Personal Gear & Apparel

Each year, as the fall boat shows—and the deals that come with them—appear on the horizon, we pore over the numerous products we’ve reviewed in the previous 12 months to select the cream of the crop for our Editor’s Choice awards. We hope the list will help readers better navigate any boat-show or end-of-season shopping. This year, we picked from the Best Choice products evaluated in the September 2010 through August 2011 issues. The 2011 GOTY roster includes an electric outboard, some stout bullet blocks, electric marine toilets, bilge pumps, chafe gear, and marine maintenance products like bottom paint.

Sailing harnesses and safety tethers were put to the ultimate test in July when a storm packing winds of more than 50 knots swept through the fleet of sailboats racing in the annual Chicago-to-Mackinac Race. One of the boats, the Kiwi 35 WingNuts, capsized in a powerful gust. It stayed inverted, forcing the crew of eight into the water. At the time of capsize, the crew were wearing safety harnesses and tethers, and most were clipped in to jacklines on the boat. All but two of the sailors, skipper Mark Morley and his girlfriend, Suzanne Bickel, were able to unclip themselves and survived.

Practical Sailor Chandlery: August 2011. This month reviews a tiller, tool toter, and smart-phones.

America’s Cup sailors Peter Isler’s “Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets” and Gary Jobson’s “An American Sailing Story” recount the American sailors’ lives and experiences aboard many race boats and among other sailing legends. Other great titles on the list include “Cruise of the Conrad” (Alan Villiers), “Small Boat to Freedom” (John Vigor), “Compass Rose” (John Casey), “Bull Canyon” (Lin Pardey), and “Storms and Wild Weather” (Dag Pike).

The modest mug, basic in shape and function, finds its way aboard all but the most elegant or the most rudimen­tary of vessels, because it is so useful. Equally at ease with soup or stew, cof­fee, tea, or chocolate, bread sticks, spoons, or even flowers, it serves faithfully in rough water and smooth. While almost universally carried aboard boats, the stowage of mugs varies as much as their uses. On some boats they rattle about in the galley sink, while in others they may be neatly nested in a drawer, hung from hooks, or (best of all) resting in proper racks.

One of the primary causes of ruin for many pairs of binoculars is that they have no home. Loose in the cockpit, or sharing a coaming locker with winch handles — their usual places — it's no wonder so many pairs die of drowning or having their prisms knocked out of alignment. It's all well and good advice to always keep binoculars in their carrying case snug­ly stowed in a safe place, but in prac­tice they're in such frequent use that the advice is unrealistic. What is need­ed is a snug home which is both pro­tected and accessible. A binocular box mounted just inside the companion­way answers all requirements. It keeps the glasses both protected and easy to get at.

Practical Sailor tested a prototype of Greatland Laser's Green Rescue Laser a few years ago, and we took the opportunity to check out a production model for this report on the visual distress signals. The Green Rescue Laser flare looks like a mini-Maglite with anodized aluminum bodies, measuring less than 5 inches long and 7/8 inches in diameter, and weighing 3.3 ounces. In tests, the green laser's exceptionally brilliant light proved to be visible from greater distances than red laser flares, flashlights, and strobe lights; its signaling capability lasts hours rather than the minutes of pyrotechnic flares; and its green light is easier to spot against a cityscape than a white flashlight. Waterproof to 80 feet, the Rescue Laser is compact and can be reused, doesn’t expire, and can be carried through airport security. While it would be a good addition to a ditch bag or foul-weather gear, it's not a replacement for aerial flares, in our opinion, and its $250 price tag is a hard pill to swallow.

Every two years, some 150 offshore sailboats line up in Newport, RI, to race roughly 650 miles to Bermuda, a semi-tropical island in the western Atlantic, almost due east of Charleston, SC. While this is a relatively short ocean passage, it is not always an easy one. Boats have met serious gale conditions and dodged hurricanes during past editions of this race.

Sometimes, it seems that safety is a dirty word in the boat-building industry. A favorite marketing catchword is “blue water cruiser.” We assume this means a boat capable of going to sea, rather than a boat designed to tiptoe along the shore.

Amid the excitement and anticipation of taking delivery of a new boat, one tends to discount the importance of certain items. In my case, when I switched on the “shower sump” breaker of my pride and joy and heard no pump running, I initially wasn’t too concerned.