Sails, Rigging & Deck Gear

If you want the best rail-mounted rod holder, get the Lee's RA5001 or Lee's RA5201. Save a few bucks with the Whitecap S7004C and still come away with a durable home for your fishing pole.

Hayn weighs in with a new variant on the Chinese handcuff principle (the harder you pull, the tighter I squeeze) to rival Norseman and Sta-Lock terminals.

Rope Lifeline TerminalsYou have been a big help with maintaining my Catalina 27. I have been following the articles about lifelines and the reply...

The future is here, and it looks quite a bit like the past. Within a couple of years, rope may be replacing stainless shackles on boats of all stripes and budgets.

Considering some of the loads involved, it's no wonder that shackles are made to be reliable. Wichard's 'D' shackles are excellent. Tylaska makes a top-quality snap shackle, but you won't go wrong with Schaefer or Wichard.

West Marine and Dixon offer the best latch ladders. For occasional use, a hook-type from Garelick should do the job. Sport ladders from Garelick and Armstrong are great, but will be an odd fit for most sailboats.

We put 19 of the best small blocks through a home-grown friction test, and took looks inside.

RWO's new Carbocleat and Spinlock's PX Powercleat are trying to out-gentle the old favorites, Harken's Carbo-Cam and Ronstan's C-Cleat.

A variation of the Golden Rule applies: Shine unto others as you would have them shine unto you.

We check out the Digger Anchor and Kingston QuickSet in the latest series of anchor tests.