One of the neat things about sailing is the incredible variety of equipment that sailors use while doing it, whether crossing oceans or just out for a daysail—one of the many reasons why even after all these years SAIL magazine’s annual Pittman Innovation Awards remain as fresh ...read more
Scanstrut ROKK charger Like it or not, smart phones are a fact of life offshore. This, in turn, leads to problem of keeping said phones charged, which typically results in yet more wires running around your boat’s already cluttered nav station. To solve this problem, Scanstrut ...read more
Zen Watermaker Created with an eye toward providing a kind freshwater nirvana offshore, Zen watermakers from Italy’s Schenker strive to take the complexity of installing these otherwise somewhat intimidating systems. Available with capacities of either 8 gph (gallons per hour) ...read more
Knowing Where to Go The easy-to-use GPSMAP 8612 chartplotter, one of three new smaller variants of Garmin’s celebrated 8600 series, comes standard with such premium features as BlueChart g3 coastal cartography and a 12in HD IPS touchscreen display that’s refreshingly easy on the ...read more
Gale-force Electricity Watt&Sea’s award-winning hydro-generators have long been popular with both racers (for whom its products were first created) and cruisers. But what to do if you are, say, François Gabart aboard the maxi-tri Macif, a boat in which the main hull spends much ...read more
Tired of forever finding your dinghy or open daysailer filled with water when you arrive to go sailing? For years, sailors and engineers have sought a solution to this seemingly eternal problem, and now it appears the folks at Sea Joule Marine may have finally found it in their ...read more
An Even Better SOS Veteran satellite rescue beacon manufacturer ACR Electronics has now made its personal locator beacons (PLBs) better than ever with the introduction of the new ResQLink 400 and ResQLink View. Based on feedback from actual rescue victims who have successfully ...read more
Two of the most indispensable items on board a cruising yacht are a dinghy and an outboard motor. At anchor or on a buoy, of course, they are your only means of getting ashore. They also have a thousand other uses. For example, they can allow you to motor across to friends’ ...read more
Newport Sailing Gloves Harken and West Marine have teamed up to re-engineer the sailing glove, in the process providing it with less bulk and more performance. Among other highlights, the ribbed neoprene back provides outstanding abrasion protection, while redesigned finger ...read more
Low-Profile Snubber Winch New boats often engender new types of hardware. Case in point, the new low-profile SnubbAir combination snubbing winch and ratcheting foot, or cheek, block from Harken, originally created for the J/70 class. “The classic Harken plain-top B8A winch has ...read more
From the casual sailor to the lover of linguistics, everyone is sure to find something to fascinate them in this entertaining little book. Three Sheets to the Wind unpacks the etymology of modern words and idioms derived from nautical terms. Part trivia, part reference and part ...read more
Low-Profile Padeye Developed in conjunction with Switzerland’s VMG Yacht Design, the Ino-Padeye from France’s Ino-Rope offers an award-winning combination of aesthetics and functionality. Machined in high-strength anodized aluminum, the padeyes are specifically configured to ...read more
Safe and Sound An age-old problem for small-boat sailors has been taking care of their wallets, keys and other valuables while, say, tooling around the harbor, a problem that has only become all the more pressing in this age of cell phones and other digital products. Now, ...read more
Super-cozy Thermals Developed in conjunction with Dongfeng Race Team, winner of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, Zhik’s HydroMerina Superthermals base layers combine the natural anti-odor, comfort and warmth benefits of Merino wool with the ultra-high wicking and enhanced ...read more
More than just a midlayer Much as we sailors respect our gnarly offshore gear, it’s the lighter-weight stuff we tend to grab on a regular basis, and for a chilly day of racing or just tooling around the harbor it would be hard to find a better piece of kit than Helly Hansen’s ...read more
Small-boat Race Instrumentation The compact Vakaros Atlas provides real-time, on-the-water performance data as well as off-the-water analytics aboard smaller raceboats. Among the parameters measured are GPS speed, magnetic heading, time-to-line, VMG, pitch and leeway. The system ...read more
Carbon Windvane The Blacksmith Sport Boat windvane from Davis Instruments weighs a mere 0.7 oz., and is configured in carbon and duraluminum for use aboard boats from 16 to 28ft. It also includes a convertible “J-base” to facilitate side, top or front mounting on a spar. It is ...read more
Lightweight Track Ronstan’s Series 19 C-Track, long a standby on high-performance dinghies—including foilers—and small catamarans, has been further upgraded to make it lighter and faster than ever. Specific changes include the use of lighter materials throughout, such as alloy ...read more
Author of a definitive series of pilot books and cruising guides for the Mediterranean, Rod Heikell and his wife, Lou, embarked on a circumnavigation during which they amassed not only a host of anecdotes but a bookload of recipes based around the produce of the landfalls they ...read more
Electric Outboard According to Torqeedo, its recently introduced Travel 1103 C emissions-free, direct-drive 1,100W outboard is the quietest in its class, operating at just 33 decibels, the equivalent of a human whisper. The motor comes with a 915Wh (watt-hour) rechargeable ...read more
Get a Grip Edson’s ComfortGrip strips provide a firm grip on stainless steel handrails, like those found on steering pedestals, which in a nasty chop could mean the difference between staying on your feet and ending up bruised or on your hind end. Available in 8- or 12in ...read more
A Better Sea Boot Following up on its successful ZK Seaboot 800, Zhik’s Seaboot 900 was created in partnership with team AkzoNobel and Dongfeng Race Team, the latter the overall winner of the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race. Designed for serious, long-distance offshore racers and ...read more
Briton Duncan Wells is a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) instructor and runs a sailing school, which gives him the chops to produce this excellent book on close-quarters sailboat handling for the crewless. Packed with photographs, diagrams and step-by-step procedures for just ...read more
A ‘Multi-Tool’ VHF Furuno’s FM4800 fixed-mount VHF has built-in Class D DSC, a GPS Receiver, AIS receiver and an integrated loudhailer with intercom and eight patterns of alert sounds, including a fog horn and warning signal. The unit is waterproof to an IP68 standard, which ...read more
