Presented by Vetus-Maxwell.Got a tip? Send it to sailmail@sailmagazine.comRafting dangerOne unseen danger when sailing yachts lie alongside one another for a convivial night is that if they happen roll to a wash or begin to move in an unexpected sea, the spreaders can clash ...read more
Like most soon-to-be cruisers and fellow dog owners, I fantasized about life on the boat with woman’s best friend. I pictured cruising the waterways with my faithful companion, his ears flapping in the wind as he stood on the bowsprit looking down at the dolphins in the bow wave, ...read more
The memories are vivid. Dolphins and diesel fumes. A blood-orange moon rising to starboard as engine trouble loomed to port. A spinnaker like a taut, glowing veil before a sun that shone down later on its wet, shredded remains. We were 30 days at sea, a virgin ocean-crossing crew ...read more
Let’s face it—without islands to sail to, cruising wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. No matter where you sail, arriving at a destination by boat has a magic of its own. Mount Desert IslandBy Tom Egan44.3924° N, 68.3021° WAll the qualities that make Maine a great cruising ...read more
Mine is a fishing family. Whether we are running lines off the stern, spearfishing or casting from the boat, we’re always fishing. So, of course, we were fishing while we sailed as part of the 2015 Pacific Puddle Jump. Among our mini-group of boats, a competition had been ...read more
Do you have photos of your pet onboard? We'd love to see them! Send them to sailmail@sailmagazine.com. ...read more
You almost have to pinch yourself sailing around Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay. It’s like entering a lost world in a Hollywood movie. Rising dramatically from an emerald sea are surreal, gravity-defying limestone towers (karsts) which have been sculpted by millennia of monsoon rain ...read more
Five Farangs in ThailandA motley crew explores Thailand’s fabled Andaman Sea on a charter catamaranRead Paul Gelder's full story HERE. ...read more
A trail of broken promises leads to yet another dream fulfilledIt is a very slippery slope, this business of owning sailboats. We all like to throw around the old saw about the two happiest days of our lives when buying and selling them, but the first time I ever bought one, and ...read more
As a child, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say, decisively, a marine biologist. Did I have any clue what a marine biologist was? Not really. I was only 5. But it sounded smart and had something to do with the water and seals. Today, however, as a ...read more
Something’s wrong. Something doesn’t sound right. What had jolted me out of my on-watch daydreams? I listened carefully; the steady rhythm of the engine faltered again. I was alone in the cockpit, in the darkest part of the night, and our engine sounded as if it was about to die. ...read more
Over my family’s sailing years, I have enjoyed hundreds of potlucks, sun-downers, aperitifs, parties, morning coffees and afternoon drinks. Very often, I am pulled aside by one of the adults and vigorously interrogated on my opinions of cruising as a kid. Do you like cruising? ...read more
It’s just another day in the San Blas islands. We are in the dinghy, heading out with our snorkel gear to a site we’d heard about called the Hollandes Caves. As we make our way through the gin-clear water of the channel to the shallow back reef, a 4ft wide southern stingray ...read more
If you’ve ever dreamed of anchoring behind a reef with palm-fringed island lined with white sandy beaches and crystal clear water, you may have been dreaming of Panama’s San Blas Islands.Read about Panama’s San Blas Islands here...January 2017 ...read more
Looking back over the years we’ve been running our Pittman Innovation Awards, it’s incredible to see the variety of different products that have been featured. There’s been everything from sails to navigation aids to clever little gadgets that can’t help but make you wonder, “Why ...read more
No one worries more about what’s really inside their water and fuel tanks than a dedicated cruiser on the go. On many boats tank inspection ports are an afterthought, but thanks to Dutch marine-systems specialist Vetus, that should soon be changing. Vetus’s new universal ...read more
Many cruisers like the idea of carrying scuba gear, both for underwater exploration and underwater repair and maintenance jobs, but are thwarted by the expense and sheer bulk of the equipment involved. Now the folks at Mantus Anchors have shattered that barrier with a new compact ...read more
When you’re sailing in the Aleutians, Kodiak, and Prince William Sound, common wisdom says you need to be out of the Gulf of Alaska by September first at the latest before the hurricane-force winds of autumn arrive. So, you could just head south to Mexico, escape the band of ice ...read more
I have often said the cruising community is a small family spread out over a large canvas, and as proof of this, I can point to an encounter I recently witnessed in the un-nautical micro-nation of Andorra, high in the Pyrenees Mountains. This was in the home of Edward Allcard, a ...read more
I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to refer to peer-to-peer (P2P) boating as pier-to-pier—it’s irresistible. The proliferation of the sharing economy has birthed P2P boating and with it, more players in the field of direct boater-to-renter vessel chartering. So I wanted ...read more
Are you out there sailing, cruising and living the sailing life? If so, we’d love to see it. Send your sailing photos to sailmail@sailmagazine.com for a chance to have your sailing memory featured in SAIL Magazine. Here are a few pictures from our readers of their latest cruising ...read more
The growing popularity of catamarans for bluewater sailing has spawned a number of designs aimed at sailors who want some speed along with their comfort, yet either don’t want, or can’t afford to go down the high-tech carbon-fiber route. Builders like Catana and Outremer are the ...read more
To the untrained eye, a sailboat is a sailboat; they all look pretty much the same. Even to an experienced sailor, it can be difficult if not impossible to truly judge how a particular design will perform just examining it at the dock. Nonetheless, when it comes to ...read more
After working in veterinary medicine for more than 30 years in New England, I was well versed on the veterinary conditions pets in our area are exposed to. But what happens when you take your pet on a boat abroad? Many diseases are region-specific, and our pets may not be immune ...read more