Sails, Rigging & Deck Gear

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....
Das Boot's symmetric spinnaker is flying while the boat races downwind at the Fran Byrne Regatta, Aug. 2007. (Photo/ Nick Van Antwerp)

Headsails and Spinnakers: How to Explain Their Functions to a Beginner

Over the past few decades, we have seen a tremendous advancement in sail design technologies—innovative sail materials are now common in the marketplace and...

Guided Tour – Caribbean, Erie Canal, Great Lakes! The Beneteau Oceanis...

This week we get a tour or a Yacht Club in Toronto and have a guided tour of a Beneteau Oceanis 45 that sailed...

Latest Sailboat Review

Valiant 40 Used Boat Review

The Valiant 40 has a long history. In 1972, Nathan Rothman decided to start a boatbuilding business and approached old friend Bob Perry to...