maintenance

The old saw that the happiest day in a sailor’s life is the one on which they sell their boat is funny, of course, because of the fact that owning a boat can be both expensive and a lot of work. If you sail a boat hard, and especially if you’re in the habit of making ocean ...read more

Pressurized water systems are brilliantly convenient, but they raise the question of how to get water out of the tanks in the event of a power failure or unexpected demise of the pump. For this reason, builders of expensive yachts intended for long-distance cruising often offer ...read more

CETOL SKIN I used Sikkens Cetol on the bare wood on my Catalina 30, Morning Dew IV. The can was compromised over the spring, and I put the balance in a 16oz clean glass mayo jar. Last spring when I went to use it, a skin had formed over the top of the liquid, so I just cut the ...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

Everyone dreads the day that something as major and costly as a boat’s rigging must be replaced. For my 1984 Tayana 42, Eclipse, still sporting its original setup and with a 1,500-mile offshore passage looming, the time for an upgrade had finally arrived. Along with swapping out ...read more