Systems

Until very recently, the batteries in sailboats used some form of lead-acid chemistry to store energy. Different manufacturers used different techniques and materials, but in the end, the chemistry and the process by which the batteries charge and discharge electricity remained ...read more

As a classic-boat sailor, I’ve long held that simpler is the better. I still think this is true: a simpler boat is cheaper, she has less gadgets to break down and there’s a certain satisfaction in knowing you’re able to handle a bit of discomfort. Thus, for a long time, I sailed ...read more

For quite some time, I had contemplated an expansion of the house battery bank aboard our 1987 Sabre 38MKI, Orion. There were several potential issues that had kept the project from becoming a reality. But fortunately, while not trivial, in the end, they were all surmountable, ...read more

So accustomed are today’s sailors to being able to furl their headsails that we often forget what it was like before this technology became so widespread—aboard cruising boats, in particular. A few years ago, though, the furler on my Tayana 42 bit the dust when a sealed bearing ...read more

“You won’t be able to pee on a heel,” someone said. “You won’t have room to stow the coco peat,” said another. “I don’t know. That’s just gross,” said a third. These are just a few examples of the pushback my partner, Phillip, and I got when we announced on our blog we were ...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

Our 1987 Pearson project boat came with an elderly but functioning Raymarine chartplotter, located belowdecks at the nav station. Since I usually sail solo or doublehanded, it was of little use down there—it needed to be near the helm. When I decided to update the plotter along ...read more

Both of the heads on Britannia, my Downeast 45 schooner, are Raritan Elegance electric models that I installed nearly four years ago. They have performed flawlessly, and one of the reasons for that is that for about 90 percent of the time, they are flushed with clean freshwater. ...read more

No sensible bluewater sailor would consider setting off on a long cruise these days without some means of generating power other than by burning fossil fuels. The good news is that solar energy is becoming less expensive by the day, making it an obvious answer for providing the ...read more

Dock water hoses can be seen connected to lots of boats in marinas, and my 45ft schooner, Britannia, had the system built-in from the original. A water hose connects to a dock faucet and a pressure-reducing inlet on the boat. This reduces municipal water pressure, usually around ...read more

Without much reflection, I recently replaced my broken bilge pump with a slightly larger model. After all, I thought, surely an 800 gallon-per-hour (gph) pump will outperform the previous 500gph unit? Well, yes, but that’s no reason to feel much safer, as I soon discovered. The ...read more

The time has come when the prospect of cold drinks and long-term food storage has you thinking about upgrading your icebox to DC-powered refrigeration. Duncan Kent has been there and done that, and has some advice Fresh food must be kept at a refrigerated temperature of 40 ...read more

Solar panels or wind generator? There’s little doubt that for Stateside cruising, especially down South where the amount of sunshine outstrips the strength of the wind for much of the year, solar is top of the list for liveaboard and long-term cruisers. Having seen what even a ...read more

It’s easy to spend a lot of time and money on sails, engines, generators and electronics when gearing up for a long-term cruise. However, one vital element (literally) that is often overlooked or left until the last minute is freshwater. Granted, you may be planning to cruise in ...read more

Modern satcom devices and network airtime costs have dropped in price recently as more “birds” are launched and more constellations are created. This has resulted in several low-cost voice and data, or data-only, communicators being made available to the budget-conscious sailor. ...read more

The challenge of establishing healthy performance under power without compromising a boat’s sailing ability seemed unsolvable until the first folding and feathering propellers for leisure sailors appeared on the market. Now, the quest for the ideal low-drag propeller constitutes ...read more

The 30-year-old Raritan PH II head on our Pearson 39-2 project boat still worked, but reluctantly. The boat had sat on the hard for two years and if there’s anything marine toilets need, it’s regular exercise to stop rubber or leather parts from hardening and cracking. I could ...read more

Wind generators have a natural appeal to sailors in need of extra power. They harness the same element that we rely on to get from A to B, and the technology behind them is well proven and reliable. Despite the growing popularity of hydrogenerators and ever more efficient solar ...read more

One of the most vexed questions for long-distance sailors is how to keep the batteries topped up without resorting to running the engine. In the past, that might have meant a few amps for navigation lights, GPS and a radio. But these days, yachts are much more energy intensive, ...read more

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is the cooking fuel of choice for most cruisers, but it can kill you if you don’t respect it. Here’s how to keep your propane system healthy and your boat safe It’s often the things we cannot see that pose the greatest danger on our boats. A recent ...read more

Over the last 25 years, there has been a dramatic shift in the types of refrigeration systems carried aboard cruising boats. Today, 12-volt systems prevail, but the systems most often installed up to the late ‘90s were driven by the main engine. Engine-driven refrigerators ...read more

From the first time I switched on the lights on board our new project boat, one thing was certain: they would have to go. The 1987 Pearson 39-2 had been updated in some ways, but not in others—and it was obvious that interior lighting had been way down the previous owner’s ...read more

Keeping your diesel fuel clean should be one of your highest priorities, and you can avoid a lot of trouble by adding extra filtration. During the 2015-16 winter aboard Eclipse, our Tayana Vancouver 42, we pulled out our old Perkins 4-108 for a rebuild. With the engine out of ...read more

Parts List: Click to print a PDF McMaster Carr Stainless Steel 3/8" MNPT Nipple Quantity: 22 $1.79/each Brass 3/8" FNPT to 3/8" hose barb Quantity: 22 $11.12/packs of 5 Brass 1/2" MNPT to 3/8" hose barb Quantity: 4 $3.29/packs of 2 Brass 3/8" MNPT to 3/8" hose barb ...read more

I was in the café at West Bay Marina in Olympia, Washington, on a damp, chilly fall morning, and my buddies and I were assembled for our morning briefing on what’s going on and what’s not going on. After a few jokes that were funny only to old men, we narrowed the focus to what ...read more

When I moved my new Nicholson 32 sloop, Alibi of Bridham, from a marina to a mooring this summer I also had to rethink my power requirements, since the change meant severing my umbilical to the grid. Although I had a powerful (read: noisy) wind generator as an alternative power ...read more