Inside Practical Sailor

The channel can be pretty tight at low tide, the Admiral said before leaving me the keys. Or something like that. I was half-listening at the time. Ha! Like we were going to run aground with five depthsounders pinging away and Bill and I, with our thousands of miles under the keel, aboard. (We do not mention the many forgettable groundings.)

After much persistent and gentle prodding of management, Practical Sailor converted to Macs last year. So, like millions around the world who rely on Apple magic to make it through the workday-not to mention our iPad-fueled weekends on the water-we were deeply saddened by the loss of Steve Jobs, the genius behind Apple Inc. who died Oct. 5. One of the items of interest revealed in Walter Isaacsons biography of Jobs was that he had been been involved in the design of his custom 245-foot megayacht to be built by Feadship in the Netherlands.

Weve been getting several e-mails from readers asking us what we think they should do with their recently purchased Rocna anchors in light of our report. Because every situation is different, and not all anchors are suspected of being below the published standards, we would recommend that anyone questioning the quality or construction of their Rocna anchor contact Canada Metals Pacific or their Rocna anchor retailer to discuss their options.

Putting together next months issue (November), I was struck by the stark contrast between our cover story on the Marshall 22, a no-frills catboat based on an iconic 19th-century design, and the cover story from the September issue, featuring Brad Van Liews Eco 60, Le Penguoin, bristling with all the latest technology used in the Velux Around the World Ocean Race. …

If you had niggling leaks at your mast, your forward hatch, or deck hardware this summer, those niggles can become nightmares when freezing temperatures begin to do their sledgehammer work upon our boats-as well as our psyches-this winter. Once water enters the core of your deck through a small leak, it can often spread unnoticed. Bring on winter, and its freezing and thawing cycles, and the core begins to break down.

In the wake of questions about the tensile strength of steel used in the shafts of Rocna anchors, West Marine has issued product specification notices to customers who have purchased Rocna anchors since 2010. The West Marine notification states that certain Rocna anchors were made with a weaker grade of steel compared to that published on the Rocna website and directs customers to Rocna for information regarding the materials and construction of the Rocna anchor. Under its No Hassles Guarantee, West Marine offers a full refund to owners who are not satisfied with their purchase. The offer comes after several months of heated online debate over the strength of the shafts of Rocna anchors made in China.

One of the difficult challenges faced by mast slides on full-batten mainsails are the side loads imposed when the sail is not feathered into the wind. In the event that the sail needs to be dropped (or raised) off the wind, the unequal loading on the batten cars can cause a great deal of friction on one side of the cars. If you are the owner of a smaller boat, however, your options for solving this problem are limited.

Commonsense would suggest that an auto-inflating harness/life jacket is the best choice for the cruising sailor. However, there are cases in which an inflated harness can be a hindrance-for example when you are trying to climb back aboard under a lifeline, or dive free of debris or rigging. And as our tests have shown, rain and waves can inflate some models, a nuisance that could interfere with handling the boat.

While there is no evidence yet that the fatal sailing accident in the Chicago-Mackinac Race this week is linked to a safety tether problem, given our experience with tethers, it is not unreasonable to suspect that the difficulty involved in releasing safety tethers may have been a factor.

"How to cleat a line on a boat" turns out to be a more controversial topic than you might imagine. Practical Sailor looks at various views on how to handle the first wrap around the base of a deck cleat.