On a sailboat, your phone can be one of your most valuable tools in your captain’s toolbox. There are a lot of paid sailing apps out there, everything from chart plotters to fish finders, but most aren’t worth your money, or your time. These free apps, on the other hand, Read more…
If you’re spending time on the water, a good UV hoodie is as essential as your life jacket. It keeps the sun off your neck, arms, and ears without having to lather up every inch of your body in sunscreen – and it’s breathable enough to wear all day, even Read more…
You’d think that packing for a sailing trip would be easy enough – just grab the same hard-shelled roller suitcase and packing list from that week in Europe – but it’s not so simple. Don’t be that guy. Here’s the streamlined list I’ve been using for years and give to Read more…
We’ve all been there. Eager to jump in the dinghy and land on shore after laying anchor on the mothership. Just one problem, the dinghy outboard wort start.
If you’re like a lot of recreational boaters, you may not pay a much attention to your life vest. You might not even know what PFD stands for – Personal Floatation Device. You may have even purchased a type V PFD with your #1 criteria being comfort. You throw it on each time you go out, mainly just to make a show of it, and take it off as soon as you’re outside the marina – confident that you’ll remember to put it back on if the weather picks up.
Coffee is life. If you’re like me, you need your cup of joe first thing every morning. There is nothing quite like a great cup of coffee onboard as the sun comes up over your favorite anchorage. Unfortunately, today’s common methods of brewing coffee are harder to come by onboard Read more…
You probably know the rules of thumb. Something like 7:1 scope if you’re staying overnight, 5:1 if you’re just there for a few hours. But where do these rules come from, and what if you can’t lay that much scope – say you’re up against the shore line, or the swing radius is too big. I took an engineering approach to calculate what scope you actually need, depending on the relevant variables.
As we’ve seen, a sailboat cannot sail directly into the wind. The “no-go” zone covers approximately 45° on either side of the wind, so how does a sailboat move toward a desired point that is located upwind? The answer is by tacking back and forth on a zigzag-like path. While Read more…
You don’t need to be an Eagle Scout to sail. There are entire books written on how to tie knots for everything from baiting a fishing hook to decorating your living room. Fortunately, there are a handful of knots that you can learn that will cover just about any situation Read more…
Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “It’s not like driving a car. It’s like driving a boat.” If you sail a few times you will understand exactly what that means. You might even start using the phrase yourself after you see how perfectly the analogy applies to so many real life Read more…