Sailing Gear of the Year 2021
What a difference a year makes! Last year, Practical Sailor testers were holed up in their home workshops, garages, basements, and home offices, meeting...
Non-Skid Ten Years After
Boat decks take a beating from sun and salt that eventually take their toll on factory-molded nonskid. Once nonskid loses its grip, resurrecting it...
A Beach Plastic Disposal Dilemma
Ninety percent of micro plastics generation comes from laundry fibers. Fortunately, standard primary, plus secondary wastewater treatment removes 88-94 percent of this, lowering laundry’s...
Caulking Gun Shootout
Caulking guns might seem like simple implements— lever, a spring, a notched shaft, and a few extra flourishes and what was once a slab...
Wood Ash Absorbs Odors Best
The media serves several purposes in a desiccating toilet. It provides visual cover, draws moisture away from the solids (good wicking and coating are...
DIY Desiccating Head Options
No standard dry toilet, even the CHead Shorty, would fit the available space on our Corsair F-24, so we decided to build our own....
Get a Survey, Set Priorities
Here we go again. Apparently enough time (32 years) has passed since I last bought a 50-plus-year-old boat and began restoring it that I’ve...
Packing Extraction Tool Tested
The packing material encircling your shaft and tucked out of sight inside the packing nut is truly your boat’s Achilles heel. Installed improperly it...
Making Underwater Hull Repairs
In our recent test of waterproof epoxies for making underwater repairs, we also looked into making underwater patches. Obviously, your success in this effort...
Remote Inspection Cameras
The most valuable inspection tool will always be 20/20 eyesight combined with experience. But there are times when you can’t lay eyes on the...
Affordable AND Good? Sabre 34 Mk II Review
Can you buy a good sailboat for $25,000? In this video we take a deep dive into the Sabre 34 Mk II, a proven...
Latest Sailboat Review
Hanse 430e Boat Review
We’re looking at a boat that sounds like a German electronics band but is actually a 43-ft. cruising sailboat—the Hanse 430e. If you’re shopping...