I pretty much took rigs for granted when I first started sailing on other people’s boats. After all, unlike exciting, moving, tweakable things like sails and running rigging, masts and booms were just there—a part of the structure of the boat. I took no part in their maintenance ...read more
Although a fiberglass sailboat can seemingly have a half-life of 50 years or more, its electrical system most certainly does not. Up until the 1990s, few production builders used tinned wiring in their installations, and most owners had fairly basic requirements, allowing ...read more
Q: I have an old 30ft C&C from the mid-80s. It was originally equipped with a conventional spinnaker, but a spinnaker hasn’t been flown from the boat in years. I don’t even own one now! I was thinking of trying an A-sail. Is it absolutely necessary to have a sprit to fly one of ...read more
Everyone dreads the day that something as major and costly as a boat’s rigging must be replaced. For my 1984 Tayana 42, Eclipse, still sporting its original setup and with a 1,500-mile offshore passage looming, the time for an upgrade had finally arrived. Along with swapping out ...read more
I’m not going to lie. This all started with wine. I wanted (needed?) to find more space on the boat where we could stow the stuff, especially what we call “cruiser’s wine”—bagged wine, which is the tipple of choice on Plaintiff’s Rest. Thankfully, this fruitful endeavor ended ...read more
