Read our most recent articles about how to live out of your Boat full-time.
Like many outdoorsmen and women, sailors know the importance of a knife. The best sailors knife is the one that’s built for the task. It’s easy to handle when your hands are wet, and it’s built to withstand life in and around saltwater. Rope working, locking and opening shackles, and …
It’s hard to imagine a sea-faring captain standing at the helm of his tall ship and barking orders to his swabs, without seeing a collapsable brass telescope, or spyglass, in his hand. We sail small ships these days, and we usually have fewer swabs to order around. But we do …
Hand steering a sailboat is so much fun–until it isn’t. In actuality, it’s tiring work that requires more concentration than we can give it for very long. Racing sailboats switch helmspersons regularly, and offshore passagemakers never rely solely on hand steering. In fact, a breakdown of automatic steering is a …
All About the All-Important Sail Boat Auto Pilot Read More »
Transom is an old word deeply rooted in tradition, like many nautical terms. The word is also used in architecture in a similar function. So what is a boat transom, and why are they important? Here’s a quick look at the origins of the word and the different types of …
It is often said that a boater’s dinghy is like their car. When traveling between ports, you will often only have a land vehicle if you rent one. But your dinghy comes with you, and it’s an essential link to shore. Unless you dock your boat every night, your dinghy …
Captains log, Stardate 5923.1. The sailing vessel Dulcinea is enroute to the Proxima Centari star cluster at 3.5 knots. If we could only get the spinnaker out to catch more of that solar wind! Uhura heard a Priority One Distress Signal on the VFR radio, but I told her to …
Sailing Logs – What They Are, Why You Should Have One, and How to Do It Read More »
Cutter rigs are often more prevalent in boating magazines and theory than they are in your marina. Most cruising sailboats are Bermuda rigged sloops with just one permanently attached headsail. So, are two headsails better than one? Or, are they double the trouble? History of Cutters Cutters became popular in …
Now and again, you come across a word in sailing that piques your interest. Sometimes it’s a word you know used differently. And sometimes, it’s a very old word that has started popping up more and more. Such is the situation with kedging, an old sailor’s trick for moving the …
Love them or hate them, aluminum sailboats are an excellent option for serious bluewater cruising. They’re robust and sturdy and can come out of a scrap saying, “But you should see the other guy!” Why an Aluminum Sailboat? In one particular niche of the sailboat industry, aluminum is all the …
Aluminum Sailboat – The Ultimate Expedition Yacht? Read More »
A watermaker is one of the miracles of modern cruising life. These marvels of modern technology make fresh drinking water out of salt water—every sailor’s dream, right? You might even be thinking that since such a thing exists, surely every boat must have one. But the answer is more complicated …
