What gear do we need for night passages? Dear Boat Doctor, My wife and I would like to do some longer distance passages, which will entail sailing overnight. We are a little nervous about it but e

Every spring we assemble our crew lists for the season and pack key sailing events into our best friend’s calendars. We draw a Venn diagram of teams to race on weeknights and weekends (since not eve

It is a bond that has linked sailors from time immemorial, bringing us joy and sorrow, triumph and tragedy, marked by hubris and humility, angst and obsession, success and failure, all with egalitaria

Features  Flares are expired. Now what? Igniting out-dated emergency flares could saddle sailors with stiff fines Back to Baja A cruising couple returns to the Sea of Cortez to fini

Features Seeing Neptune from sailing historyA passage on a 110-year-old classic summons memories and the occasional sea creatureBe a better sailor You know how to sail, now learn h

There are more ways to become a better sailor today than ever before. Sailing schools have zeroed in on sailing aspirations and optimized their programs to help existing sailors make them a reality. A

Thirty-one days into to what would be an 11,500-nautical-mile voyage, I found myself standing in front of Neptune and his court and chopped off my hair to chin length, tossing it in the wake of the 11

My client writes: “I’ve admired Bob Perry’s designs for years and in 2010 we were fortunate enough to have our own Valiant 42 built (sadly the last hull laid up). She has taken care of us for th

Sailing is haunted by a problem that, on its face, seems very easy to solve. Many owners have a hard time finding people to go sailing with them and sailors new to the sport have a hard time finding b

Tradition has it that a cruising boat should be heavy and slow to keep sailors safe and comfortable. But with advances in technology and design, boatbuilders have discovered that lightweight equals li

To a Bahamian, a sloop is a type of traditional workboat that morphed into a speedster raced for thrills and prize money. When Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stopped in Nassau dur

Help! My AIS is stuck in the supply chain Dear Boat Doctor, I have a complete Raymarine system in my boat, and I want to add AIS. Unfortunately, the supply chain for Raymarine AIS units is blocked

It was a beautiful morning and I was rowing our tender ashore to grab a Sunday paper. I like rowing, and the fiberglass tender is fun for rowing (unlike those baggy gray inflatables), and I didn’t w

Who’s the most famous sailor of all time? A few candidates in random order: Ferdinand Magellan, first circumnavigator. Joshua Slocum, first solo circumnavigator. James Cook, explorer, pioneering

Chartering isn’t always about lolling around at anchor in turquoise splendor. For avid racers, bareboat chartering offers a chance to enjoy competition in new and exciting venues, with fresh opponen

FeaturesPassage to Sweden A learn-to-sail offshore charter through the Baltic Sea fulfills a dream Racing the charter way Spice up a charter by throwing in some competitive fun 50 shades

Charter briefings—those meetings with charter base staff that help familiarize you with the boat and the cruising grounds—can feel like a hurdle that has to be overcome to get underway, but it’s

Dear Boat Doctor, I just bought a Hylas 46, and I am assessing my ground tackle. The boat came with 120 feet of 3/8-inch chain and a 55-pound Mantus anchor. Both seem a little undersized for the boat