Safety & Seamanship

Practical Sailor's Nick Nicholson, one of three measurers for the Volvo Ocean Race, monitors the design and construction of the boats, sails, and equipment used.

No matter how you put out a call for help on the water—VHF, EPIRB, cell phone, or mental telepathy—sooner or later you'll need to...

Nick Nicholson photographs man-overboard gear on the docks of Marmaris.

Confused about today’s growing number of types and styles of life jackets? No wonder. Here's a primer on the rules, as well as some common-sense advice.

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...

Sixteen lights from six manufacturers.

Calypso checks the styles in Marmaris, and overhauls her chain.

With good facilities available, Calypso receives some standard TLC after traveling half the globe.

They all performed comparably, but we'd pick the Kidde 1044, which was somewhat effective on Class-A fires and discharged for three seconds longer than the others.

For this review, Practical Sailor collected, from the hundreds available, 18 steering compasses. Included are binnacle, bulkhead and bracket models, plus several interesting ones shown only in photos. Except for the bronze Telltale compass shown on page 7, all have 12V lighting and gimbal systems.