Systems

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