A lithium conversion requires a willing owner and a capable craft. Enter the Privilege 435 catamaran Confianza.

Can You Run a Marine Air-Conditioner on Battery Power?

Our 16,000 BTU MarinAire A/C is sufficient to maintain our Privilege 435 catamaran at under 26.5°C (80°F) on days up to around 35°C (95°F)....

Preparing Yourself for Solo Sailing

Last week, I covered some of the things I suggest you need to think through on the boat before heading out solo. Now, what...

Your New Feature-Packed VHF Radio

In the ever-evolving realm of maritime communication, Digital Selective Calling (DSC) and Automatic Identification System (AIS) have emerged as game-changers within the latest models...

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...

Hanse 360 Boat Tour: The 36 Footer That Feels Like a...

he Hanse 360 is one of the most talked-about new cruising sailboats in the 36-foot range, and in this Practical Sailor boat tour we...

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.