Editor’s Note: This story is excerpted from SAIL Contributing Editor Christopher Birch’s upcoming book The Four Seasons of Boat Maintenance(available for order soon)—a compendium of
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
You might think that watching invasive surgery on a dated fiberglass sailboat week in and week out would be just about the last thing to
When talking shop among sailors or reading about safety at sea, ventilation is not a topic that comes up much. Evidently it’s secondary to things
My dissatisfaction with the head and holding tank plumbing arrangement on our 1987 Sabre 38 had grown as we cruised the boat away from
Military strategist Helmuth von Moltke said, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” This is also true for a boat refit plan I started the
It seems that every time I walk into a boatyard I inevitably find myself smitten by some under-loved (read derelict) classic beauty sitting forlornly off
Many production boats come equipped with undersized cleats and poorly designed line chocks. The 10in aluminum cleats that came standard on my Pearson 40 have
Arguably, there are few items on a cruising boat more oriented to your sailing comfort than a dodger, especially in Maine, where cold water rules. Bashing to windward, pushing to get somewhere in a cold downpour or just keeping the crew happy, the dodger plays a major role.
One challenge with older boats that have been out of production for decades is obtaining replacements for components that may have been custom-made back in the day. Good luck finding a new bow pulpit for your 1974 Flexiflyer 43 or a mast cap for the rig on your 1967 Brickouthouse 29.
Six IMOCAs are lining up in New York this week for the inaugural Ocean Race Atlantic, a fully-crewed sprint from New York City to Lorient, France.
Tank water can easily be contaminated with anything from a lingering bad taste to dangerous bacteria. Installing a triple filtration set up on Ben-Varrey helped.
The effort to save Maine’s classic plastic fleet began—as so many great things do—with three friends and a foolish idea.
Boat meets spaceship at the luxury end of the market.
Tides are an essential part of coastal sailing, so don’t forget to look at the moon once in a while.
The Magenta Project seeks applicants for their 2026-2027 mentorship program.
Twist: The Big Question When asked to help out onboard, I’m sometimes surprised to find how many skippers only have a vague notion of how
The sailing world has lost another great this week in the passing of John Rousmaniere, author of Fastnet Force 10 and numerous other sailing texts.
As a yacht broker, many people have talked to me about wanting to buy a boat, learning to sail, and then taking their own boat
A new flagship elevates an iconic and evergreen cruising brand.
