towels, and other stuff.
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Read more: Automated Weather Routing—Part 1, The ToolsAndy takes a deep dive into the world of automated weather routing, integrated with navigation, and all running on an iPad, a very different approach than the one John has detailed earlier in this Online Book. You can decide which works best for your type of cruising.
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Read more: 29 Aluminum Boat Care Tips—Part 2What started as a simple list post is now a care manual for aluminum boat owners. If you are an aluminum boat owner or are considering buying an aluminum boat, don’t miss this series, it could save you tens of thousands of dollars and untold heartache.
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Read more: Q&A, Coming Alongside (Docking) With Twin RuddersJohn tackles a frequently-asked question about how to dock with twin rudders.
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Read more: 29 Aluminum Boat Care Tips—Part 1A quarter century of caring for an aluminum boat has taught John a lot and he is sharing it all.
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Read more: The Boat to RV TransitionMany waterborne cruisers have thought about trying the land-based version. Matt, who has done a bunch of the later, explores the challenges and rewards.
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Read more: Lessons From An Ocean-Racing CookJohn nostalgically buys a book written by a cook on ocean racers and Phyllis extrapolates!
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Read more: Seven Skills We DON’T Need to Go CruisingLearning everything we need to go cruising can be overwhelming, but John helps by exposing seven commonly-recommended skills we actually don’t need to master and, better still, sharing simple filters that will help all of us decide what’s not important so we can focus on what is.
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Read more: Meeting Up With Steve and Linda DashewMeeting up with Steve and Linda Dashew is always both fun and fascinating, with a lot to learn about offshore voyaging in boats of any size, even though their designs are way beyond the reach of most of us. John shares two of those lessons.
