Cal 2-46: A Venerable Lapworth Design Brought Up to Date
What kind of blue-water cruising sailboat should you consider when your thoughts turn offshore? We posed that question to Practical Sailor readers, and Puget...
Breaking Point: What Can Go Wrong With Your Yanmar?
If you want to know more about the little Yanmar chugging away in your sailboat, it helps to learn about this iconic engine maker’s...
Download The Full March 2024 Issue PDF
Seagoing Polymers
Repairing Plastic Parts
Safe Cockpit Cushions
Secure Footing
Trampoline Tips
Coatings for Tramps
Rhumb Lines: Recognize the Limits of Modern Boat Plastics
I didn’t mean to buy an old wooden boat. At age 24, the 53-year-old Atkin ketch was what I could afford. But there was...
Mailport: Aftermarket exhaust; window replacement; epoxy blurp
AFTERMARKET EXHAUST
I have really appreciated the refit series from John Stone you’ve published (see “Rebuilding a Cape Dory 36,” PS November 2022). As someone beginning to...
Can We Trust Plastic Boat Parts?
When a plastic part on our boat breaks, we often deem it “damn cheap plastic” and toss it away. In some parts of the...
Repairing Molded Plastics
Before looking for the right glue, understand why the part broke. Did it succumb to a combination of UV damage, creep (distortion), fatigue, and...
Choosing and Securing Seat Cushions
Loose cockpit cushions can blow away in a good breeze or slide off when sharply heeled. A sliding cushion is a nuisance at the...
The Pros and Cons of Cockpit Foot Braces
The sensation that you are about to slide to leeward is familiar to most small-boat sailors. But that slip-sliding-away feeling isn’t reserved to small...
The Everlasting Multihull Trampoline
Multihulls commonly have net or webbing trampolines that cover the large areas of deck. The trampoline is vital to both performance and seaworthiness. It...