Charter: Sailing by Instinct
Sail Magazine
by Zuzana Prochazka
23h ago
Shroud Cay in the Bahamas is one of those places where using all of your senses to navigate will help keep you out of mischief. Photo by Zuzana Prochazka We had stopped to snorkel at Cayo Sal in Cuba, and I grabbed my mask and fins to check on the anchor. This weather-beaten, low-lying island was a great example of sketchy charts and missing markers. Within feet of our hook were the remains of a 60-foot mast with the rigging wire still attached. I swam farther and found odd bits of fiberglass and then finally a rusty submerged metal boat that was clearly from a different wreck at a different t ..read more
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Boat Review: Beneteau Oceanis 37.1
Sail Magazine
by Zuzana Prochazka
23h ago
Under a code zero, the Oceanis 37.1 leaps through the water. Photo: Beneteau I could feel the boat find her groove and settle in at 7.2 knots on a beam reach with the code zero flying. It was a crisp autumn day on Chesapeake Bay and we were hauling the mail with one finger on the wheel and twin rudders gripping below the waterline. This was the kind of sailing I could do all day. Our test boat was hull No. 3 of the Beneteau Oceanis 37.1, the newest model and the seventh in the Oceanis “.1” line. It replaces the very popular 38.1 of which 900 hulls were launched, so she has big shoes ..read more
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Cruising: Sailing Without a Destination
Sail Magazine
by Webb Chiles
4d ago
Webb takes in the beauty of the place where he feels most at home.  Photo: Webb Chiles I woke at 5:30 on a Friday morning to the sound of rain on the deck. I was on the port pipe berth of my Moore 24, Gannet, anchored in 60 feet of water 13 miles off South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island where I live. We had anchored under a full moon in dying wind at 9:30 the previous night. My ePropulsion electric outboard does not have a 13-mile range, and we weren’t going to make Port Royal Sound at the island’s north end unless I was willing to stay awake all night, which I wasn’t. The barome ..read more
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Shorthanded Sailing: The Case for Simplicity
Sail Magazine
by Adam Cove, SAIL Technical Editor
1w ago
Ben-Varrey powers on under the 90% jib. Note the hank-on headsail, rather than roller furling.  Photo: Adam Cove It was half past midnight and the wind had been building for the last few hours. We had left the west coast of Puerto Rico the previous morning, sailing off anchor and through the cut, and now were blasting towards the Turks and Caicos. It had been a slow start out of Puerto Real. The mountains of Puerto Rico reach 4,390 feet, and we felt the wind shadow even 20 nautical miles out. Fully exposed now to the trade winds, we were also experiencing the forecast system th ..read more
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Tom Cunliffe's Cruising Tips
Sail Magazine
by Tom Cunliffe
1w ago
A Clean Bottom and No Burglars Hoisting the dinghy on the hip overnight pays off. Photo: Tom Cunliffe Nighttime dinghy theft is a major issue in the Caribbean. Even in parts of the United States it is growing in popularity as outboard values surge and mini-RIBs are ever-more tempting to the marauding pirates. Davits are one solution, but for those of us who don’t have them, an attractive answer is to hoist the small boat to deck level in the evening. It will have a hoisting strop anyway for bringing it aboard to go to sea, so hook this to the main halyard, wind it up to the guardrail ..read more
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Racing Gipsy Moth II With Francis Chichester
Sail Magazine
by Alan Nicol, CBE
1w ago
Editor’s Note: In 1956, Alan Nicol—nicknamed “Stormy” for the weather he seemed to attract—was Francis Chichester’s main crew on Gipsy Moth II, sailing with Chichester in the decade before he completed his famous circumnavigation in Gipsy Moth IV in 1966 (and became Sir Francis). At 24 feet LWL and carrying 540 square feet of sail, Gipsy Moth II was “an extravagance that gave [Chichester] great pleasure,” according to Anita Leslie’s Chichester biography. He converted her from a sloop to cutter and revamped the interior to accommodate a racing crew of five. “Francis liked to experiment, and he ..read more
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Cruising Destination: Maupiha’a Island
Sail Magazine
by Kia Koropp
1w ago
Atea at anchor off one of the smaller islets of Maupiha’a. Photo by Kia Koropp When they think about the Society Islands, most sailors likely conjure the most famous of this French Polynesian group—Tahiti, Bora Bora, perhaps Moorea—the stuff that cruising dreams are made of. But from the moment we shimmied our 50-foot steel cutter, Atea, through the narrow, challenging entry of Maupiha’a, we knew we had found something special. Supremely isolated, with only handful of residents and not even a regular supply ship, this fragment of land, just 1.5 square miles in size, reminds me of the last gift ..read more
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A Spring Commissioning Checklist
Sail Magazine
by Christopher Birch
1w ago
Prepping the bottom for painting is one of the most obvious jobs before launch, but even it falls into a logical order of operations. Photo: Christopher Birch It’s March, and if you’re like most sailors who’ve had to put their beloveds away for the winter, you’re champing at the bit to get down to the boatyard and spring her from the cold season’s confines. It’s understandable, but what you really need to do is slow down before you leap excitedly into the spring commissioning process. During my career at my Boston-based marine service business, Birch Marine, I shepherded thousands of ..read more
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Sailing Stories: Peter Harken
Sail Magazine
by Wendy Mitman Clarke SAIL Editor-in-Chief
2w ago
Peter Harken enjoys keeping up with the latest equipment and processes that keep Harken Inc. humming.  Photo courtesy of Harken Inc. Peter Harken needs little introduction in the world of sailing. With his brother, Olaf, he started a shoestring business building collegiate and Olympic class dinghies (Vanguard Boats) in Wisconsin in 1968, which evolved into Harken Yacht Equipment after Peter created a new type of ball bearing block that changed the game when it came to trimming. The rest is sailing industry history. Today, Harken Inc.’s wide range of deck hardware, hydraulics ..read more
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Windelo 50, Top 10 Best Boats 2025 Nominee
Sail Magazine
by SAIL Editors
2w ago
The new Windelo 50, which made its U.S. debut in February at the Miami International Boat Show, is an updated version of an earlier launch (2021) that is working to maximize the environmentally sustainable focus of its propulsion and power generating systems, build materials, and sailing performance. Let’s start with building materials. Windelo uses basalt fiber (fabricated from volcanic rock), rather than traditional fiberglass. Gautier Kauffmann, co-founder, says that basalt requires less resin than other alternative fibers like flax, and less resin means a lighter boat: “Lighter means less ..read more
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