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...
Latest Logbook
Practical Sailor Logbook – September 2026
In September we tour the Hans Christian 48T — the offshore cruiser many sailors call the holy grail — walk the custom Antigua 60...
Video: The BEST Sailboat You Can Buy for $35,000 – Catalina...
If you’re searching for a mid-30-foot sailboat, affordable cruising sailboat, liveaboard sailboat, first sailboat, or a capable used sailboat for coastal cruising, the Catalina...
Latest Sailboat Reviews
Learning by Doing on a $5,000 Catalina 30 Mk II
When Davis’s mother started talking about wanting to do something “big” for retirement, Davis and Gloria half-jokingly threw out an idea that seemed suitably...
