-
Read more: Always Have A Way To Rest
There is so much about this story (originally reported in Cruising Compass but no longer available) that worries me that it is hard to know where to start: A single-handed sailor abandoned his boat because he was totally exhausted from three days of hand steering, not because there was anything wrong with the boat.
-
Read more: Colin And Louise’s OVNI 435, “Pèlerin”An overview of Colin and Louise’s Ovni 435, Pèlerin.
-
Read more: “Vagabond”—An Extraordinary Polar YachtThere’s no mistaking the profile of certain boats, so it was easy for us to recognise the red yacht transiting the Caledonian Canal one day in early April, despite the near blizzard conditions at the time. Vagabond is a well-known yacht in polar circles, and there is really nothing quite like her visually.
-
Read more: A Glimpse Of The Future?
Many yachtsmen who have visited the Rias of Galicia have remarked that they resemble the sea lochs of Scotland (but without the rain or the midges!). And they do, although they are far busier than Scotland, not just in terms of population and boat traffic, but also because of one of the cornerstones of the […]
-
How Lead Acid Batteries Get Wrecked and What To Do About It
68 CommentsReading Time: 5 minutesMembers
Read more: How Lead Acid Batteries Get Wrecked and What To Do About ItRegularly equalizing our lead-acid batteries can save us a lot of money and aggravation by extending their useful lives as much as five times.
-
Read more: Engine Installation—The Devil Is In The DetailsJohn, who has done three of them, fervently hopes that this will be his last repower. Read along as he spends three months fulltime at one of the best diesel repower shops in the world, sweating the details to make this installation the best it can be.
-
Read more: Love Of The Ocean And The Real Price Of OilI have, with a few short breaks, lived either on, or within a stone’s throw, of salt water all my life. My earliest childhood memories are of commuting by boat from a small island where we lived to a larger island called Bermuda. I have spent the majority of the last twenty years voyaging on […]
-
Read more: Q&A: Propeller Shaft Rope CuttersQuestion: Do you have a rope cutter? I ask because we are thinking of fitting an Ambassador Stripper (stainless) to a new build alloy [aluminum] yacht with an alloy sterntube, and we wonder if it is possible to get the two to live happily together.
-
Read more: Learning The Hard WayAfter nearly 20 years of going North, our decision for 2010 was to head South in search of new horizons and the sun. Last year in the Hebrides was wonderful, but when the weather broke in August we were glad to move on, and we know we’ll be back one day.
-
Read more: Cooking And Heating With Kerosene (Paraffin)[While living on Polaris for a month, I wrote about the boat’s kerosene stove (cooker), which sparked a lively debate in the comments about the benefits and drawbacks of various cooking fuels on boats. Continuing that theme, we just got a note from our good friend and Norwegian Correspondent for the Norwegian Cruising Guide, Hans […]
-
Read more: Q&A: How To Design A Shorefast SystemHow to build and use a shorefast system for boats.
-
Read more: Q&A: Crossing The Atlantic In A 32-foot BoatQuestion: I received a Cris Craft 32′ cruiser/racer as a gift. This is my first boat and I’d like to sail it to France from NYC. I’m preparing it for solo sailing and would like your opinion on it’s survivability. A Sparkman& Stephens design…it has a fin keel and a lovely interior. It has been […]
-
Read more: Test Sail On A Boréal 44
Colin answers the most important question: how does she sail?
-
Read more: Rudder OptionsOne of the biggest challenges with lifting keel boats is how to design a rudder for them that really works? Jean-François Eeman, one of the partners at Boréal, shares their approach to this tricky problem.
-
Read more: The Real Story On The MacGregor 65[We just got a great comment by Lawrence Trimingham from Bermuda, on our post on a late season crossing in a MacGregor 65, that we thought was so interesting that we are putting it up as a post. Lawrence has literally lived with the boat “man and boy” since his father bought Bermudian Escape 20 […]
-
Read more: Boréal 44 Design
Colin moves on to examine the boat in detail with many photographs.
-
Read more: Is It An Expedition Or A Cruise?Last week a friend gave us a catalogue of “expedition” cruises offered by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. The glossy photograph-filled magazine touts cruises that you can take to some of the world’s most remote places. The sales pitch runs along the lines of: Buy a ticket, fly to Chile, board a luxury small cruise […]
-
Read more: About Fig Leaves And Installing SeacocksInstalling a seacock properly is not a trivial project and that is especially true on an aluminum boat. John takes you through the process of installing a new seacock on Morgan’s Cloud.
-
Read more: A Boat Designed For The High Latitudes
An in-depth look at the hull form and construction of the Boréal 44.
-
Read more: We Can’t Do It AllPart of the engine installation project on Morgan’s Cloud was the fitting of new engine mounts—which meant welding, which meant sparks flew, which meant the paint in the engine room got speckled. (Morgan’s Cloud’s builder did a wonderful job of most things, but painting the bilge in the engine room was not one of his […]
-
Read more: Q&A: Grounding The Engine On An Aluminum BoatQuestion: I was wondering if you think the engine should be grounded to the hull or not [on an aluminum boat].
-
Read more: Q&A: A Late West To East Atlantic CrossingQuestion: I am a fairly experienced Swedish sailor; however, I have never “crossed the pond”. We have decided to buy a MacGregor 65. There are several for sale at good prices in the US, but very few in Europe. We will miss the most appropriate season [to cross the Atlantic]. Hence, I want to ask […]
-
Read more: New Engine For “Morgan’s Cloud”—What We ChoseAll engines have tradeoffs, but by really thinking about the theory we have learned in the first chapters as we select a new engine, we can make a big difference to efficiency and reliability. Here’s an example.
-
Read more: Peace At Last?Readers of my previous post on the subject will be aware that we try to generate as much power as possible via renewable resources – wind and solar. This is driven by a desire to keep the boat as simple as possible, and to avoid the need to run our engine at rest for charging […]
-
Read more: A Tale Of Two Water HeatersLast year our venerable and functional 9 gallon Allcraft water heater (on the right) finally bit the big one after 15 years of faithful service. And, wouldn’t you know it, Allcraft had gone out of business.
