Five Best Gasoline and Diesel Transfer Tools
Caution. Do NOT use hoses or funnels that are not rated for gasoline to transfer gasoline. In addition to potential material compatibility problems, they...
NauticEd: The Best Way to Learn Sailing’s Rules of the Road
If you grew up sailing small boats, the basic rules about “when yachts meet” are now part of your DNA. Upwind, a boat on...
Five Best Homemade Sail Repair and Splicing Tools
I doubt there is a sailmaker out there who doesn’t have a few shop-built tools in daily use. Here are five of my favorites:...
Six Best Homemade Boat Maintenance Tools
OSHA has a thing against homemade tools. While a shortened extension on a paint roller won’t give them heartburn, modified power tools and attachments...
Five Best Specialty Tools
In fact our list is much, much longer than this, so we picked five specialty tools that we thought would help most sailors for...
Battle of the Teak Cleaners — Snappy Teak-Nu vs. Star Brite
Aboard our Privilege 435 catamaran Confianza, we are teak oilers, not varnishers. Accordingly, our teak needs regular elbow grease. In our (seemingly never-ending) quest...
How to Sell Old Sailing Equipment
There’s nothing more satisfying than installing a great new piece of equipment on your sailboat, unless it’s completing that upgrade and then selling the...
Plugged Through Hull Solution
My summer cruise took me up to the Discovery Islands just north of Desolation Sound off the coast of British Columbia with sailing buddy...
Schaefer SnapFurl: Gear Graveyard
Sailors looking to add or replace a headsail furling system on a daysailer or small cruising boat in the 16-foot to 28-foot range will...
Transom Design Through the Ages
If you pay even the slightest attention to the shape of the sailboats on the water, in marinas, or at boat shows, you are...
This “Bulletproof” Cruiser Has a Serious Weak Spot Caliber 40 LRC...
If you’re shopping for a serious cruising sailboat, the Caliber 40 LRC is often described as “bulletproof.” Heavy displacement, huge tankage, conservative construction, and...
Latest Sailboat Review
Union 36 Used Boat Review
While not the best boat for light-air sailing, the Union 36 is a good sailboat for the bluewater cruiser. It wont get you there fast, but it will get you there comfortably and in one piece. The boats teak decks and lavish use of interior wood is attractive but requires much upkeep and maintenance. A product of the Taiwan-U.S. boatbuilding industry, the Union 36 is a heavy-displacement, full-keel, cutter-rigged double-ender designed for ocean sailing. The Union 36 is nearly identical to several other boats built during the same period: the Hans Christian 36, Mariner Polaris 36, and the EO36. According to well-known naval architect Bob Perry, the Union 36 and its cousins are all based on the design of a 34-footer that Perry was commissioned to create back in the early 70s.