Sails, Rigging & Deck Gear

During our research, nearly every maker of industrial chain offered the same caution: Using a generic chain hook can reduce the link strength by 20 to 25 percent. The generic style of chain hook, familiar to most sailors, resembles an elongated fish hook. As we found in this test, some other hook types are potentially more harmful.

Many of Practical Sailors tests move from the lab (workshop/garage/driveway) to our fleet of test boats, where we can evaluate the top products in real-world conditions over the long haul. These long-term tests can last from two to 10 years, and we try to offer occasional updates on their status, when its warranted.

Replacing the roller-furling control line is an easy do-it-yourself job for the boat owner. Inexpensive, double-braid Dacron is a fine choice for furling lines on most boats shorter than 40 feet. On longer boats, you can opt for a furling-line material of more esoteric double-braids with less stretch. However, any line smaller than 3/8-inch diameter is too difficult to grip.

Sailors gaze longingly at the rope wall at the local chandlery, coveting rope made from exotic fibers that promises ultra-low stretch and light weight, perfect for every halyard, sheet, and running-rigging application. But are they really? Certainly, there must be applications where a little stretch is a good thing, perhaps the best thing.

When it comes to boats, theres never a shortage of stuff to secure, coil, or hang up. Bungee cords are the default go-to in many cases, but they gradually lose strength and degrade over time due to UV damage; also, the hooks rust and can scratch finishes. We recently looked at a product thats advertised as being a bungee cord on steroids: the Davis Instruments MiniShockles.

My affinity for cruising ketches like the Allied Seawind II we feature this month runs contrary to the view of their many detractors. Their criticism goes something like this: Ketches were popular in early days of cruising when undersized winches and friction-bound hardware conspired to make handling large sails a chore. With efficient winches and modern hardware, split rigs are obsolete on boats under 50 feet, they say.

Sailors spend considerable time pondering their anchoring arsenal for the mothership, but what about the dinghy? With the new Mantus Dinghy Anchor, it seems that all of the design schools are now represented in small sizes. We were interested to determine which of these might offer the best performance.

Each anchor was pulled in both a straight line and at 90 degrees in both soft mud and firm sand at a 10:1 scope. All findings regarding load were recorded with a calibrated load cell. Testers performed the 90-degree test by lightly setting the anchor (with a 15-pound load in mud, 40 pounds in sand) and then slowly pulling at a 90-degree angle, as though the wind or tide changed. Additionally, each anchor was used day-in, day-out aboard an inflatable dinghy to evaluate ease of use and real-world effectiveness.

The right roller-furling headsail is as beneficial to a sailor as a good zoom lens is to a photographer. But just as the zoom lens has limits, even the best furling headsail is challenged at the extreme ends of its range. In the October 2015 issue, we explored the basic sail needs of a daysailor. For this report, the second and final in our series on headsails, we asked five professional sailmakers from around the country to weigh in on the ideal sail inventory for coastal cruising.

Getting rid of the big genoa is usually easy thanks to roller furling, but what do you do then? Changing sails on the furling unit is a daunting task when short-handed, and sailboats don't power particularly well in a big sea. Heres an easy, safe, and seamanlike solution: Set your boat up with an inner forestay, and when these conditions arise, roll your big genoa up, set your forestaysail, and away you go.