Inside Practical Sailor

Before you fire up ye ol iron genny for the first smoke-belching run out to the mooring, to the dock, or to the fuel station (I sure hope its not to the pumpout station), you might want to think about your alternator belt. It's another one of those inexpensive engine parts that often gets overlooked until it's too late.

A trailer expands the sailors horizons, but like any endeavor that involves automobiles, it adds another layer of risk and responsibility. Compared to our boats, a trailer is deceptively simple, and this often leads us to overlook the obvious warning signs of impending problems.

We all know the guy who updated his trusty chartplotter and lost all the waypoints he'd saved over years. We don't want to be him. We don't want YOU to be him. But we also don't want you wandering the ocean with an antiquated and possibly bug-ridden device. Updating our software doesn't just fix bugs and ensure our electronics are operating correctly; it expands the equipments functionality. Updates to the multifunction displays we are testing at Practical Sailor have enabled a range of new functions, including an ability to integrate with some handy i0S and Android applications. Keeping up with updates also helps avoid the rare glitches that can occur when you leap-frog several updates by replacing a very early software versions with the latest and greatest.

If you didnt remove your running rigging last winter, then there is a good chance that you'll be coming back to sheets and halyards coated in dirt, mold, and mildew. What now? Here are some useful tips or cleaning cordage that we gathered from leading rope manufacturers and riggers.

When awakening your boat from its winter slumber, a rig check should be high on the list of priorities. Even though the boat has been sitting still, the laws of physics still take their toll. Corrosion is the biggest enemy, and the stainless steel components in your rig can effectively hide the insidious advance of this disease. Over the years we've published a variety of articles on the hidden risks of stainless-steel hardware - chainplates, tangs, toggles, shackles, etc. - important bits that seemingly fail without warning. In many cases, though, the potential trouble spots aren't so hidden after all. The trick is knowing where to look.

When it comes cleaning, buffing, and waxing, painted hulls present a special challenge. The durability of the shiny protection afforded by a polyurethane paint (LPU) depends upon how kindly we treat the painted surface. Two-part polyester urethane coatings such as Awlgrip II are tough, gloss-retaining coatings that will put up with some abrasion, but an aggressive buffing routine can shorten the life of the coating.

Whether you view it from the top down or the bottom up, a Solent rig needs to be carefully thought out, well-engineered, and strategically located. Some sailors add a short bowsprit or U-shaped, tubular extension that includes a bobstay and supports the attachment of a new headstay. The old headstay chainplate becomes the new tack point for the Solent stay.

Racing sailors demand lightning-fast hoists. Cruising sailor hate grinding a heavy mainsail up a sticky track. Roller-furler foils that have been left over the winter can always benefit from a quick clean and lube before hoisting the genoa. But how? Here is a cheap and effective way to do this without climbing the mast-or even removing your sail from the track.

One look at the average navigation station or helm seat on a cruising boat and you can see how the most basic ergonomic principles on lines of sight, sitting posture, and standing posture are, so it seems, utterly ignored. Stairs, handholds, settee seats, and bunks are built to conform to the builders budget, not the sailors lumbar. And once you start moving around some of these boats, the obstacle course is like something dreamed up by a chiropractor drumming for new business.

A changing climate brings changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather in the Atlantic and Pacific basins, and that's another good reason to raise your awareness of all the meteorological tools available to mariners. A recent addition to the marine forecaster's toolbox is probablistic wind speed forecasts disseminated by the Ocean Prediction Center (OPC). The forecasts take the available weather data and graphically present them in an easy-to-understand weather map.