Safety & Seamanship

Havana Perspectives

Do they check your boat when you go back to America?They do, I said, though I had no idea if anyone did. And I...

Dockside Mooring

No sailor can resist the temptation to look over another sailors work, and nothing draws the eye faster than your neighbors docklines. We like...

Spring Lines for Storm Preparedness

A well-secured boat in the best-designed marina can't be expected to survive a direct hit from a hurricane. Major boat-insurance companies recommend hauling out...

Tips for Riding Out the Storm in Your Marina

Practical Sailor has covered storm preparation on several occasions. The two most extensive articles appeared in July 2008 Gear for Battening Down Ahead of...

Raising the Bar on Lifelines

Lifelines are often disparaged as nothing more than tripping hazards, mounted so far below our center of gravity that they are more likely to...

Requirements for Pressure-testing Life Rafts

I have read several articles about life-raft inspections, but no article has stated how long a raft should be inflated to check for leaks...

Hitches to Grip Anchor Chain

When researching Changing Views on Chain Hooks (see PS, March 2016 online), we were surprised to discover that some chain hooks greatly reduced the...

Resources for Cruising to Cuba

Although Cuba is terra incognita for many Americans, it has been a popular destination for Canadian and European cruisers for more than a decade....

Cuba Trip and a Sailors Musings

Plans are shaping up for my first passage to Cuba this summer, and already, Ive been getting some flack from the friends and family...

In the Perfect Position to Fail

For centuries, navigators have been coping with two key variables that convey major consequence. The first is the quest for an accurate position fix,...

Monitor Your Whole Boat From Home On A Mobile App

What if you could monitor your whole boat from home on a mobile app or on your computer? Today, we look at ship monitoring...