The bare minimum required to deal with most daysailer dilemmas fits in a relatively compact electrician’s bag. It can be tailored to fit the specific needs of your boat. (Photo/ Drew Frye)

The Get-Home Sailboat Tool Kit

The tools and materials required to maintain and repair everything on a boat will barely fit in a room. Just the kit required to maintain vital systems will raise the waterline of a large boat and is impractical in a smaller boat. Fortunately, when day sailing and even cruising locally, all we really need to do is get back to the dock...any dock.
Bottom scraper. Easy to make and so much easier to use. Used for barnacles on the bottom and taking mud off the anchor. (Photo/ Drew Frye)

Six Best Homemade Boat Maintenance Tools

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...
Hot Knife. We put this purchase off for too long. Nice for fabric and rope, and vital for carpet and bungee cord, which are difficult to heat seal. Multiple layers dont slow it down. (Photo/ Drew Frye)

Five Best Specialty Tools

In fact our list is much, much longer than this, so we picked five specialty tools that we thought would help most sailors for...
A professional cleaner prepares to dive on one of our former bottom paint test boats, a Cape Dory 28.

Bottom Paint Care

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.
While Snappy Teak-Nu seemed to perform better at first, the longterm winner was Star-Brite.

Battle of the Teak Cleaners — Snappy Teak-Nu vs. Star Brite

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...

New Seacocks for the Offshore Sailor

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...
To prep items for selling online, make sure to clean them, take plenty of pictures and provide detailed descriptions, including specs. This pair of Barient #16 single-speed winches sold for $65.93 and netted the author $55.87. (Photo/ Doug Henschen)

How to Sell Old Sailing Equipment

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...
Although the OTC Hose Removal Tool is meant for the automotive industry, we found to be the most useful option for marine sanitation hoses.

Hose Fitting Tips

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.
Essential tools for rewriting (left to right): fish tape, RJ45 crimping toolelectrician's tape, 10 pound mason's line (pull string), 1 insulated terminal crimping pliers, long-jawed hemostat, and wire cutters.

A Smart, Easy Way to Rewire

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.
This DC panel was tagged as being a fire hazard, which should be at the top of your list in terms of project priorities. (Photo/ Ray Ville)

How to Prioritize Projects on Your New-To-You Boat

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...

Deep Keel vs Shoal Draft – Which Should You Buy?

Deep keel or shoal draft: which should you buy? In this episode, we look at one of the biggest sailboat buying decisions cruisers face....

Latest Sailboat Reviews

Endeavour 37 Used Boat Review

Rob Valdez and John Brooks founded Endeavour in 1974 using the molds from Ted Irwin's 32-footer to launch the business. The company built about 600 32s in all. Spurred by this success, Valdez and Brooks began looking around for a larger sistership to expand the line. Just how they "developed" the 37 is a tale best left untold until the principals pass away or become too senile to read the yachting periodicals. Brooks calls the 37 a "house design," and that is generous. The total number of Endeavour 37s built is 476 a lot for a boat that size.