VHF Radio Safety: What Every Sailor Needs to Know Before a Mayday
One of the most important rules while out on the water is to always lend a hand if possible—without risking your own crew and...
How to Charge Your LFP Battery the Right Way
If you are thinking of managing a conversion of your own existing, all lead acid system over to one with a Lithium iron phosphate...
Camera Gear for Cruisers: A Buyer’s Guide
You love sailing. You love (or like) photography, and you want to share some of the spectacular things you find out on the water...
Lithium-Ion and LFP Battery Fires: The Real Risks Sailors Face
Before we consider the safety issues of lithium-ion batteries, we should remember that lead acid batteries are not without risk. Apart from the obvious...
Floating Your Rode
Anchoring in clean sand and mud is easy. But cruising takes you places where anchoring isn’t easy.
The golden rule with coral, grass beds, jumbled...
Servicing Your Wheel-Drive Autopilot
A reliable autopilot is great to have onboard because it gives you opportunities to rest your arms and/or eat while under way while still...
Roller Bearing Rudder Upgrade: A DIY Guide for Spade-Rudder Sailboats
Have you ever been sailing along and thought to yourself, something just doesn’t feel right. That is what happened to me with our steering...
Taking Starlink Offshore: What the Gen 2 and Mini Can Really Do
Sailing used to mean disconnecting from the everyday—for some, it still does. Days were spent watching the waves roll by, adjusting sails, reading books,...
Handheld VHF Radio Buyer’s Guide: Explore 20 Models, from Low-Cost to High-End
VHF radios are not included among the minimal safety equipment required on pleasure craft by the US Coast Guard, but they should be. VHF...
Reefing Basics
As the forecast for this season calls for much cooler temps and more frequent higher wind speeds and gusts, thanks to the effects of...
Which Boats Are Easy to Sail? 7 Features That Matter
What makes a sailboat easy to sail? In this Practical Sailor video, we look at seven features that can make a sailboat easier, safer,...
Latest Sailboat Reviews
Gemini 31/3000 Used Boat Review
The funny thing about the Gemini is that it's an old design. Ken Shaw drew the lines in 1969. There's nothing particularly contemporary about it. However, by painting the cabin sides black (Euro styling), adding a swept-back fiberglass "pilothouse" and gradually adding length to the full-bodied hulls, the Gemini has always looked like she belonged with her contemporaries, whether that was the 1980s or 1990s.
