AuthorsPosts by Darrell Nicholson

Darrell Nicholson

Practical Sailor has been independently testing and reporting on sailboats and sailing gear for more than 50 years. Its independent tests are carried out by experienced sailors and marine industry professionals dedicated to providing objective evaluation and reporting about boats, gear, and the skills required to cross oceans. Practical Sailor is edited by Darrell Nicholson, a long-time liveaboard sailor and trans-Pacific cruiser who has been director of Belvoir Media Group's marine division since 2005. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master license, has logged tens of thousands of miles in three oceans, and has skippered everything from pilot boats to day charter cats. His weekly blog Inside Practical Sailor offers an inside look at current research and gear tests at Practical Sailor, while his award-winning column,"Rhumb Lines," tracks boating trends and reflects upon the sailing life. He sails a Sparkman & Stephens-designed Yankee 30 out of St. Petersburg, Florida. You can reach him at darrellnicholson.com.
Full Issue PDF

Download the Full May 2007 Issue PDF

Boat Maintenance

First Aid for Lead Lesions

Keel voids of this size are quite common, and its one reason why you don't see bare lead at boat shows or in the dealers lot. Casting imperfections and partial, localized collapse of the sand mold cause these voids and much worse. When voids form around the support for the keel bolts, bad things happen. Narrow, high-aspect keels tolerate this far less, and its one of the reasons carbon or high-modulus steel fins and ballast bulbs now rule in that realm.We forwarded this readers question on to the folks at Alerion, who then passed it on to Mars Metal, a Canadian-based metal manufacturer and one of the most prominent manufacturers of lead keels. Heres what they suggested.
Boat Maintenance

Hull Restorer Test

At some point in the life of a cruising sailboat, hull wax or fiberglass polish is no longer an option and restoring gel coat requires more serious commitment. Hull restorers contain water-based emulsions of acrylic or acrylic/urethane resins. The resins are tiny droplets suspended in water. When applied the water evaporates, and the resins flow together to form clear films. The process is similar to what happens with many fiberglass or gel-coat finishes. For this Practical Sailor test, surface preparation was critical. If you miss a streak of dirt or grease, that blemish will become trapped under the hull restorer.
Belowdecks & Amenities

Portable Marine Refrigeration Test

One of the advantages of a compressor-driven portable refrigerator is that it can also serve as a freezer. And compared to thermo-electric coolers, they require fewer amps to do the job. Cruising boats need to be energy efficient, so amp consumption with a 12-volt power supply was one of the key factors Practical Sailor looked at in this test. As in any marine refrigeration test, insulation is a key factor in efficiency, so our comparison also tried to single out the best insulated units. Ultimately, the linear compressor system used in the Engel and Norcold refrigerator/freezers proved to be more efficient.
Marine Electronics

Handheld Weather Instrument Test

For this test of hand-held weather stations, Practical Sailor had three principal objectives. First, we wanted to determine which weather instruments gave cruising sailors the information they need in the most accessible format. The second quality we were interested in was ease of use. Third, we wanted to test for consistency of readings among the various instruments. The models we tested include the Skywatch Eole, Skywatch Meteos, Skywatch Atmos, Skywatch Xplorer2, Skywatch Xplorer4, Skywatch Geos11, Kestrel 1000, Kestrel 3500, Kestrel 4000, Speedtech Skymate, Speedtech Skymaster, Speedtech Eco Edge. One thing is clear: fiddling with them in the store doesn't nearly give you the full picture.
Uncategorized

Ocean Tested Cruising Gear for Sailboats

Now, several years after equipping our Mason 43 for extended cruising , its painfully obvious that misconceptions about what a cruising sailboat really needs lie at the root of many problems with equipment and marine electronics-although there are still poorly designed pieces of gear that should be avoided entirely. For this article well look at the winners and losers after several thousand miles of use and a trans-Atlantic crossing. Gear well examine includes a 60-pound CQR anchor, Freedom 2000 inverter/charger, Link 2000-R monitor, SGC 2000 single sideband radio, Icom 710 SSB radio, NASA Target Pro-Plus Navtex receiver, Furuno NX-300 Navtex receiver.
Boat Maintenance

Barnacle Remover Test

Barnacle removal is ranks among the least favorite boat maintenance chore for a cruising sailor. In our last barnacle remover test, https://www.practical-sailor.com/boat-maintenance/barnacle-removers two products stood out. The most effective was Star brite Zebra Mussel and Barnacle Remover, but we also had good results from a milder product called Marsolve. This time around, we tried a solution with the promising name of Barnacle Buster and documented the results with time-lapse photography.
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