Inside Practical Sailor

This week we're moving onto hardware, winches in particular. If you haven't serviced your winches in a couple years, or you notice squeaks, groans or slips as you grind, it is high time to tackle this project. We like to inspect our jib-sheet winches every year, but we sail our boats hard and they are exposed to some pretty harsh freeze and thaw cycles. Fortunately, winch servicing is a pretty easy, and for the wanna-be watchmaker who marvels at moving parts, it's fun—until you start dropping parts overboard. Thus, our first bit of advice: make sure you have the right winch servicing kit, including pawls and springs, before you start pulling your winches apart.

My boat is a Hans Christian 41T, with a waterline length of 36 feet and a displacement of 38,000 pounds. The engine is a Volvo Penta TMD-30A rated at 90 horsepower. The prop is a Maxprop, three-blade, 20-inch prop with 12-inch pitch. A table illustrating speed at various RPMs shows that there is a linear increase of speed with RPM up to about 6 knots (2,600 RPM), but then the speed tapers off with increased RPM. Based on this, I presume that motoring at about 2,600 RPM is optimal fuel burn and speed. Is this correct?

Whether you own a Raymarine Tiller Pilot (ST1000 or ST2000) or the Simrad Tillerpilot (TP10, TP22 or TP32), the day may come when this...

The J-Boat Class, which vied for The America’s Cup in the 1930s, is considered the very pinnacle of competitive sailing. Yes, the new crop...

While you may feel the pressure to constantly update your boat tech, its important to understand which features are worth opening your wallet for....

I love sailing and kayaking, and while some stuff is meant to get wet, sandwiches, cell phones and spare clothes would rather stay dry....

When we moved aboard our Fast Passage 39, Raicilla, in 2021, we knew we weren’t willing to accept a life of discomfort—at least not...

Anytime you talk about pocket cruisers you have to clarify what you mean, for the term is loosely applied to a wide range of small boats, some with very little in common besides displacement. Size is certainly a factor, but size is relative. Ive seen 26-feet length overall (LOA) being a commonly cited as the upper limit for the pocket appellation, and that seems about right, although a few decades ago a 26-foot sailboat was called something else-a yacht.

It is not often that one can say a navy ship is pretty or beautiful. But the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) actually does have...

Caution. Do NOT use hoses or funnels that are not rated for gasoline to transfer gasoline. In addition to potential material compatibility problems, they...