The first time I sailed the Texas 200—a grueling 200-mile multiday small-boat endurance cruise along the desolate Gulf Coast and barrier islands of southern Texas—my home-built plywood dinghy was dismasted on the first afternoon. 

Dear Boat Doctor, I recently had to connect some bare stripped wires to a terminal strip, the kind where you put the wire in the hole and tighten down the screw. 

There is a widely held belief among sailors that the secret to getting more people into the sport is to get them on the water. Rob James, owner of Kingdom Yachts Sailing Club, an American Sailing Association school in Atlanta, Georgia, thinks the key is to get them in a boat, but not necessarily one that’s on the water.

The new Arcona 465 is built in Sweden and designed by Arcona’s head designer Stefan Quiberg. I like pretty much everything about this boat. The target was a high-performance racer/cruiser optimized

Basics knots, like a bowline or Figure 8, are the foundation of sailboat knots and have been since the beginning of time. These knots are used to terminate control lines, prevent the loss of lines and perform other important tasks. Lesser known “fancy knots,” such as monkey’s fists or different braids, can be useful or just nice to have around from a decorative perspective. Fancy knotwork can be a lifelong pursuit, getting as complex as you like, but there are a few knots that are easy to learn and are still useful. And practicing these less-than-everyday knots can up your knot-tying game. 

South Benjamin Island is a protected and picturesque anchorage.Sharon Mathews Stevens photo Look at the bear!” someone shouted, pointing through the lifelines of our chartered Jeanneau 49 Summe

Back when parents sent kids away to weeks-long all-outdoor excursion camps, one could choose to go to a sailing camp; if you could call it that. A half dozen kids between 10 and 15 years old would join a counselor (usually a college kid on break) to cruise from port-to-port aboard a sailboat just large enough to sleep them all. They would carry their own cash, watch their own weather, pick their own destinations, cook their own food, and generally care for themselves. They’d leave on a prescribed date and return in time for the fall semester, but in between, they were on their own.

 April Table of Contents

It was no dark and stormy night, but the middle of a bright Florida afternoon when I spotted the mystery buoy. It was near our course and I had no idea what it marked, so I brought the engines back to neutral and we drifted while I issued orders. 

My 47-foot boat is 31 years old and is slowly showing her age. I have taken care of most of the systems, but I need to work on the main electrical panel. The panel is starting to mechanically fall apart, some of the breakers have failed and I ran out of capacity long ago. I have patched it over the years, but I think it’s time for a replacement. 

The Alberg 29 was designed by naval architect Carl Alberg and built by Nye Yachts in Canada from 1976 to 1985. The full-keel, masthead sloop was made to replace the much-admired Alberg 30, which had been in production since 1962.

At rare times certain designers can be considered dominant in their genre. Think Doug Peterson in the early IOR days and Bruce Farr in later IOR days. This dominance seldom went outside that genre. You could argue that in Bruce Farr’s case. But when it comes to trailerable, folding trimarans for the past 25 years, maybe longer, Ian Farrier has totally dominated the scene. You think folding tri and you think Ian Farrier. It’s automatic. This has given Ian many years to slowly evolve a near-perfect product. I say “near perfect” because I’m sure Ian has more tricks to come and I don’t want to sound like I’m limiting his creativity. Are these good boats? Numbers don’t lie, not in this case. If that’s not enough for you I have sailed my buddy’s turbo F-27 several times and I can assure you that it is a most enjoyable and at times exciting ride. If you want to sail flat and fast you can’t beat one of Ian’s trimarans.

Owning this beauty is possible. Some people might have to buy a lottery ticket but you might just win. In which case your venerable Catalina 27 might begin to look a little on the small side. Don’t fret. Baltic has the answer for you in this impressive Judel/Vrolijk designed 67-footer.

In the 1960s, my wife and my mother were (briefly) sailing TV stars. That is only a mild exaggeration. They appeared on television, on Chicago’s NBC affiliate no less, and in those days that qualified you as at least a minor celebrity.

The Diam 24 One Design trimaran debuted in the U.S. market in Annapolis in October. Tucked away between larger, somewhat stoic sailboats, the Diam 24od seemed giddy, almost dancing as it tugged at the docklines. The layout is inviting and the boat seems to beckon passersby to step aboard.

The notion of ditching the job and house, buying a boat and sailing away to the tropics, across an ocean, or even around the world, is a fantasy that lurks in the mind of every sailor. Some actually follow their dreams and find a suitable boat and prepare it for serious sailing. Dreams collide with reality when it comes to the daunting task of route planning logistics, literally, “When to sail where?”  Timing the right seasons and prevailing winds for offshore passages with the need to avoid hurricanes and heavy weather requires a bit of forethought. 

For 30 years, sailors have escaped the clutches of Old Man Winter by heading south, to the southernmost point in the U.S.—Key West, Florida.

Dear Boat Doctor,I would like to share a loss of power issue I had on my Atomic 4 powered Cal 2-27. I have owned the boat for more than 30 years, and several years ago noticed a loss of power in headwinds and at higher rpm. It turned out it was a slipping forward clutch, which was easily fixed by tightening the clutch one notch. The 42-year-old engine runs strong now.