Safety & Seamanship

Since our last review of cruising guides for the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and the Bahamas, weve come across a few more resources worth adding to the list, and one of our top-pick cruising and anchoring guides has ceased publication. Heres the latest on cruising guides and resources.

Weve long been interested in drogues, devices specifically designed to be towed behind a boat to reduce speed and to produce directional stability in heavy weather. Our last major drogue test was in 2009, when noted marine writers and circumnavigators Evans Starzinger and Beth Leonard shared their storm tactics (see Heavy Weather Sailing Tactics". Another relevant article, Sea Anchors and Drogues, compared a variety of drag devices. If you are interested in purchasing a drogue, we recommend reading the archive articles along with this report.

We did not test every drogue that appears in the accompanying table, PS Value Guide: Drogues. However, we collected a huge amount of test data and observations from model testing and from multiple sources, including Victor Shanes Drag Device Database (www.dragdevicedb.com), and incorporated these into our test findings.

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 think the Cuban customs officials bring dogs on board, before we leave, to make sure no one is hiding on the boat. I didnt know this either. It was something in a cruising guide Id read-probably out of date.

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 and tying down your boat, but that isn't always an option, nor is it any guarantee.

Practical Sailor has covered storm preparation on several occasions. The two most extensive articles appeared in July 2008 Gear for Battening Down Ahead of Storms, and Tropical Storms Dos and Donts, from November 2011. We also have an online article How to Help Your Boat Survive a Major Storm. What follows are just a few tips relevant to securing your boat in a marina when you have exhausted all other safer alternatives.

Lifelines are often disparaged as nothing more than tripping hazards, mounted so far below our center of gravity that they are more likely to launch a sailor over the side than to save him. While larger boats occasionally fit taller stanchions and solid-tube railings, the vast majority follow the International Sailing Federations (ISAF) offshore regulations, which require lifelines to be no less than 24 inches high on boats 28 feet or longer. This is effectively the bare minimum developed for racing on fully crewed boats where higher lines interfere with deck-sweeping genoas, and crew lost overboard has a reasonable hope for recovery. Cruisers have different priorities.

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 during inspection. Do you have any idea?

When researching Changing Views on Chain Hooks (see PS, March 2016 online), we were surprised to discover that some chain hooks greatly reduced the breaking strength of a chain. Unless the hook itself broke, we assumed its effect on chain strength would be very minor.

Although Cuba is terra incognita for many Americans, it has been a popular destination for Canadian and European cruisers for more than a decade. Here, we look at some resources for cruisers planning-or dreaming of-a cruise to Cuba.