Boat Maintenance

OSHA has a thing against homemade tools. While a shortened extension on a paint roller won’t give them heartburn, modified power tools and attachments...

In fact our list is much, much longer than this, so we picked five specialty tools that we thought would help most sailors for...

Modern anti-fouling paints promise a hull free of marine growth for one to several seasons. But in nutrient-rich water and as the paint becomes expended, barnacles and green stuff take hold, slowing us down, increasing fuel consumption under power, and degrading handling.

Aboard our Privilege 435 catamaran Confianza, we are teak oilers, not varnishers. Accordingly, our teak needs regular elbow grease. In our (seemingly never-ending) quest...

Are you having trouble with your boat’s critically important seacocks? Maybe the handle is frozen and attempts to free it using penetrating oil, a...

There’s nothing more satisfying than installing a great new piece of equipment on your sailboat, unless it’s completing that upgrade and then selling the...

Pulling hoses is generally low on the fun list. They are in bad places, jammed onto crusty hose-fitting barbs, and have stiffened over the years. As part of our 2016 update on long-term tests, we needed to wiggle loose a few of the sanitation hoses were testing to see how they were looking on the inside-a job much less pleasant than new installation.

Running the wires for new electronics requires your best cursing vocabulary, lots of sweat, twisting body contortions, luck, and the occasional bandage. For tips on how to make this job easier, we turned to PS contributor Bill Bishop. A professional marine-electronics installer, Bishop has many ingenious ways to thread a wire from point A to point B.

There’s no better feeling then when you finally close the deal on your new boat and she arrives at the marina. You take pictures...

My summer cruise took me up to the Discovery Islands just north of Desolation Sound off the coast of British Columbia with sailing buddy...