A friend finally threw in the towel after more than 12 excruciating hours in a doublehanded race sailed in a windless void so persistent that 80% of the fleet dropped out. He and his mate furled
This magazine has reached another milestone, or waypoint if you wish, and that requires a genuflection at the altar of technology.
Technology has taken SAILING to the point where, on its 55th anniver
I have nothing against the decadently plush accommodations flaunted by many of today’s monohulled and multihulled cruising boats. In fact, I am delighted to sail in their laps of luxury when cr
New ESCAPE 75. First customer is TNZ.”
That was the headline above two photos that appeared on a Facebook page last fall. One of the pictures was of the just-launched 75-foot Team New Zealand Ameri
Here’s a tip for productive use of that surplus time made available by pandemic protocols: Dive into your repository of disused sailing clutter and excavate your old loran receiver. You might need i
We used to publish “green issues” of SAILING. The theme of these special issues was protecting the water and air in which we sail. A cover line on the 2011 green issue read: “Save the sea: What
It’s blowing like stink.
It’s blowing a hooley.
It’s blowing dogs off chains.
Anyway you want to say it, the breeze is up.
The world and its waters are getting windier.
Increases in t
I’m not qualified to fly an F-16 at Mach 2 (or any other speed) or climb El Capitan solo without a rope (or any other way), so I’ve had to find other outlets for occasional doses of adrenaline. On
While being mildly entertained reading a novel titled “North of Havana,” one of Randy Wayne White’s water-based Florida capers, I bumped into this profound observation by the author: “It’s o
When the coronavirus started taking over the dry-land world, I started planning my escape. It would be on sailboat, of course. The First Mate and I would depart these troubled sho
I never could get the hang of birdwatching, which is all about seeing and identifying avians and making copious notes about the sightings in something called a life list. I did once manage to rec
I came across an old photograph the other day and was carried away by a wave of nostalgia.
It was a photo of a person engaged in spinnaker flying. I don’t mean flying a spinnaker, as in settin
I remember my distress when I was introduced to Old Devil Hull Speed.
I was just getting into offshore racing, working at being a semi-competent bowman, and I was gung-ho for speed. I read every
Folks who enter the rustic confines of our family’s beach cottage are greeted by a small display of sailing heirlooms including a color photograph of me at a barely-adult age along with two older, m
Why do people climb a dangerous mountain? That’s easy. We know the answer because George Mallory gave it to us in three words in 1923, one year before his life ended on Mount Everest.
Why do peopl
I read car magazines with interest and envy.
Interest because, as a semi-reformed sports car buff, my clutch-foot still twitches when I read about high-performance automobiles.
Envy
Among the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve written in pursuit of my calling as an ink-stained wretch, I can’t think of any combination of them that has achieved the status of a deathless phrase
Back at the dock after Saturday afternoon racing, the boat was shipshape, the genoa folded and in its turtle bag, two spinnakers repacked, the mainsail neatly flaked and under its cover and the crew r
I hope I’m not too agitated to write my usual dignified publisher’s column, but I have to admit to being in an awestruck state of amazement and bedazzlement. I just read a news release about
On any given day in 2019, the average person in a supermarket checkout line knows more about the weather than I did when I set off on my first cruise in my first cruising-racing sailboat.
Americans a