Cordless LED Spotlight Update
Our first LED flashlight test appeared in March 2000. Even two decades ago, we were becoming concerned with beam patterns. In fact it was...
Practical Boarding Ladders
Every year I read of near-drowning episodes that were compounded by the deficiency or complete absence of a boarding ladder. A fall from a...
Going Aloft with the Multi-use Prusik
At least once each season, someone should make the trip up top to inspect the rigging. There can also be more immediate needs. An...
Showing Good Ladder Sense
A few years ago, while sitting on the gravel applying fairing compound to my keels (see “Fairing the Keels,” July 2016), I heard a...
Sailing Gear of the Year 2021
What a difference a year makes! Last year, Practical Sailor testers were holed up in their home workshops, garages, basements, and home offices, meeting...
Portable Fuel Tank Update
Everyone hated the first generation of CARB gas cans. Intended to reduce volatile emissions by recovering vapors and reducing spills, they did exactly the...
Revised Lifeline Protection Plan
World Sailing (then ISAF) initially accepted Dyneema lifelines in 2012, but then banned it from all offshore racing in 2015. In 2018, World Sailing...
Distress ‘Flares’ Go Electric
The first USCG approved electronic beacons entered the market in 2015 (46 CFR 161.013). Classified as electronic visual distress signaling devices (eVDSD), they emit...
Search & Rescue Tech 2.0
On December 1, 2020 Kevin Escoffier was plucked from a life raft, near the infamous “Cape of Storms.” The name dates back to 1488...
Rescue at Sea Meets High Tech
Disasters at sea always grab big headlines. But very few of these accounts deliver as much good news and valuable lessons learned as the...