Sails, Rigging & Deck Gear

Getting the Most Out of Older Sails

Efficient windward work requires sails with a good lift-to-drag ratio. Mylar laminate sails hold their shape throughout their useful life, well enough for all...

How (Not) to Tie Your Boat to a Dock

No sailor can resist the temptation to look over another sailors work, and nothing draws the eye faster than your neighbors docklines. We like to know our boat and our neighbors boats will be where we left them when we return, not rubbing together or worse. Sometimes, however, a stroll down the dock makes us nervous. This gallery of rogue docklines represents only a taste of what PS tester Drew Frye found within a short walk of his slip. How many of these will come loose during the next storm?

Stopping Mainsheet Twist

The dinghy requires a gorilla to hoist onto the davits. The mainsheet won’t release in a gust. The internal reefing line inside the boom...

Working with High-Tech Ropes

If you are working with low friction rings, sooner or later youre going to work with Amsteel and other high molecular polyethylene (HMPE) ropes, and that means learning to splice-in rings.
Using only what they had available onboard, the cruisers rebuilt a broken clue on their genoa which lasted for thousands of miles of sailing.

Getting a Clue for the Blown-Out Clew

How do you manage major sail repairs in remote locations? By using whatever you have onboard to get you home—or beyond. After an easy three-day...
This Hayn Hi-Mod shackle was securing a shroud. The shackle failed without damage to the threads when the rigging wire snapped and the pin unscrewed. Thankfully, there were no injuries and the deck-stepped mast fell to leeward with limited damage to the Corsair F-24. (Photo/ Jim Love)

Monel Seizing Wire is Worth the Extra Cost

Just weeks ago, a fellow Corsair 24 owner dismasted due to a seizing wire failure. More than once I’ve had stainless seizing wire fail...

Need a New Headsail Furler? Here’s What’s Involved

Selden's 'complete package' approach to headsail furlers opens the door to the hands-on sailor.

Master the Sailing Basics: Never Stop Learning the Little Things

Seamanship is about big concepts and small skills. They work together, but we see them differently and they represent different types of learning. Big...
1. Winch handle camera mount. It can’t fall of, is quick to place or remove in any conditions, and you can rotate it to change angles. (Photo/ Drew Frye)

How to Mount Your Camera on Deck: Record Your Adventures with DIY Innovations

Most of the time I singlehand, so how do I take photographs for Practical Sailor without awkwardly holding a selfie stick? I have a...
The crew at Hop-O-Nose Marina in Catskill, NY helped us remove our mast. They also helped us build cradles on the deck so that we could carry our mast and rigging on deck as we traveled the Erie Canal. (Photo/ Alison Major)

Un-Stepping the Mast for America’s Great Loop

As a family on a sailboat traveling on the Great Loop, our crew of four aboard Fika was a bit out of the ordinary....

Bahamas Lightning Strikes Catamaran, FRIES EVERYTHING!

This week, we talk to Sailing Dark Angel about the Bahamas price increases for cruisers and their recent brush with disaster as light struck...

Latest Sailboat Review

Catalina 25 Used Boat Review

The Catalina 25 is not exceptionally fast, stylish, or spacious compared to newer widebody models, and while the construction and workmanship are adequate, they too are not exceptional. But because of the builder's strict adherence to a philosophy of offering a relatively spacious design, relatively well made, at a reasonable price, and backing up the product with generally good customer service, the Catalina 25 has turned out to be one of the most successful small cruising sailboats ever built, with 5,332 boats sold between 1976 and 1990, when the company ceased producing the model as demand tailed off.