December 2013

Whether it’s getting the hang of “tiller toward trouble” in an Optimist or learning the feel of the wheel on a keelboat, one of the first things that a beginner sailor learns is how to steer the boat with the rudder. However, using the rudder is not the only way to steer.

Temperatures hover around freezing, the daylight hours are short and those sailing boots have most likely been pushed to the farthest depths of your closet. By now, most boats are hibernating safely in the garage or basement. Yes, it’s winter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stay in “sailing shape” during the off-season…and it might be easier than you think!

When we venture out on our vessels, however, we leave the safety and convenience of our homes and face many different challenges on our own. One of the most challenging is a medical emergency at sea

The first step to ensuring that your sails are ready…

In late July of 1999, I had what some might call the good fortune to be among the few in the world who have seen Pitcairn in the flesh. I was accompanying the yacht I was the master of, on a steamer, sailing from New Zealand to the U.S. and we passed by within the proverbial biscuit toss of this infamous island.

We needed reliability and range

Wrap up the boating season and enjoy a festive boat parade and holiday stroll!

Charting a New Course: A Response to NOAA Discontinuing Lithograph Charts A lot is being written about the “crisis” over NOAA ceasing lithograph nautical chart production. This decision was as inevitable as the decline of the horse and buggy as a primary form of transportation. It’s simply a story of obsolete technology. The reality is, most of the NOAA charts sold over the past 10 years have been Print-on-Demand (POD) charts. Starting in 2000, NOAA partnered with…

Fleet 5 LIS offers sailors an opportunity to leave their dock and get out and cruise in an organized group atmosphere.

I figured that there had to be a better way to handle the excess dockline that was left over after properly and neatly wrapping the line on the cleat when docking.