Sailing Gear

It’s been blowing 30 knots for the last four hours, and I’m glued to the helm. I have a touch too much canvas up, it’s dark, but I’m ripping down waves and closing in on the finish line. Alaska is about 100 nautical miles away, and I’ve put about 650 miles behind me since I left ...read more

Dissatisfied with the results in their own sailing experience of trying to find an easy, more affordable way to route plan and navigate, the founders of SailProof in 2020 introduced the rugged, waterproof SP08 tablet. Their goal was to provide sailors who use a PC for route ...read more

Bosun’s Bag: A Treasury of Practical Wisdom for the Traditional Boater By Tom Cunliffe Artwork by Martyn MackrillAdlard Coles, $35 Wit, wisdom, history, seamanship, hands-on skills, and the evocative artwork of Martyn Mackrill—all are contained within this eminently readable new ...read more

By Graham L. Cox, Vol. 1 (301 pp) $35; Vol. 2 (351 pp) $35, Random Boats Publishing, May 2024 Like many cruising sailors of my generation, Graham Cox was first inspired to dream of bluewater voyaging by teen circumnavigator Robin Lee Graham. Unlike most of us, however, Cox had a ...read more

Editor’s Note: Lin Pardey and her late husband, Larry, are legends in the sailing community both for their epic voyages in their two purpose-built cutters, Taleisin and Seraffyn, as well as the numerous books they’ve written that have inspired countless sailors to follow their ...read more

Editor’s Note: Lin Pardey and her late husband, Larry, are legends in the sailing community both for their epic voyages in their two purpose-built cutters, Taleisin and Serrafyn, as well as the numerous books they’ve written that have inspired countless sailors to follow their ...read more

TeamO has earned the overall 2024 DAME Design Award for its Hi-Lift 150N lifejacket and harness, while Yanmar Marine took home wins in two categories covering propulsion as well as environmental sustainability for its breakthrough E-Saildrive. At the annual awards announcement at ...read more

The Coho Ho Ho is a relatively new and small cruising rally that departs from Puget Sound usually on the last Sunday in August and ends a few weeks later for some in San Francisco and for others in San Diego. Over the last 10 years, the fleet has averaged 12 boats per year, and ...read more

Let's start with a reality check. You’re headed for a bareboat charter someplace wonderful, you’ll have a luxurious yacht at your disposal and a multitude of coves, beaches, resorts, pubs, and eateries to explore. Do you really need more? Does a hot fudge sundae need an extra ...read more

Lin Pardey / Paradise Cay Publications It’s fair to say that few sailors can write about passagemaking with more authority than Lin Pardey. And true to her life and career as a writer and sailor, her new book is a lively, vibrant accounting of some remarkable passages, including ...read more

It’s been a long time since I’ve thought much about my eyewear onboard, but Vallon changed all that this summer when I tested a pair of the Swedish company’s new Malizia sunglasses. The first time I hit the water wearing them, I was stunned at the clarity and depth the V52 ...read more

Prevailing WindBy Thomas DolbyArchway Publishing, hardcover $39.99 When he was a youngster, Thomas Dolby received a book by Beken of Cowes, and the oversized black-and-white images of the majestic America’s Cup yachts of the turn of the century enthralled him. Beneath the ...read more

I love quick and clear access to data when I’m racing. Even when I’m cruising, I enjoy running numbers through my head. In both cases, it keeps me entertained and drives me to push the boat harder and to sail better. Raymarine’s new Alpha series offers a streamlined way to ...read more

More and more, "smart" systems are becoming the norm on boats. Case in point, the Smart-Hatch, which swaps out the hinge and handles of a conventional boat hatch with an automated hinge and handles. Integral to the Smart-Hatch’s functionality is a set of sensors that detect rain ...read more

As one of this year’s Magenta Project Mentees, I’ve had the opportunity to try out a new bit of kit in the form of Mustang Survival’s EP 38 Ocean Racing Life Jacket. It immediately became my go-to. This life jacket sits on my shoulders differently than my previous offshore life ...read more

Let’s be honest: Transducers aren’t as sexy as the cool graphics and touchscreen capabilities of today’s navigation and electronics packages. But the information that those packages deliver, like speed and depth, is only as good as the instrument that’s gathering it—and that’s ...read more

Laurence Holt Books, 2023$12 at stikky.com I can’t recall how I stumbled across the first edition of Stikky Night Skies published in 2003, but it was among the books we carried when we went cruising full-time in 2008. I thought it might be a fun way to teach our kids, then 8 and ...read more

Ever since the government started polluting our fuel with ethanol, I’ve agonized over how best to power the dinghies I use when cruising. I did experiment with an early version electric motor years ago but was not impressed, as the battery sometimes went flat with no warning. ...read more

Neil Evans has been talking about the merits of Harken’s T2 Soft-Attach blocks—most significantly the soft Dyneema shackle as its attachment point, rather than a metal head post and shackle—when he reminds his audience of marine professionals what their biggest variable really ...read more

By Mensun BoundMariner Books (2022) Confession: I am a polar exploration nut. Whole hectares of my bookshelves are dedicated to the genre, past and present. Needless to say, it’s hard to be a polar nut without knowing of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the destruction of his ship ...read more

Ever wonder how the gear we put on our boats gets tested before we ever use it? If it's Harken gear, that would be the Harken Lab. This is where they measure, break, and prove stuff, and SAIL Editor-in-Chief Wendy Mitman Clarke got a tour. ...read more

Yacht Thruster, celebrating 15+ years, is a compact & powerful bow/stern thruster, installed on thousands of sailboats from 30ft – 75ft. The minimally invasive mounting design makes this the perfect project for the Do-It-Yourself-er with NO fiberglass work required.  Built from ...read more

Small boat sailors interested in performance and even simply sailing well know how important it is to be able to feel shifts and changes in wind pressure and respond quickly to them. Harken’s new Zircon blocks deliver that feeling of sensitivity, leading to more precision with ...read more

SAIL Editor-in-Chief Wendy Mitman Clarke visits Harken Inc., in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, during Harken University—where the industry pros who help us choose and use our boats' gear come to learn from the people who design and build it. ...read more

The off season is the best time for boat projects. But doesn’t it just frost your cookies when you’re all set to finish that piece of trim, and you open the half-full can of varnish you thought you’d sealed up tightly last year only to find the contents rendered to goop? ...read more

Tanks in sailboats are a pain. Frequently they must take on weird shapes to fit the odd spaces where they live, they’re often hard to access, and even harder to monitor. When you think about all that internal tank sensors are up against—from solid waste to fuel—it’s not ...read more

The ubiquity of smartphones means we all have a powerful tool for protecting the environment right in our pockets—if we stock them with the right apps. Ghost Gear Reporter is one app that sailors would do well to have on hand. It allows folks to log the location of derelict ...read more

Whether offshore on the same course for days at a time or short-tacking through a new inlet, I’m always finding new ways to torture my jib sheets. Most days they live coated in salt spray, baking in the sun, and getting dragged across lifelines, shrouds, and nonskid. I never ...read more

After a full day ashore hiking, exploring, and stopping off at a beach bar, I watch the sunset on the anchorage. I’ve always loved how it looks like a field of stars at night, its own constellations changing as the wind oscillates. Hopping into my dinghy, it’s easy to see that ...read more

OK, this looks wicked clever, and we can’t wait to try it out. We always need a boathook, right? And we always need to conserve space on a sailboat. Enter the Revolve Rollable Boat Hook, which earned a special mention at the DAME Design Awards at the annual METS show last fall. ...read more

As the push for more renewable energy grows, the need for high-capacity, long-life battery storage increases. Everybody and their uncle seems to want to transition to lithium batteries onboard, and in most cases, it’s a done deal that lithium is what’s needed to power all of the ...read more

There are times when you need to ease sheets smartly, but on most self-tailing winches that means removing a winch handle, taking the line from the self-tailer, and then easing the line on the drum—often not as quickly as you’d like to make the move. With its QuickTrim feature, ...read more

For those of us on smaller boats, it’s always a challenge to figure out how and where to place enough solar panels to power our electrical needs. The past several years have brought lots of innovations, and now comes an Italian company that has created a foldable solar panel ...read more

Windward PassageA Maxi Yacht in Her Sixth DecadeBy Randall Peffer, Steve Jost, Ronald GeismanWoodenBoat, $75.00 Few world class racing boats have had such improbable beginnings as Windward Passage—conceived by a somewhat renegade logger-entrepreneur-sailor, drawn by an untested ...read more