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...
Latest Logbook
Practical Sailor Logbook – September 2026
In September we tour the Hans Christian 48T — the offshore cruiser many sailors call the holy grail — walk the custom Antigua 60...
Video: If You See This on a Used Sailboat, Walk Away
If you’re searching the used sailboat market, comparing sailboats for sale, or learning how to inspect a sailboat before buying, these are the red...
Latest Sailboat Reviews
Cal 2-27 Used Boat Review
Our story begins in 1970, with the introduction of the Cal 29. Looking for something similar but a bit smaller, the company asked designer Bill Lapworth for a 27-footer, which at first was the Cal 27, a fin keel, spade rudder design with a convertible pop top; another incarnation of this basic hull was the T/2. But the concept of the 29 found its full expression in the Cal 2-27, which began production in 1975 and continued to 1977, after which it was again modified and called simply the Cal 27...again. Production of it ceased in 1986.
