Course chart (Open link, click on pins for noon logs): https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zS4_qGkiBS8k.ktYmkzLT_ZnA
This summer's 6,000-mile cruise to Kaua'i gives an insight into wear and tear on a boat over time. I was 48 days at sea--20 out, 28 for the return--sailing...
Tomorrow I depart Marina del Rey for Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii. I am sailing solo, and looking for a passage of 22-25 days--or better, of course. The GC course is 2200NM, or 2500 statute miles.
Thanks to all who have helped me in the preparation of Thelonious for this voyage. Should things...
Fuel jugs appear on deck when a cruiser needs the option to motor past his tank capacity. For the 32-3, that's 22 gallons, or 200 miles. The four 5-gallon containers shown roughly double the cruising range to 400 miles or so.
They're slippery plastic, however, and with only one handle there's...
A good dinghy needs to serve many masters. I have no inflatable or outboard. No emergency life raft, either. So my 60-pound mahogany plywood Eastport pram needs to be a jack of all trades--sailboat, tender and one-man lifeboat. I wouldn't give it up, but the little pram does have limitations...
Weather cloths, fabric barriers to spray and wind that surround the cockpit, are simple enough to make and fit.
They have a proud history in the ranks of the early long-distance cruisers, generally with the yacht's name writ large so as to be observed and reported by steamers in the days before...
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The external regulator is mounted on the bulkhead, outside the engine compartment. The new Balmar alternator is white, to make you feel special.
The issue is power. How much electricity do you need on board, and for how long, before reattaching to...
A 12-minute demonstration video is here:
Self-steering vanes are hard to compare, since boat hull and steering characteristics can be very different. So in the end I choose one that I thought looked proportionally right for the stern of the Ericson 32-3: the 2014 Sailomat 800.
Stellan Knoos...
The invitingly large locker under the port helm seat of the 32-3 is a natural place to store the sail cover and other canvas that comes off for sailing. It will also fit a stern anchor and line, fishing poles, a case of beer, 200 old issues of National Geographic, a trombone and the wig you...
What was it like? The idyllic weeks of the Admiral's Cup, Cherbourg rising out of the mist, the beer tent aflame, the violent international competition on the howling Solent, the gradual bonding day by day of a big-boat crew headed, although they didn't know it yet, into a depression so violent...
Symptom: Water in the bilge after returning to slip. Bilge is normally dry.
Cause: Rudder packing gland/rudder tube/frozen lower grease fitting.
There should not be much water in the bilge of a fiberglass boat. I figure that with a dripless shaft seal, there shouldn't be any at all. But there...
One way for a boat owner to look at his yacht engine, when neither a diesel mechanic or master electrician, is as something to look at. We know at a glance if a boat is fast or seaworthy without being naval architects. We can conclude in a moment, even from a distance, if a suit of sails is...
Why bother?
Well, twice last year my M25 diesel wouldn't start up again after being turned off. I could jump the solenoid with a screwdriver--if there was someone in the cockpit to hold down the paired glow plug and starter buttons. When it happened singlehanded I had to sail into the slip...
I had no issue with where Ericson chose to store the whisker pole, which locks nicely into cast aluminum brackets on the starboard deck. But since the first day my size 13 feet had complained bitterly about it. My feet claimed that it was difficult to move forward without tripping over each...
It's pretty easy to see if the three glow plugs of the M25 engine are working. Push the button, then feel the plugs on the engine block. They should be hot or at least warm. Two of mine were cold. Replacements [NGK Y103K Sold by Amazon.com LLC] are only about $7 each. [This isn't a very reliable...
A yacht distribution panel that is a bad hair day from the 1980s is easy to ignore if the boat electronics sort of work. When I changed stereos last year I just crimped and crammed the new wires in. Then a few months later came a new GPS. Soon I was wiring in a wheel pilot, and noticing that my...
Every wire was now crudely identified. There were shiny new Blue Sea bus bars and connector strips to mount, so I cut pieces of half-inch marine plywood, painted it white to increase visibiity, and screwed it to a batten against the bare hull inside the panel. That made mounting gear and wire...
Reversing the main hatch (factory installation Lewmar "Superhatch" shown above) is a popular modification to avoid conflict with the boom vang.
Getting the frame unseated took a while, using gentle prying with putty knives and screwdrivers. The bedding...
This video is one minute of sailing versus five months of boat work. A familiar ratio? Why do we do this? Why, while grinning along with spray flying, does the mind...
Do you seldom or never convert the settee to a double berth? Is your factory saloon table difficult to slide under? Is the cockpit table a PITA, even for sandwiches made of pita?
In my case the answer was “yes” three times. So I adapted the heavy teak cockpit table for use belowdecks, and put...