I was crewing aboard a boat named Breskell, a 51ft cutter-rigged, cold-molded, mahogany sloop. We were voyaging from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Port Townsend, Washington, via the Northwest Passage. A few days before setting sail, the captain, Olivier Huin, asked me to secure ...read more
“You won’t be able to pee on a heel,” someone said. “You won’t have room to stow the coco peat,” said another. “I don’t know. That’s just gross,” said a third. These are just a few examples of the pushback my partner, Phillip, and I got when we announced on our blog we were ...read more
It’s easy to assume accurate mainsail trim is only of concern to racers, but nothing could be further from the truth. Aside from increasing boatspeed, a well-trimmed main will reduce heel, minimize weather helm and decrease leeway. The result is shorter, more comfortable passage ...read more
Properly maintaining your inflatable boat can be vexing, no? Wait a sec, though, before throwing up your hands and marching off in search of a bottle of rum. As the owner (and chief repair technician) of two inflatable-boat repair companies, let me provide a few pointers. In the ...read more
I pretty much took rigs for granted when I first started sailing on other people’s boats. After all, unlike exciting, moving, tweakable things like sails and running rigging, masts and booms were just there—a part of the structure of the boat. I took no part in their maintenance ...read more
