Wind, Speed & Depth Instruments

Every four years, solo sailing luminaries assemble in France to race non-stop around the world in the Vende Globe, and the equipment aboard their boats deserves examination as a harbinger of what we may some day see aboard our own boats.

Davis Instruments usually sticks to good, simple nautical gear. With considerable justification, the company boasts that its no-nonsense Echomasters™ are "the world's best" radar...

It was mid-July 1990 on the Caicos Banks, a stretch of shallow, gin-clear water extending for about 70 miles east to west in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Along with a dozen other cruisers whod chosen to thumb our noses at hurricane season (ah, those were simpler times), we were pausing in Providenciales before heading south. …

MARINE INSURANCE REDUXI have been reading with much interest your articles about marine insurance this year (April and May 2006).

Circumnavigators Evans Starzinger gives Practical Sailor his unvarnished assessment of what sailing equipment holds up to the real-world tests of serious offshore cruising. Evans evaluates autopilots, winches, rope clutches, boom vangs, mainsail slides, sailing instruments, safety equipment, marine electronics, and more. His conclusion? A lot of equipment that is marketed for recreational sailors doesn't offer good value when compared to products designed for commercial, industrial, or non-marine purposes. Some of it plain doesn't work.

Options for securing water at sea during emergency situations have traditionally been limited to solar stills, catchment systems, portable reverse osmosis units, or pre-staging water jugs and jerry cans.