Preparing A Boat to Sail Solo
You have probably heard people say sailing solo is dangerous or irresponsible. How can you keep a proper watch? What happens if you have...
Solar Panels: Go Rigid If You have the Space…
Movies can be corny, but Jack Sparrow nicely summarized the romance of sailing: Thats what a ship is, you know. Its not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, thats what a ship needs but what a ship is ... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom.
Leaping Into Lithium
Your dock neighbor just switched out her old 12-volt lead-acid batteries for lithium-ion batteries. Should you? The lithium solution will be more expensive, but...
The Tricked Out Tillerpilot
Self-contained tillerpilots are a simple and darn handy means of steering a smaller sailboat, particularly when sailing solo. For the singlehander a tillerpilot is...
Resolving Common Steering Problems
Your steering packed it in and you are stuck with either your emergency tiller or an emergency rudder and tiller. These often require the...
Sketching Out Installation Options
I worked through the alternative steering geometries and forces using trigonometry. An easier way to evaluate various installations is to use a triangle, ruler,...
Essential Tillerpilot Accessories
Tillerpilots don’t come with the even the most basic accessories we need, so our options are to order overpriced widgets or to improvise.
RETAINER (PHOTO...
A Modified Tillerpilot Setup
Having two different locations for attaching the tillerpilot to the tiller can be a practical alternative for smaller boats that won’t produce loads that...
Mailport: Propane Hose Chafe, Multihull Prices, Farrier F33XC
WATCH PROPANE HOSE CHAFE
Another boat owner told our owners’ group that he discovered his LPG hose at the stove went almost to the point...
Test Driving Furuno’s Cutting Edge Compass
Did you know the accuracy of your electronic compass significantly affects features of your Furuno, B&G, Raymarine, Garmin, and similar multifunction display (MFD) to...
Why the Catalina 42 Took Over the Caribbean
You see them everywhere — the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, all across the Caribbean. The Catalina 42, especially the Mark II, has quietly become...
Latest Sailboat Review
Dragonfly 25-2 Boat Review
If you’ve ever dreamed of blasting across the water at 25 knots with the wind in your hair and the spray in your face...