Safety

Sailing is a remarkably safe activity, despite the potentially dangerous environment in which it takes place. This is undoubtedly due to the safety-conscious attitude of most skippers and their crews. Nonetheless, even the best sailors can still get in trouble when and where ...read more

Much has been said and written about preparing your vessel for an offshore passage, but few think about the importance of having good shoreside support set up before heading out to sea. Almost all offshore racing teams have sophisticated onshore support teams providing them with ...read more

If there’s one thing as certain as death and taxes, it’s that sooner or later every sailor who owns a boat bigger than a trailersailer will be faced with the unappealing chore of having to go up the mast. Murphy’s Law will make sure of that. Riggers don’t come cheap, and if you ...read more

Boat Oversight In a world where you can track your friends’ locations in real time and stream yourself live on the internet, it should come as no surprise that you can also keep a close eye on your boat from the comfort of home. In fact, not only is there a plethora of options ...read more

As with so many other things on our 1987 Pearson 39-2 project boat, the lifelines looked to be original equipment. Made of vinyl-coated 3/16in 7x7 stainless steel wire, they were bleeding rust where the sheathing had cracked, and it was obvious they needed to be replaced. The ...read more

The United States Coast Guard requires that all boats operating in coastal waters or on the high seas carry a selection of visual distress signals. Almost invariably, such signals include the pyrotechnic type, either handheld or fired from a flare pistol, but surely there are ...read more

The U.S. Coast Guard is now collaborating with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on something it calls the “Ready for Rescue,” a $255,000 prize competition that is looking for ways that will make it easier to locate people, MOB victims in particular, in the water. ...read more

Boaters University has just announced its latest online course, Safety & Rescue at Sea, taught by Mario Vittone, whose name you might recognize from the pages of our sister publication, Soundings Magazine and his Lifelines blog. Mario Vittone is a retired U.S. Coast Guard rescue ...read more