Safety & Seamanship

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.

A friend recently made a short delivery on a boat whose compass was fully 30 degrees deviated. No one worried about it. No one...

With great relief, Calypso sailed northwest from Israel to Cyprus, our first stop in the more European part of the Mediterranean.

Lexan vs. PlexiIm planning to replace my wooden companionway boards with translucent plastic. Is there a difference between Lexan and plexiglass? Can both be...