Inside Practical Sailor

Like any sailor, I was very relieved to hear that Abby Sunderland (right) was alive and well after a harrowing dismasting in the Indian Ocean. The 16-year-0ld teen was attempting to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate when her boat was dismasted in the Indian Ocean.

Practical Sailor welcomes any new technology or product that lessens boaters environmental impact and encourages more sustainable practices, but were always a little skeptical when companies unveil new green products. Are they truly eco-friendly innovations, or simply marketing attempts to snag consumers willing pay a little more to pollute a little less?

Inside Practical Sailor offers a personalized look inside whats happening at Practical Sailor magazine. Heres where youll find news about upcoming tests, previews of new products, and opinions on all things sailing related.

The price for U.S. nautical charts of the world effectively doubled on May 1, when the Federal Aviation Authority stopped distribution.

I was rummaging around the dead letter office at Practical Sailor and came across this bit of advice tucked away in our old Mailport files. Knowing that many Practical Sailor readers, like me, are quite content with a set of charts and a basic GPS showing position, course and speed data, I thought it would be a good idea to resurrect this handy tip. Hopefully, it reaches you before that ye ol Garmin gets chucked out during some overzealous spring cleaning.

My brother-in-law showed up for an Easter weekend reunion with his new Android phone and a cool little app that I wish I had when we were cruising the Pacific: Google Sky Map. Im not sure whether a similar product is available for the iPhone, but I imagine it is. Practical Sailor recently profiled a number of navigation apps for the iPhone in our April 2010 issue.

Ive been growing several interesting varieties of mold and mildew at home. It is glamorous work, I know. While my wife, Theresa, disagrees, I know that you understand. This Practical Sailor project led me to our last test of mildew cleaners, and some helpful tips for keeping mildew at bay.

In the wake of last years article on performance-oriented monohulls, readers requested more coverage of multihulls. That report will be in the May issue, but for those West Coast Florida readers who can't wait that long, you might want to head down to Bokeelia, Fla. , where Ben Hall of Hall Spars is hosting the Admirals Cup, an event for A-Cats, an exciting open class of small catamarans

I was scouting locations for a video Tuesday down at Historic Spanish Point near our offices, when I was magnetically drawn to the hard-chine sharpies gracing the waterfront.

We received the letter below yesterday from Practical Sailor reader Arnold Rowe. He was kind enough to let us share it (with some minor edits of his well-expressed and understandable ire), with the hopes of raising awareness of the limited service life of 406 EPIRBs. Having had a similar experience years ago with the torpedo-sized RLB23 (which set me back more than a $1,000 in the 90s) I can sympathize. The now obsolete RLB23 is officially consigned to Practical Sailors Gear Graveyard, and I expect a series of other newly obsolete EPIRBs to join it.