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20 Articles

BOATER, Know THYSELF

A dear, longtime colleague of mine and revered naval architect, Dudley Dawson, once told me a great story about a rather eccentric neighbor of his. This neighbor was the consummate DIY boat owner and a penny-pincher to the core. He owned a 28-footer with a diesel inboard. When it was time to replace the old engine, rather than deal with the hassle and cost to have it professionally refitted at the local boatyard, he instead made the righteous decision to attempt the project himself—off his backyard seawall, with the help of a Bobcat skid-steer loader fitted with a boom. As Dudley tells it, the owner tied the boat to a couple of oak trees near the seawall, chained the old engine to the boom, and then lifted the engine neatly…

BOATER, Know THYSELF

A Grounding EXPERIENCE

I could smell the forest before I even opened my eyes. It was a sweet, woodsy smell with a heavy fragrance of wet earth. If I kept my eyes closed, I could easily have placed myself on the forest floor, surrounded by the refuse of the trees that were making their way to becoming soil. When I did open my eyes, I remembered that I was lying under anchor on board Triteia, my 1965 Alberg 30 sloop, in Kaneohe Bay, on the windward side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. I climbed out of my berth and started my morning routine: filled the kettle, lit the fire, and loaded up my stainless-steel French press with ground coffee. Out on deck, I looked toward the sea, and then toward land. The…

A Grounding EXPERIENCE

DON’T Paint; POLISH Instead

After spending back-to-back intervals of a couple of years with us living aboard between haulouts, the white hull of our 1978 Sabre 34 began to look a bit worse for wear. Oxidation on the gelcoat gave the boat a drab finish and, to make matters worse, try as we might to keep after it with scratch pads and detergents, a dull yellowish-orange stain clung to the area just above and below the boot stripe. In the winters, we kept the boat at a marina in Newport, Rhode Island, where we had ready access to fresh water and electricity, but come spring, work and weather often conspired to keep exterior maintenance to a minimum. Sure, we made feeble attempts to wash, wax, and use an electric buffer to polish up the…

DON’T Paint; POLISH Instead

Half the WORLD AHEAD

Their numbers are impressive: 45,000 miles, a couple dozen countries, islands too many to count, and 16 years with five to go before sailing completely around the world. A life’s accomplishment by any measure, with enough stories and pictures to fill a closetful of magazines. But when Sherry and Dave McCampbell talk about circumnavigating, what you more often hear is nitty-gritty — “all the mundane stuff for our visits anywhere to be fun and stress-free,” Sherry says. “If you don’t sweat the small stuff, it doesn’t get done.” Dave adds: “We plan ahead a lot. There are cruisers who say, ‘Oh, we just go.’ But I think you miss a lot if you do that. You end up in the wrong place, the wrong season, you get hit by weather…

Half the WORLD AHEAD

TACOS Any DAY, Any WAY

On Halcyon, our Valiant 40, my partner, Justin, and I eat tacos at least twice a week, sometimes more. Before the two of us met in Hawaii, I’d spent years sailing the world as cook and first mate aboard boats of all sizes, power and sail. I’d also sailed in the World ARC Rally, and earned my RYA Master and 100-ton US Coast Guard licenses. Justin, a fellow captain, shares my love of Mexican cuisine. We soon we discovered that we also shared a dream: sailing the world in our own boat. We found the Valiant 40 for sale in Tahiti. It needed work, but we knew how to do it, and the price for this Bob Perry-designed bluewater cruiser was low. In Tahiti, we spent time on the hard…

TACOS Any DAY, Any WAY

BLACKENED-FISH TACOS WITH PICO DE GALLO SALSA

For the salsa 3 Roma tomatoes or small local tomatoes, diced 1 Tbsp. jalapeño, diced (fresh or canned) ½ cup onion, diced Juice of one lime 2 tsp. sea salt ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped Seed tomatoes before dicing; if using fresh jalapeño, remove seeds. Combine all ingredients well, and let sit for 20 minutes to let the flavors develop. For the tacos 2 tsp. paprika 1 tsp. each: onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt (or simply substitute your favorite pre-made blackening spice mix) 1 pound mahimahi or other firm white fish Cooking oil, for frying 2 cups purple cabbage ¼ cup unsalted pumpkin seeds 1 tsp. sea salt 8 small soft flour or corn tortillas Makes 8 tacos Combine spices in a small bowl. Set…

BLACKENED-FISH TACOS WITH PICO DE GALLO SALSA

DABBLING in DIY: The Fatty Edition

I’m cheap but not chintzy. I believe that I can do really cool, really fun things on my boat (for pennies) that make it safer and more seaworthy than the expensive, gold-plated boat anchored next to mine. Plus, because I’ve almost never worked ashore, I whip up these cruising gizmos on a microbudget. Saving money on such projects—and being able to spend it while cruising the world—is really important to me. Example: stepping masts. I purchased my first vessel as a teenager in Chicago. It didn’t have a mast. When I finally managed to finagle a Sitka spruce spar, I couldn’t afford a crane to step it. Not a problem: I laid it on deck on sawhorses and drove my boat under the bridge at the Lake Shore Drive S-turns…

DABBLING in DIY: The Fatty Edition

BEST Saved for LAST

Speaking on behalf of the 2023 Boat of the Year team, I can say none of us could have predicted a better grand finale to our multiple days of sea trials that immediately followed the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Maryland, this past October. With 17 boats in the hunt for honors, we lucked out with two days of blue skies and honking northerlies, followed by a windshift to the south that picked up where the previous breezes left off. It was the first time I can remember when every entry enjoyed such generosity from the Chesapeake wind gods. And by the time we boarded our last vessel—the handsome and rugged Tartan 365—along with designer Tim Jackett, the whitecap-covered bay was the ideal venue for a performance cruiser to,…

BEST Saved for LAST

WHEN Worlds COLLIDE

In the ongoing history of production-yacht construction, one of the more astonishing lists covers what seemed like iconic, top-notch sailboat brands—Little Harbor, Alden, Valiant and Tayana, to name a few—that have simply ceased to exist. But then there’s the story of shipyards such as Sweden’s Hallberg-Rassy, named for the founding boatbuilders Harry Hallberg and Christoph Rassy. In one iteration or another, it’s been knocking out boats for 80 years now. After splashing nearly 10,000 yachts, it shows no signs of slowing. There are lots of reasons for this longevity, a major one being that once a sailor has owned a Hallberg-Rassy, at some point he or she will likely trade up or down for another one. Quality, after all, begets quality, and it’s a testament to the brand that there…

WHEN Worlds COLLIDE

A GOOD BIT OF EVERYTHING

If there was one thing we’d learned in our first couple of weeks in Costa Rica, it was that the country is absolutely brimming with life. All kinds of life, in all kinds of places. Our water tanks, for example, were being colonized by disconcerting white algae that had taken hold in the tropical climate. Black-and-white mold speckled the bottoms of cushions, the edges of books, and the damp corners into which breezes rarely ventured. On one memorable evening, as the last of the day’s sun diffused across the hazy horizon following an incredibly torrential downpour, a fledge of termites descended and covered the just-rinsed decks in a disgusting layer of insect paraphernalia. They dropped into the boat through the open hatches until we gave up and closed everything. We…

A GOOD BIT OF EVERYTHING

WEATHER AND SAILING CONDITIONS

Costa Rica’s Pacific coast has two distinct seasons: dry, from December to May; and rainy, from June to November. The driest weather is in Guanacaste province in the north, and the rainiest part of the country is the Osa Peninsula. During the dry season, there will be more-consistent wind for cruising, but the country is affected by the Papagayo gap winds: strong, intermittent northeasterly winds that commonly blow 30 or 40 knots, with gusts up to double the forecast windspeed. They are strongest from December through March, when the northeast trade winds are at their height in the Caribbean. To sail through the Papagayos, follow the shoreline carefully to avoid the fetch that builds farther out to sea. During the rainy season, winds tend to be light. Take advantage of the…

WEATHER AND SAILING CONDITIONS

Totem’s 40-Year Refit

As a fellow cruiser gazed around the torn-up main cabin of our 1982 Stevens 47, Totem, his eyes grew wide. He asked a head-scratcher: “Why?” Why not buy a newer sailboat? Why take on so much work? Why not be anchored at a remote Pacific Island right now instead of dry-docked in a dusty shipyard? Because this boat—our home of 15 years through dozens of countries along a path around Earth, classroom for our three children, magic carpet to unimaginable experiences—is our Totem. Named as an homage to our home waters in the Pacific Northwest, the tribute became our truth. Totem is as much a symbol as a safe conveyance for our family. This boat has cared for us, and we now care for it, with a refit centered on…

Totem’s 40-Year Refit

Galley Upgrades

While every cabin on Totem is part of the refit, changes to the galley crept up on us. At first, we focused entirely on nondiscretionary needs. The Force 10 we installed in 2007 was on its last legs, and was not practically repairable. The laminate countertop installed in 2014 in Thailand was wearing through enough to expose particleboard—that had to go. Jamie fell through dry-rotted stringers under the sole—looks like that would have to be replaced! Discretionary updates crept in, easily justified. The new stove’s geometry would let us reclaim precious inches of workspace at the forward end by rebuilding a cabinet, turning it from skinny to functional. Then, when pulling off the laminate—why not just pull the whole countertop and reimagine a better use of the storage spaces below?…

Galley Upgrades

A Paean to Sanding

It’s ironic that making Totem better requires removing so much of Totem in a slow, agonizing process. I’m referring to sanding. I hate sanding. I recall learning this as a 7-year-old kid; sandpaper wrapped around the wooden block, cleaning the gunwales of an old wooden skiff in my backyard. At 13, I rebuilt the centerboard trunk on my Enterprise-class sailing dinghy and produced an astonishing quantity of dust. My summer job at age 18 was preparing boats in a shipyard for spring launch in Mystic, Connecticut. Wet sanding bottom paint is a grueling, messy business. Almost four decades later, this refit on Totem is one epic, tedious, awful sanding event. Countless coarse 60- and 80-grit sander disks, cut through rough surfaces. An eternity of 120-grit sheets. When the dust settled,…

1 BARRIER TO ENTRY

DIY PROJECTS Nighty-night. Hope the bugs don’t bite.” My parents used this rhyme to tuck me into bed each night. I used it with my own children. It is particularly pertinent on a boat, because there’s nothing more annoying than a mosquito buzzing around in a dark cabin, and the moment you switch on a light in the hope of squashing it, it vanishes into some small cranny—until you switch off the light again. It’s also not really ideal to spray a small cabin with insect repellent because you might be the one who gets repelled. The answer is to have bug screens covering all openings, particularly portlights and hatches, which you might want to open all night for ventilation. Most portlight manufacturers make mesh screens that fit their portholes.…

1 BARRIER TO ENTRY

2 ADJUSTMENT PERIOD

The mainsheet on our new Sabre 30 didn’t look right. It was the middle of a hot, airless July week. We’d bought the boat barely a month earlier, and now we were attempting to get it from New Jersey to Maine. Because of the lack of wind, the mainsail sagged as we motored up Long Island Sound. I had plenty of time to look at Ora Kali’s boom but not a lot of incentive to solve any problems. Then one day, we were tied to a mooring in the harbor at Scituate, Massachusetts, cheek by jowl with another Sabre 30. Wow, I realized: Our block-and-tackle arrangement is just wrong. The weight of the boom and pressure on the mainsail on a small boat are light enough that the connection between…

2 ADJUSTMENT PERIOD

3 RESCUING A DROWNED ENGINE

MONTHLY MAINTENANCE Most propulsion engines (and gensets) on sailboats are located at or below the waterline, making them ripe for seawater flooding, which can occur for one of three reasons. First, the engine is not installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. This can allow a siphon to develop, fill the exhaust, and then flood the engine’s cylinders. When the engine is idle, a bad installation also can push in water through the exhaust discharge in a following sea, and from there through open exhaust valves and into the cylinders. Second, an anti-siphon valve malfunctions. Or third, the engine is cranked excessively while bleeding the fuel system. With each revolution, the raw-water pump moves a small amount of seawater into the exhaust system, which eventually overflows back into the engine…

3 RESCUING A DROWNED ENGINE

BETTER Together

For some reason, flotilla charters seem to have a stigma attached to them, especially among experienced bareboat charter skippers. “I don’t want to be led through the islands like a string of rubber duckies,” one sailor says. Another says: “I want the freedom to run my own boat, sleep late when I want, and stop for a snorkel.” Yet another: “Flotilla charters are just for beginners, and I don’t want to be slowed down.” Those are three common misunderstandings that have kept flotilla charters from being as popular with North American charterers as they are with Europeans, who embrace flotillas as a great vacation choice. The very word, flotilla, seems vaguely military and suggests a group of boats being herded along by a mothership. Nothing could be further from the…

BETTER Together

2018 PASSPORT 545 CENTER COCKPIT “Solitude” Solitude is a sunning yacht designed for easy and safe cruising. With her self-tacking jib, Solent sail plan with all sails being roller furling and electrically assisted she is a dream to sail. She has two large staterooms, each with island berths and private in suite heads with separate stall showers offering a comfortable experience aboard. Top that off with a large galley any gourmet cook would be proud of and a main salon with seating for six and a walk-in engine room and you have a recopy for a great adventure aboard. Of course cruising in style wouldn’t be complete without ALL of the amenities of a self-contained and self-sufficient yacht, and Solitude has them all. You can view this spectacular Passport Vista…

Outer AMBITIONS

The breeze was pumping off the tidy anchorage of Anse Marcel on the French side of the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin, where a dozen multihulls were hoisting their sails and prepping for a fast reach across the roiling Anguilla Channel. It was the second day of the inaugural rally component of the annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge. With a singular exception, the fleet was composed of performance catamarans from builders such as Balance and Lagoon, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the slick graphics and sleek lines of the lone trimaran in the fray, a Neel 45 called Panda Rosso. The boat was one thing, but I was actually more interested in the young couple sailing it, Darren and Amanda Seltzer. We’d met the previous summer when chance, and a…

Outer AMBITIONS

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