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Read more: Q&A: How Did You Install Treadmaster On Your Aluminum Boat?
Question: When you were installing your Treadmaster, did you grind back to clean metal and glue it down, or did you, as I was advised, paint with epoxy first?
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Q&A: What Do You Think About Spray Foam Insulation For A New Aluminum Boat?
23 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Q&A: What Do You Think About Spray Foam Insulation For A New Aluminum Boat?Question: We are planning to insulate the interior of our new aluminum boat with spray foam, any comments? Is your hull foamed? Was it primed with paint before or sprayed directly onto the metal?
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Read more: Q&A: What Problems Do You Have With Painting Aluminum?
Question: Where do your main problems with the paint on Morgan’s Cloud lie: with the paint becoming chipped from wear and tear, or from inadequate preparation, or from salt water working under the paint edge?
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Read more: Q&A: What Should I Paint On My New Aluminum Boat?
Question: You say you would not paint aluminum. Ok, it is hideously expensive (I have been quoted £10,000 just for materials), it is difficult to key, and we have been advised to sand blast and paint the same day (tricky!). So, if you were to start all over again with a newly built boat, what […]
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Read more: PlexusIt used to be that when we wanted to attach something to our aluminum hull we had it welded. This requires special equipment and a skilled operator, not to speak of all the attendant mess and paint damage. Not anymore, we now use Plexus.
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Read more: Q&A: North Atlantic Crossing, East To West, In FallQuestion: I’m planning an east to west crossing via the northern route from the UK to Canada. Ideally I would like to do this in August or September and without stops. My boat is a Hallberg Rassy 46. What do you think?
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Read more: Making The Most Of AluminumAluminum has many obvious attributes as a construction material—high strength to weight, durability, lack of maintenance—but there are other, subtler benefits that aluminum can offer, especially if building a boat from scratch.
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Read more: Q&A: Is The Espar Heater Really That Hot?
Question: My experience with diesel heat is that it’s hard to light, hard to control, it smells and the deck is covered in soot. That was 25 years ago with the stainless steel pot belly stove in [a] Westsail. You rave about the Espar diesel heater. Is the Espar really that good and does it […]
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Read more: Steiner BinocularsSteiner is one of the few companies left (it seems) that is still building good quality equipment and then standing behind it. We have had the same pair of Steiner Commander RS2000 binoculars for over 20 years.
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Read more: A Boat Built To TravelColin and Louise need a sailboat that can go virtually anywhere, for extended periods, and be as self-sufficient as possible—something like an ocean-going 4×4. They chose an OVNI 435.
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Read more: K.I.S.S.*
I always learn something, or have my existing thinking clarified, when talking with other experienced voyagers.
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Read more: A Cruise Of The Outer Bay of Fundy 2007What about a circumnavigation of the Outer Bay of Fundy?
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Read more: Choosing A Suitable Boat, New Versus OldColin writes about the process he and Louise went through when choosing between buying a used boat or building new.
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Read more: Q&A: Autumn Crossing Of The North Atlantic, West To EastQuestion: I am planning a west to east North Atlantic crossing and have read that most yachts leave in May and June. What about leaving in mid-September or early October? Is that still a possibility? Ideally I would like to cross from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Britain.
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Read more: Turning The Dream Into Reality
Ever since Colin was a small child he had a fascination with building things, or making them better. He now turns his eye towards building a sailboat.
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Read more: Liars, Damn Liars, And Sailors
My friend Kevin is tough. Tough enough that I have heard him called Kevlar. A veteran of tens of thousands of ocean miles, both racing and cruising, Kevin has seen some seriously nasty weather.
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Read more: Q&A: Sailing From Halifax To Bermuda In November
Question: I just brought my 34-foot sailboat down the Saint Lawrence to Nova Scotia, and I’m considering making the passage to Bermuda in November and then continuing further south for the winter. I’ve been hearing all kinds of differing opinions about the safety of heading out from Halifax in November, and I thought you could […]
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Read more: Gone SailingThree weeks ago we sailed away from our cottage in Nova Scotia where we had spent most of the summer while Morgan’s Cloud went round and round her mooring and we did boat chores in an effort to tie up the loose ends left over from our refit.
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Read more: Anchor Rode Questions and AnswersOver the years we have answered many questions about putting together a good anchor rode. In this chapter we have gathered some of those answers together.
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Read more: The Journey Is The RewardThough John and I always feel totally disconnected with our destination after flying somewhere, when sailing from place to place on Morgan’s Cloud we feel like active participants in the small bit of the world surrounding us.
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Read more: Q&A: Trans-Atlantic Singlehanded
Question: I’m at a point in my life when it’s time to live the dream that I’ve had since childhood and that’s to sail across the Atlantic single handed. I’m a complete beginner to sailing. I’m currently doing a skipper’s course which will take me up to advanced cruising, coastal navigation and radio operation, although […]
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Read more: Puke Therapy
We are in the third year of a one year refit and up until two weeks ago it was getting to me—big time. As far as I was concerned, all marine equipment was junk and almost everyone in the marine business was a crook. Our boat seemed to be a collection of half finished projects […]
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Read more: Anchor AngstThe other day I was idly paging through the posts on a cruising forum about anchoring and marveling at the level of energy and emotion, not to mention the sheer volume of posts, that this subject seems to elicit.
