Practical Sailor

Co-founded by Charlie Britton in the early 1960s, Tartan Yachts was established on the shores of Lake Erie in Grand River, Ohio. The original Tartan was the very successful 27, first...

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 risk of a sulfuric acid spill or...

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 rocks, and snags is to go somewhere...

Wood is strong, stiff per unit weight, easy to work with, attractive, and economical. And it rots. A few special types of wood, such as teak, are highly resistant to rot, but these woods are generally heavy and almost always expensive. Pressure treated lumber is an option, but it’s ugly, warps, does not take coatings well, and is not always very rot resistant. Western red cedar, on the other hand, has long been used in canoes, and cedar fence posts have a deserved reputation for durability. We started our rot resistance testing eight years ago in 2015, and we finally cleaned out our accelerated rot test box in July 2023. Results ranged from abysmal (untreated samples of fir have nearly disappeared) to astounding (our teak samples are still just like new). Let’s see what we learned.

The basic design of the humble boat hook hasn't changed much over the years, but it has seen upgrades in construction and materials, along with some minor design tweaks. For this report, we set out to determine what constitutes the ideal boat hook. We evaluated boat hooks currently on the market and took a look at some old models still in service.

Although it conforms to CE ratings for ocean sailing, this boat is better suited for coastal cruising in comfort and short offshore passages. It's got a great set of layout options for living aboard.

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 keeping an eye on things. So, when...

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 on Misirlou, our ancient but venerable 1964...

Even when your anchor is well designed and ideally matched to your boat, there are four common factors that can cause an anchor to drag: poor bottom, short scope, insufficient shock absorption, and yawing. Each of these reduces the holding capacity of the anchor, and they are additive. That is to say that any one of them can ruin your day, solving only one or two of them does not ensure good holding, and the more problems you solve, the better youll sleep.

Your anchoring system is only as strong as its weakest component, which includes not only the rode, but also shackles, splices, mooring bitts, cleats - in short, any gear used to secure your boat while at anchor. Proper maintenance includes inspection of these as well as laying the rode out for thorough examination at least annually.