Talk to sailors who cruised the British Virgin Islands back in the 1970s and you’ll hear about remote anchorages with no other boats in sight, pristine beaches void of people and a quiet natural beauty that nourished the soul. By the time Twe chartered there for the first time in 2004, the lovely islands had morphed into something different, not better or worse, merely changed by controlled real estate development and a growing number of residents and boats. The BVI, which remains one of our favorite sailing destinations, had become, in a word, commercialized.

It is quite common to hear that proper mainsail trim and setup is only important to those who are racing or trying to go fast. The reality is it is important for everyone. It provides an avenue for th

Dear Boat Doctor,I am having a problem with a black water smell in the bilge. Well at least I am pretty sure it’s a black water smell, I don’t really know. Do you some ideas how I can diagnose my

They had traveled 750 miles by sea, convinced themselves that they had blown their lead when they had to stop to deal with a log jammed under the boat and worked their legs as much as their brains and yet, as the team of seven woman approached the finish to what is one of the most unusual and captivating races in the world, they damn near missed it.

Hello, my name is Chris. I’m a charterholic. It’s been four months and 12 days since my last bareboat charter.” Whoops, wrong meeting. Or maybe not. If you’re reading this, you might be a char

Features  Modern day Spanish Armada Rollicking sailing, sublime beaches and new friendships are found on a flotilla charter off Mallorca Cruising back in time Solitude and untou

 He tells us in one of his sailing ditties that he’s the son of a son of a sailor. But he’s more than that—he’s a sailor himself. His latest sailboat graced the cover of the July/August issue of SAILING in a photograph of a turquoise-hulled 50-footer named Drifter carving a frothy white wake through turquoise Caribbean water. Yes, Jimmy Buffett is one of us. Schedule

David Thoreson has sailed all over the world, more than 70,000 bluewater miles. But his favorite place to sail is small cluster of lakes tucked in the nation’s heartland known as Okoboji.  “

The myth that one-design racing produces cut-throat competition doesn’t apply to these classic classes. Head to any of the winter circuit regattas, weeknight races or even the national and world championships and you will find a atmosphere that is more like a family reunion than hard-core battle. Built on the philosophy that sailing is better with friends, and that lending a hand with tuning or rigging tips, these one-design classes are bringing new sailors into the sport with “more-the-merrier” attitudes. 

Features  19 Modern day Spanish Armada          Rollicking sailing, sublime beaches and  new friendships are found on a flotilla charter off Mallorca

There’s a freedom that comes with trailerable boats, whether dinghies, small keelboats or powerboats. Your next adventure is just a highway away. But first you have to get there. But that’s not to

I  have been following the design work of John Welsford for some time now. His SCAMP design caught my attention and it has become quite a popular class in the Pacific Northwest. It’s hard not to like pocket-cruisers but so many of them appear to me to be “toy boats” and not the kind of boat I would want to sail. John’s designs escape this type and are capable little vessels that perform well and are aesthetically very satisfying. I pestered John for one of his designs to review and he finally broke down and sent me the drawings for his Pelegrin 17-footer. John’s designs are aimed at the home builder so design details are simple but effective.

I have been aware of the Dufour line of boats for longer than I can remember. I even sailed a Chicago-Mackinac race 44 years ago on a Dufour Arpege. We were the slowest boat in the race. But that’s another story. This new Dufour, an Umberto Felci design, is a great example of the extreme proportions that Europeans are using in order to get maximum accommodations into a given LOA.

This new boat from designer Ted Fontaine and built by Pacific Seacraft in North Carolina has been getting a lot of attention lately. This could be due to the fact that hull No. 1 was built for singer

 How do I fix a failed fiberglass repair? Dear Boat Doctor, I need some advice on a failing fiberglass repair at my keel stub joint. There is a crack that appears to be the result of repair tha

 You may be familiar with the concept of the sailing timeshare, that is, fractional sailboat ownership in order to be able to sail for a few weeks a year in an idyllic place like the tropics. A f

I witnessed an enormous spinnaker acting like a parachute-type sea anchor built for a battleship being pulled through the water on a kite string by a sailboat driven by strong wind and big waves.

Features  24 To Land’s End in a little boat One man’s quest to sail around every offshore lighthouse in Britain leads to big adventures in little boats 36 Touch of class One-design clas