Boat Maintenance

How To Extend Your Canvas’ Lifespan

Protecting your canvas will extend its life as well as provide you and your crew protection from the sun and elements for many years....
Color-coded tools. Red tools are used for the fuel system, blue for alternator, yellow for rigging, and so on. If a tool has several applications then it will have all the colors for each system. (Photo/ Pamela Bendall)

How To Streamline Your Maintenance Program: A Beginner’s Guide

Owning and using a boat is all about maintenance. While maintenance is not fun—it can be filthy and arduous—it must be done if you...

Dirt-cheap Winter Insulation for Liveaboards

Insulation is a greater energy-saving expedient; if our heater or air conditioner is undersized, fixing drafts, shading or insulating windows, and insulating non-cored laminate are all ways to reduce the thermal load. For boaters, however, that is only half of the equation.
With 16 years of Harbor Master experience, the author knows the most common mistakes that sailors make, and how to prevent them. (Photo/ Marc Robic)

Lessons from a Harbor Master

I’ve been a member of my yacht club going on over 35 years now and spent 16 of those years as Harbor Master. Now,...
Krypton paint worn away on the bow at the waterline. On the plus side, this means there will be no build up that will need to be sanded off. Next time, we’ll give this area a few more coats. (Photo/ Drew Frye)

Krypton Antifouling Paint: Two-Year Follow Up

After two years of panel and on-boat testing on the mid-Chesapeake Bay, we settled on Total Boat Krypton, one of the top performing copper-free...
A chain kellet on a rope rode can help smaller boats with combination rodes anchor on shorter scope and avoid swinging into boats using all-chain in crowded harbors. (Photo/ Drew Frye)

Repurposing Chain

When a rope is no longer fit for purpose, for example a halyard with a chafed spot, we either keep it for future might-needs...
The performance our the urine odor suppressing additives surprised our testers. Here are samples two days after treatment. 1. urine treaments. Left to right: none, sugar, vinegar, citric acid, CLR, Nilodor.

Additives Fight Urine Odor

Some will claim urine is sterile and doesn’t smell. Horse hockey. No matter how careful you are, urine is loaded with nitrogen (urea) and...
After removing a rotted out bulkhead on this 1978 O'Day 23, the author replaced it with new marine plywood with a white oak surface. (Photo/ Steve Milan)

DIY Bulkhead Replacement

Many of the fiberglass sailboats constructed during the 1970s and 1980s are still in existence, though often in varying states of disrepair. These vessels...

How To Maintain A Small Boat’s Electrical System

Well intentioned friends and relatives often make comments along the lines of, “Aren’t you scared of being out on the ocean, all alone, in...

Stickier Sail Tape with 3M Primer

Self-adhesive hardware-store hooks don’t stick well to bare fiberglass. Just last week we had one wash into the bilge-pump strainer on our test boat....

Why Is This 46 Foot Sailboat So Cheap? Hunter 460 Review

Is the Hunter 460 really one of the best-value cruising sailboats on the used market? In this video, we take a deep, honest look...

Latest Sailboat Review

Jeanneau 65 Used Boat Review

From the drawing board of Philippe Briand, a renowned marine architect over the past four decades, comes the Jeanneau Yachts 65. This boat is...