Can you list the things you never want to see on a boat? A fire, perhaps? Windows shattering from lightning, water spewing from…anywhere? I can now add one more to my list: movement in the rudder post. On Day 3 of a five-day passage from Pensacola, Florida, to Cuba on our 1985 ...read more
Look after your sails, and they’ll look after you Dacron sailcloth has two natural enemies—sunlight and chafe, both of which are found in abundance on the typical sailboat. There is not much you can do to stave off damage from ultraviolet light except to keep the mainsail ...read more
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 in a corner. Hmmm, I think, I could buy her for a song and with a little elbow grease and some TLC, she will be ready to go. ...read more
Certain boatyards always seem to attract would-be voyagers with large ideas, small budgets and vessels of suspect provenance. I once kept a boat in one such yard in midcoast Maine, at the back of which was a handful of bizarre project boats. Most of these never came to anything ...read more
On many boats, decks are cored with end-grain balsa or plywood with a fiberglass laminate on each side. It’s not unusual for moisture to find its way into this wooden core. Stanchion bases and chainplates often leak as a boat ages, and often holes are drilled in the deck for new ...read more
