Tips, Tricks & Thoughts:
Tips
-
Portable Solar Panels For Cruisers
8 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Portable Solar Panels For CruisersThe good folks over at Ocean Planet Energy are selling these foldable and portable solar panels. A couple of these will provide a cruising boat with around 100 amp hours at 12 volts over the course of a reasonably sunny day at anchor. To me this is a way better idea, at least to supplement […]
-
On Vacation (Holiday)
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: On Vacation (Holiday)Phyllis and I are on the road visiting our families this week and next, so there will be few, or maybe no, Tips, Tricks and Thoughts until late November.
-
Ocean Racing Back In The Day
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Ocean Racing Back In The DayIf you raced offshore back in the seventies and eighties you probably wore Line 7 foul weather gear and a Lirakis harness. The less said about the non-breathing heavy PVC former—it was waterproof but that did not help much since we stewed in our own juices—the better. But the latter was the first widely available […]
-
Don’t Guess Antifreeze
4 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Don’t Guess AntifreezeI confess I used to just flush out the systems on our boat until the antifreeze came out the end looking “pink enough”. But that approach can either result in a lot of expensive damage if the antifreeze is overly diluted by the water in the system, or end up being wasteful and expensive when […]
-
The End of Skill?
2 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFree
Read more: The End of Skill?Two companies have just announced that they are going to build an autonomous motorboat. Yes, the crew will be able to sit aboard and do absolutely nothing…except drink their faces off…while the boat runs itself. Never mind whether or not this is even doable (way past my pay grade to judge). The thing that gets […]
-
Easy To Grab Rope Tail
4 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFree
Read more: Easy To Grab Rope TailIf we have a short rope tail, here’s a knot that gives us more to grab than the classic figure-eight stopper knot. The above is the sprit extension line on our J/109. I have no idea what it’s called or where I learned it. Might be Boy Scouts 60 years ago. Anyway, it’s quick and […]
-
Long Live Free-Standing Radars
5 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Long Live Free-Standing RadarsBased on 30 years of radar use in some of the foggier and icier waters in the world, I have long advocated for free-standing radars, at least for those who venture into these waters, rather than integrating radar into a plotter. So it’s way-cool to see that Furuno have just brought out two brand new […]
-
The Cockpit Is NOT As Safe As It Feels
15 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: The Cockpit Is NOT As Safe As It FeelsIt’s well worth reading the excellent report from US Sailing on the tragic crew overboard (COB) death in the 2022 Bermuda race. Lots of good analysis and some great recommendations. That said, the biggest takeaway for me is that the cockpit of a sailboat at sea can provide an illusory sense of safety. The fact […]
-
Wing Keel Craze
7 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Wing Keel CrazeI will bet this keel was designed shortly after Australia II won the America’s Cup. It’s a dead ringer for Ben Lexcen’s revolutionary keel. But here’s the thing, while end plates are good and bulbs can make shallower keels more efficient than they would be otherwise, Australia II‘s keel was designed to get around or […]
-
Don’t Overload Catamarans
2 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Don’t Overload CatamaransPeople often think that I must be a multihull hater, just because I own a monohull. Not true, I love well-designed catamarans (and tris, too) like this way-cool Chris White 42. But here’s the key point: To be safe, and deliver on their speed potential, cats must not be overloaded. Check out how thin the […]
-
Great Risk Quote
1 CommentReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Great Risk QuoteYou should obsess over risks that do permanent damage and care little about risks that do temporary harm, but the opposite is more common. Morgan Housel Morgan is one of the best thinkers about financial risk around. Often his thoughts apply to offshore voyaging too. This one applies best to the majority of cruisers who […]
-
Season Extender
9 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFree
Read more: Season ExtenderWinter is fast approaching here in Nova Scotia, so we hauled our J/109 a week ago. We would be kind of bummed, except now we get more time to play with our turbocharged (sliding seats) Whitehall. Most years we go on rowing until early December and are back at it in March. No worries about […]
-
Sounding Hammer Trick
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Sounding Hammer TrickI was working with a very experienced and smart composite technician today to check out a crack in the gel coat in the bilge of our J/109. I was pretty sure it was not structural and just the result of sloppy gel coat application but wanted a pro to check. He sounded it with a […]
-
O’Day Day Sailer
2 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: O’Day Day SailerI mentioned one of these in another tip as the boat I lusted after when I was 12 years old. Today I was driving past a boatyard and lo and behold… I wonder what you could buy this boat for with trailer and outboard? Not much I bet, and she would be a great teacher […]
-
Water Likes Fair Curves
4 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Water Likes Fair CurvesOne of the things I look for when looking at boats out of the water is a nice fair curve of the bottom of the hull from bow to stern. Contrast our J/109 (above) with the boat below. The knuckle at the bow does not bother me, but check out the lump in the line […]
-
Favourite Upgrade to Our J/109
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Favourite Upgrade to Our J/109It’s so easy to get fixated on expensive updates to our boats, like cool electronics or new electrical systems, but sometimes things that cost relatively little deliver big benefits. Phyllis and I were chatting during our last sail of the season about our favourite upgrades to our new-to-us J/109 and both agreed that the Blue […]
-
Where Bulb Keels Don’t Belong
6 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Where Bulb Keels Don’t BelongWho on earth thought it was a good idea to fit the boat with a bulb extending forward creating a setup to catch every stray piece of gear floating around our oceans, never mind the risk of snagging her own anchor rode or mooring chain? You gotta seriously wonder.
-
The IOR Rule Has a Lot To Answer For
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: The IOR Rule Has a Lot To Answer ForHere’s a nice looking vintage Nautor Swan. But look at the strange distortion of the stern. You think this looks weird? Check out the next shot taken from off the quarter. When shopping for boats, it’s worth looking for this result of designers cheating the station measurements of the IOR racing rule. Such distortions don’t […]
-
Going Aloft Articles
2 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Going Aloft ArticlesI went up the mast today to remove the fragile stuff from the top prior to unstepping. A highly recommended precaution if you don’t like paying for new wind instrument wands. Phyllis and I had this down cold on our McCurdy and Rhodes 56, but it’s always a bit nerve wracking on a new-to-us boat […]
-
Marking Port and Starboard Shrouds For Tune
8 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Marking Port and Starboard Shrouds For TuneAdding to my last tip. It’s pretty unlikely that the port and starboard shrouds are exactly the same length, so if we want to be able to duplicate mast tune in the spring we better not mix them up. I used to put cardboard labels on, but they get soggy and fall off, so now […]
-
Preserving Mast Tune Hack
2 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Preserving Mast Tune HackI spent a lot of the summer getting the mast tune exactly the way I wanted it on our J/109. Now it’s time to decommission and I don’t want to lose that. So I carefully measured the distance between the threaded studs in the turnbuckles for the shrouds and backstay. To make this work you […]
-
Q&A Hydraulic In-Boom Roller Furling in Antartica
7 CommentsReading Time: 3 minutesFreeRead more: Q&A Hydraulic In-Boom Roller Furling in AntarticaVery experienced member Matthieu Chauvel asked: Does anyone have experience with hydraulic in-boom furling systems in below-freezing conditions (and/or proper heavy seas, 50 kts+)? Asking for owners of a yacht heading down to Antarctica that has what they (and the builder of course) say is quite a beefy, reliable custom system, but it hasn’t been […]
-
Reefing Horn Hack
8 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Reefing Horn HackReefing horns are a nice simple way to secure the tack when reefed, but they can also foul the sail when hoisting. A PITA, particularly on boats with the halyard led aft to the cockpit. This simple hack using a piece of fuel hose with the same ID as the horn OD, that I had […]
-
Spinlock 6D—One Size Does Fit All
7 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: Spinlock 6D—One Size Does Fit AllOur friend Margaret, who is of the petite persuasion, wearing the Spinlock 6D we are testing here at AAC. One of our concerns with the new model was that with only one size, instead of three as the 5D we have used for years was available in, was that fitting a smaller person might be […]
-
John Kretschmer Reefs Downwind
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFree
Read more: John Kretschmer Reefs DownwindA few days after we published my article about the causes of the tragedy on Escape, I received this unsolicited email from John Kretschmer: I am writing to commend you for your recent piece,”Lessons from a Tragedy at Sea.” It’s sober but hopefully enlightening to many. You are spot on. The notion of coming up […]
