How-to

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

Last week I was in Kansas City at the Skills USA National Championship contest, this week I'm here in Minnesota at Best Buy's Geek Squad University training about 30 members of the Geek Squad team in the nuances of marine electrical systems. One of the... …Read More

Yesterday Yamaha Motors came out with some really sound advice regarding running their engines in the Gulf of Mexico, more specifically what to do if you find yourself running through an oil slick. As far as I'm concerned, their advice will work for j... …Read More

You can file your own “citizen scientist” reports on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster and contribute  information about what’s really happening down there. All you have to do is download the free iPhone app called “MoGo,” short for Mobile Gulf Observatory, from scientists at UMass Amherst. If you live in or are visiting [...] …Read More