Safety & Seamanship

Offshore Log:New Gear for the New Year

The early Florida shows—IBEX and Fort Lauderdale—are good places to see the latest efforts of the marine trades. Nick Nicholson went to see what was cresting over the horizon.

Offshore Log:New Gear for the New Year

The early Florida shows—IBEX and Fort Lauderdale—are good places to see the latest efforts of the marine trades. Nick Nicholson went to see what was cresting over the horizon.

Personal Locator Beacons

Personal locator beacons, or PLBs, provide the benefits of 406 MHz distress signaling, but at a more affordable price. And unlike an EPIRB, they’re small enough to attach to a life jacket.

Offshore Log: Still In Class

Feedback on our October 1 column gives us a chance to stay in school and dig deeper into the same topic.

Chartplotter-Sounder Conversions

You can add a conversion kit and transducer to a chartplotter/radar display, and have robust sounder capabilities without needing another screen. We evaluate conversion kits from Garmin, Furuno and Raymarine.

Walker Bay RIDs

There will be added drag in some conditions, and the nine-footer is tough for one person to carry. Minor gripes aside, though, Walker Bay's addition of an inflatable tube was a great move.

Offshore Log: The Volvo Open 70

This new class of round-the-world racers has just been introduced. The boats will be designed for even more speed than their 60-foot predecessors, but also engineered for more safety.

PS Advisor: 10/15/03

Lifesling Recovery OptionsI've read about the difficulty of getting a crewmember back aboard once s/he's fallen into the water. It's not hard to imagine...

Offshore Log: Back to School

We harp on the theme of learning and maintaining piloting skills. People tire of it, but it must be done. Here's another example.

Electronic Cartography Update

Ever get confused about the names and types of electronic charts out there, and what runs on what, and where the data comes from? We do, too, so here's a review, and a reference guide.

Bahamas for $5000? The Watkins 27 foot Sailboat

Is the Watkins 27 the ultimate small cruising sailboat? In this video, we take a deep dive into the Watkins 27 — a classic...
How Long Do Sails Last? video from Practical Sailor

How Long Do Sails Last?

Latest Sailboat Review

Jeanneau 55 Boat Review

This recent sailboat from Jeanneau may as well be a spaceship. They’ve taken all the time-honored designs of a monohull aft cockpit and turned...