Offshore Log: Man Overboard!
The year 2002 has been a bad year for man-overboard incidents aboard racing sailboats. In May, professional sailor Jamie Boeckel was lost off the...
Practical Sailor Tests AIS Class B Transceivers from West Marine and Navico
Practical Sailor last took a look at Automatic Identification System (AIS) units with the November 2008 evaluation of the Raymarine AIS250, a receive-only device....
Wrestling With PFDs
We have a good article on PFDs this month, and it's worried me every time I've looked at it. These worries can probably be...
WAAS Up? New Acronym Stands For Better GPS Accuracy
Whatever limitations electronic position finding may have suffered during its relatively brief existence, a lack of confusing acronyms hasn’t been one of them.If you...
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...
Life Raft Inspection, an Inside Look
If five or six years have elapsed since your life raft was purchased or repacked, you are risking the chance that the raft wont...
TruPlug is a Handy Emergency-kit Tool
Spring is here, and that means its time for systems and safety checks. Among the items that should be on your to-do list are...
Sydney-Hobart Race: Rogue Waves Do The Damage
If you encounter severe conditions aboard your boat, what most likely will be a problem, cause you extreme grief or even cost you your...
Close As A Pencil Point
On May 1, President Clinton announced that the selective availability (SA) system used to degrade GPS (global positioning system) signals was terminated, effective at...
Putting Words into Practice
This months report on man-overboard recovery (pages 7-11) offers a chilling reminder of why our testers spend so much time evaluating jacklines, harnesses, and...
What Is The Best Folding Bike For Your Sailboat?
This week we explore what the best folding bike is to keep on your sailboat and compare the time honored Dahon Folding Bike with...
