Boat Maintenance

Historically, the cook has always enjoyed a privileged position on board a boat. And no wonder, since the cook almost always works the hardest, whether the boat is underway or at anchor. While the navigator and helmsmans job is no less critical, the nerve-wracking labor of maintaining a steady course and plotting an accurate DR position has nearly evaporated in recent years, thanks to GPS, chartplotters, and autopilots. The cooks job, on the other hand, hasn't gotten a whole lot easier. So, in honor of the hardest working crew, Ive put together a list of five items that can help make a cooks life easier underway. Id be interested in hearing what other suggestions our readers have.

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...

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...

Just weeks ago, a fellow Corsair 24 owner dismasted due to a seizing wire failure. More than once I’ve had stainless seizing wire fail...

Sometimes as a sailor you are learning to run before you can walk or even crawl. If the auto bilge pump isn’t working, maybe...

It is always discomforting when you know, and actually feel, that something is not quite right. For a little while now, while navigating under...

One of the pleasures of boating, at least for me, is reading boat names! I enjoy the many humorous names and those that are...

As a full-time live-aboard, you learn to make some sacrifices. You ultimately become your own little island so you must learn to ration your...

Two things, as they say, are certain in life: death and taxes. Perhaps a third would be that fuel cost will inevitably keep rising....

The final area for hidden maintenance problems that I want to cover is the boat’s electrical system. Most modern boats rely heavily on their...