Practical Sailor

Anyone who has spent a night pitching in an exposed anchorage would not be shocked to learn that in many dragging incidents the snubber parted, or was stretched to its limit, allowing the chain and boat to absorb some teeth-rattling shock loads before something finally gave. Recently, PS testers have devised a series of tests to determine what the ideal snubber looks like. Some of our findings run contrary to popular assumptions. Some will surely surprise you, and may even-one day-save your boat. What does your snubber look like?

With several hundred boats sailing the seas of the world, the Tayana 37 has been one of the most successful products of the U.S.s Taiwan-built boat invasion that began in the early 1970s. Its shapely Baltic stern, scribed plank seams molded into the glass hull, and lavish use of teak above and belowdecks have come to epitomize the image associated with Oriental boats.

Although laminating epoxies can tolerate some moisture, we know that excessive moisture can prevent a good cure. So how can we manage an emergency repair, when water is seeping into the...

The sailing season is here again and everyone is doing their spring checks. Something that is often overlooked are the alarms that may one day save your boat and possibly your...

Cleats are those ever-present little devices we all have on deck and, until a line must be tied, most boaters pay little or no attention to them. However, if you’ve been boating...

With all of the products out there claiming to be green or non-toxic, surely there must also be villains that are now best avoided. In just a century weve begun to make a fine mess of the world that we need to live in for the next few million years. Yet we are making progress, and finding less hazardous replacements is a part of the answer.

If you’ve ever looked at a sailboat and thought, “Yeah, but what if it didn’t suck when the wind dies?” welcome to the wonderful, and a little weird, world of motor...

Spring and fall on the Chesapeake Bay deliver cruising at its best. Last fall, we were ready to go, the crowds were gone, along with the heat and humidity. Last on...

The 1666 London Fire. The 1871 Chicago Fire. The 1906 San Francisco Fire. Common factors shared by all of these disasters were inadequate spacing between buildings, lack of fire stops, and...

In the process of rediscovering my machining hobby, I dug out my long-ignored collection of machinist tools from a great uncle who worked in torpedo development at the Washington, DC Navy...