Lifesling Goes Throwable
Were safety conscious at Practical Sailor. Readers know that, from the numerous articles about our in-the-water and bench tests. We rarely fail to comment...
Offshore Log:Do You Know Where Your Emergency Tiller Is?
The great racing sailor, Paul Elvstrom, preferred the superior sensitivity of tiller steering to wheel steering even on larger offshore boats. Elvstrom, however, seems...
ITT Night Vision 260-A Star Among Night Vision Scopes
When the only thing that keeps you from going aground at night is an unlit channel marker buoy, a night-vision device suddenly becomes less...
Raytheon Still Top LCD Radar
Early radar antennas needed large, open radiator arrays with correspondingly large motors to turn them. These evolved into compact, enclosed antennas that weigh as...
Barometers: Altitude and Speedtech Tops for Forecasting
It takes very little skill or technology to know that youre in the midst of a storm. It takes considerably more to know that...
Coleman 1000: First of the Truly Portable Generators
Portable power-is it just what you need for extra AC power and battery charging needs, and, if so, what size generator do you really...
Barometers: Altitude and Speedtech Tops for Forecasting
It takes very little skill or technology to know that youre in the midst of a storm. It takes considerably more to know that...
Coleman 1000: First of the Truly Portable Generators
Portable power-is it just what you need for extra AC power and battery charging needs, and, if so, what size generator do you really...
Vetus, Simpson Lawrence Best Of The Nonskid Add-Ons
Anyone who has spent time on a number of boats knows that there are usually some spots that could use some form of nonskid...
CO Detectors: Its MTI Safe-T-Alert
Combine any enclosed occupied space with a combustion process and you have the recipe for possible carbon monoxide poisoning. An inboard-powered boat, by definition,...
Latest Logbook
Practical Sailor Logbook – September 2026
In September we tour the Hans Christian 48T — the offshore cruiser many sailors call the holy grail — walk the custom Antigua 60...
Video: The 11.5 Knot Cruiser – Bavaria Match 42 Yacht Tour
Could this be the fastest family cruiser you’ve never heard of? The Bavaria Match 42 is a genuine performance sailboat hiding beneath the interior...
Latest Sailboat Reviews
Cal 2-27 Used Boat Review
Our story begins in 1970, with the introduction of the Cal 29. Looking for something similar but a bit smaller, the company asked designer Bill Lapworth for a 27-footer, which at first was the Cal 27, a fin keel, spade rudder design with a convertible pop top; another incarnation of this basic hull was the T/2. But the concept of the 29 found its full expression in the Cal 2-27, which began production in 1975 and continued to 1977, after which it was again modified and called simply the Cal 27...again. Production of it ceased in 1986.
