Getting a Clue for the Blown-Out Clew
How do you manage major sail repairs in remote locations? By using whatever you have onboard to get you home—or beyond.
After an easy three-day...
Fuel Lift Pump: Easy DIY Diesel Fuel System Diagnostic and Repair
As with all things in life, everything goes well until it doesn’t. It is an inevitable truth that something will go wrong eventually and...
Vinyl Boat Lettering DIY Application and Repair
One of the pleasures of boating, at least for me, is reading boat names! I enjoy the many humorous names and those that are...
Painting a New Bootstripe Like a Pro
Have you been wanting to add a bootstripe to your boat but aren’t sure how to do it? Perhaps you have a bootstripe already...
Mildew-resistant Caulks for Boats
Choosing a marine caulk for use above the waterline comes down to which product offers the best resistance to weathering, dirt, mildew, and ability...
Wood Rot Prevention Eight Years Later
Wood is strong, stiff per unit weight, easy to work with, attractive, and economical. And it rots. A few special types of wood, such as teak, are highly resistant to rot, but these woods are generally heavy and almost always expensive. Pressure treated lumber is an option, but it’s ugly, warps, does not take coatings well, and is not always very rot resistant. Western red cedar, on the other hand, has long been used in canoes, and cedar fence posts have a deserved reputation for durability.
We started our rot resistance testing eight years ago in 2015, and we finally cleaned out our accelerated rot test box in July 2023. Results ranged from abysmal (untreated samples of fir have nearly disappeared) to astounding (our teak samples are still just like new). Let’s see what we learned.
F-24 Portlight Replacement
The windows on our Corsair F-24 trimaran were obviously damaged by UV radiation. All we could see through them were shapes of objects that...
The Best Boat Bucket You Can Buy
A recent test report reacquainted me with an age old problem, that has not yet fully been solved: How can one person, absent a...
The DIY Bulkhead Rebuild on a Production Charter Cat
In 2021 I bought Epic, a 2013 Lagoon 450 catamaran, and soon learned the boat’s forward bulkhead, along with other important structural components, were...
Rebuilding a Cape Dory 36 Part V
This is Part V, the final installment of a five-part series on rebuilding and modifying our Cape Dory 36 from a bare hull into...
This 40 Foot Sailboat Has the Best Owner’s Bed Ever Built...
If you’re shopping for a 40-foot cruising sailboat and actually plan to live aboard or cruise, comfort matters — and nowhere does that matter...
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.