How-to

Hella just announced that several of their LED lights have been certified to meet Ignition Portection requirements as set forth by international requirements. This solves a problem that has been on-going for some time, finding compliant lighting for en... …Read More

Renting an EPIRB from BoatU.S. for the occasional offshore passage might just save your life; like it did for these three sailors off the coast of northern California. Check out the video for the dramatic Coast Guard rescue. …Read More

Xantrex just added a new 60 amp rated battery charger to it's already successful TRUECharge2  line-up. This is timely as folks keep adding to their battery capacity on board; bigger battery banks need bigger battery chargers and the new TRUECharge2 60... …Read More

The Silverton nonskid and gelcoat redo is finally complete. The best way to see how this came out is probably to look at some before and after photos. As for the method used, as I said yesterday, the perimeter of the areas to be refinished had been mas... …Read More

I've been on the road for the last several weeks and unable to track our nonskid and gelcoat repair project. But, in my absence, I had some photos taken to track the progress and now I'm back at the yard. We left off in part 4 with gelcoat Jim sanding... …Read More

Here’s something a lot of boaters don’t realize: When your boat breaks down and you call a fee-for-service tow company, they start charging you the minute they leave port to come find you—and they keep charging you long after they’ve actually towed you, until their own boat has returned to port. These charges can average $250 [...] …Read More

Happy July 4th weekend to all! This weekend is probably one of the busiest boating weekends in the US. Just about everyone that owns a boat is going to give it their best shot to get out on the boat for at least part of the weekend if not the whole wee... …Read More

How to avoid summer storms when aboard your PWC or boat …Read More

The problem: The wind will carry you Dead Down Wind, but DDW is slow. DDW is especially “slow” in a fast race boat sailing against similar boats that are using narrower wind angles to generate more apparent wind and additional speed. But would it be possible to create a contraption that captures the wind and uses [...] …Read More

 Is a power cat good in a head sea? Someone asked me that question lately, and my eyebrows hit the ceiling—how could one even ask? Running in a head sea is the situation in which a cat shines, and anyone who’s been aboard one for any extended period of time knows it. Just look at a cat’s [...] …Read More