Practical Sailor

This is a 33-ft. sailboat that people talk about like it belongs in a museum. They price it like it belongs in a trust fund. And they refuse to sell it,...

You love sailing. You love (or like) photography, and you want to share some of the spectacular things you find out on the water with friends or family or social media...

A lot of water has rushed over the bridge since we last looked at synthetic teak decking materials—eight years' worth. Since that last report—see “Synthetic Teaks Go Toe to Toe”—we’ve subjected...

One of all-chain rodes most popular features among cruising sailors has little to do with anchoring-and everything to do with stowing. With a well-designed bow roller, windlass, hawse hole, and chain locker, your rode and anchor will deploy and stow belowdecks faster and with far less effort than nylon rode requires. But for a smaller boat without a windlass or deep chain locker, an all-chain rode is often impractical. Even cruising sailors who are perfectly equipped for all-chain anchoring often find that their nylon secondary anchor better is suited for some anchoring situations.

Polyester sailcloth is amazingly strong and durable stuff, often completing trips around the world or decades of weekend sailing. Its Achilles heel is the sun. After just 2-3 years in the sun, depending on the latitude, it becomes so rotted by UV that its little stronger than a cotton bed sheet. Mainsails are safely bundled under a Sunbrella cover. Nylon Spinnakers are bagged and stored below. Genoas, on the other hand, remain furled on the headstay, often year round, with the last 12 inches of the leach and foot continuously exposed.

Co-founded by Charlie Britton in the early 1960s, Tartan Yachts was established on the shores of Lake Erie in Grand River, Ohio. The original Tartan was the very successful 27, first...

Before we consider the safety issues of lithium-ion batteries, we should remember that lead acid batteries are not without risk. Apart from the obvious risk of a sulfuric acid spill or...

Anchoring in clean sand and mud is easy. But cruising takes you places where anchoring isn’t easy. The golden rule with coral, grass beds, jumbled rocks, and snags is to go somewhere...

Wood is strong, stiff per unit weight, easy to work with, attractive, and economical. And it rots. A few special types of wood, such as teak, are highly resistant to rot, but these woods are generally heavy and almost always expensive. Pressure treated lumber is an option, but it’s ugly, warps, does not take coatings well, and is not always very rot resistant. Western red cedar, on the other hand, has long been used in canoes, and cedar fence posts have a deserved reputation for durability. We started our rot resistance testing eight years ago in 2015, and we finally cleaned out our accelerated rot test box in July 2023. Results ranged from abysmal (untreated samples of fir have nearly disappeared) to astounding (our teak samples are still just like new). Let’s see what we learned.

The basic design of the humble boat hook hasn't changed much over the years, but it has seen upgrades in construction and materials, along with some minor design tweaks. For this report, we set out to determine what constitutes the ideal boat hook. We evaluated boat hooks currently on the market and took a look at some old models still in service.