Choosing the Right Boat Glue
Any time I start researching glues, I can hear the voice of Old Man Parker from the classic film “A Christmas Story,” ringing in...
Clean and Shine Surprises
An entire category of cleaning agents has sprung up to deal with waterline stains, so we’re always curious about new products (see “Practical Sailor...
Rhumb Lines: Salute to the Miracle Glues
In a stick-built boat, a shipwright builds piece-by-piece the interior furnishing—lockers, berths, settees, etc. The interior structures on contemporary boats, by comparison, are often...
Are Boatbuilders Expecting Miracle Glues?
Don’t ask an adhesive to do more than it can. If a bolt breaks, we accept it as deterioration or faulty design, not a...
Bulletproof Sailboat Deck Hardware
Rock-solid deck hardware installation begins with a tightly sealed core.
Installing new hardware on a cored deck means sealing the core around every penetration. Skip...
Bottom Paints for Brackish Water
Prior PS bottom paint testing focused on saltwater locations in Florida and Massachusetts. This time we’ve moved our testing racks to the brackish waters...
PS Seeking Reports of 3M 4000 UV Failure
Six years ago (“Marine Sealant Adhesion Tests,” published November 2016) Practical Sailor began exposing samples of marine sealants to weather and sunlight to compare...
Binos and Aging Eyes
A dockside expert told me that larger objectives made binoculars brighter, and that his optical view was actually brighter than ambient conditions. The problem...
Folding Kayak Field Trials
Small boat sailors are plagued by a lack of storage space, and nowhere is this pinch felt more dearly than dinghy storage. Transportation to...
Deck Core Repair, from Underneath
One of the “never-evers” of boat building is to use high density polyethylene (HDPE) as a backing plate or load bearing spacer, but the...
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: Are Insurance Companies Pushing Older Sailors Off the Water?
In this Practical Sailor investigation, we look at whether age can affect sailboat insurance, how marine insurance companies evaluate older boaters, and whether there...
Latest Sailboat Reviews
Morgan 38/382 Used Boat Review
In 1977, the Morgan 382 was introduced, designed by Ted Brewer, Jack Corey and the Morgan Design Team. According to Brewer, the boat was loosely based on the Nelson/Marek-designed Morgan 36 IOR One Ton. The most obvious difference between the 38 and 382 was the elimination of the centerboard and the addition of a cruising fin keel (NACA 64 012 foil) with skeg-mounted rudder. They are two completely different designs from two different eras in yacht design.
