The lonely anchorage was silent except for the symphony of tiny coqui frogs that crescendoed as night fell over the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was a far cry from an earlier vaca

Never let a plan get in the way of your dream. That could be the mantra for JP Baudains and his partner Charlotte, who had a dream to sail the world, but, while in their late 20s, assumed the plan wou

How many times have you heard a graying sailor reminisce about beach-launching their dinghy as a kid? It's a common story, but it almost never happens today. The sailors of the past could do it, in l

Not long ago, I was visiting my old hometown and, by chance, I found myself near the bay where I had learned to sail so many years ago. On a whim, I drove down to see what remained of the waters where

Dear Boat Doctor, In your March column, you provide solace to Richard Riley regarding the use of folding props but you don't really solve his problem. I've used a Martec folding prop on my boat sin

A friend of mine, a yachtsman of the motorboat persuasion, told me he was going ahead with his summer cruise even though the fuel bill would exceed $7,000. The same cruise last year would have cost hi

It was a brisk autumn day, which also meant there was wind. That isn’t always the case on the Chesapeake Bay, and I was looking forward to sailing in the best conditions I’d seen all week. The day

Winches are amazing pieces of equipment. They last for years providing a crucial mechanical advantage that makes sailing possible.  And because they require little in the way of everyday maintena

With a competitive offshore race successfully completed, a rested crew hops on the boat, now kitted out with the delivery mainsail and a roller-furling jib, and heads for the boat’s homeport. A beau

Many years ago I was sailing from South Africa to Gibraltar. We were halfway between Saint Helena Island and Ascension Island when the rudder broke off. Earlier, we had felt a little give in the wheel

  Dragonfly 36This 36-footer is the latest in Dragonfly’s line of folding cruising trimarans. Easy to sail shorthanded from the dual-zone cockpit, this tri will make quick work of long pas

The first time Bruce Dyson laid eyes on his boat Gypsy, it could barely be considered a boat. Pulled from the bottom of New York Harbor, the International One Design’s deck was destroyed, the first

Alli Bell sailed into the history books of the Transpacific Yacht Race, becoming the first woman skipper to take overall honors in the 119-year history of the race from Los Angles to Hawaii. Skippe

I was concentrating more on the remarkable aubergine hue of the wine in my glass, a muscular Chilean blend of carmenere, cabernet and merlot, than on the NBC news program on the tube. It was the

Trust me on this one. I know bloodcurdling screams. As a kid, I used to go to the Saturday horror matinees, and no scream in the world matches the sound of several dozen 8-year-old girls when the scre

From the drawing table of Berret-Racoupeau Yacht Design, more than 600 393s were built between 2002 and 2007, both in France and at what was then Beneteau’s expanding factory in Marion, South Caroli

Some stories begin with a dream, which is exactly how Chris Hood ended up designing and building the C.W. Hood 32, an elegant daysailer with the graceful lines of an International One-Design and the s

The marine diesel engine is an amazing piece of machinery. These engines are reliable, safe and require minimal maintenance. If you look after just a few things, your engine can easily run for 10,000