Dirt-cheap Winter Insulation for Liveaboards
Insulation is a greater energy-saving expedient; if our heater or air conditioner is undersized, fixing drafts, shading or insulating windows, and insulating non-cored laminate...
Test Compares Insulation Below Waterline
The following is the test protocol for our report on cost-effective insulation for boats.
First, we set up an R-value test rig, exposing sample materials...
AWAB, ABA Top Long-term Test
What We TestedThe test field included clamps from Shields, ABA, Murray, AWAB, Breeze, American Valve, Ideal/Tridon, Trident, Koehler, and Norton. We tested sizes 28...
Installation Best Practices for Fuel Systems
The Coast Guard and the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) have worked together to develop general installation guidelines for the carbon canisters required...
Diesel Tank Vent Filters
Over the last two years, Practical Sailor has dug deeply into ways to keep gasoline and diesel fuel tanks healthy. Weve investigated ethanol phase...
Diesel Fuel System Maintenance Best Practices
Dont look to tank vent filters and fuel additives to solve real fuel-system problems. They are only ancillaries to regular fuel system-management and maintenance,...
Keeping Fuel, Water in their Place
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Yacht and Boat Council (AYBC) are requiring devices that prevent foam and splash during fueling and...
Dehumidifier Field Tests
Dampness and boating seem to go together like picnics and ants- not dangerous but certainly irksome. We recently tested desiccan't driers (PS, November 2012)...
High and Dry for Winter Storage
Fresh Step CrystalsFresh Step Crystals is a very specific type of cat litter. It is made of the same adsorbent that powers H2Out and...
Ventilation Can be Improved in Almost Any Boat
Fresh air and a dry berth are two “rare," commodities in the belowdecks caverns of most boats. On deck you may be surrounded by...
A Rival for Island Packet, Made in China – Outbound 46...
Like Kraken Yachts and some Passport sailboats, Outbound Yachts are made in China. It's heavy like an Island Packet, but fast like a Beneteau....
Latest Sailboat Review
Grampian 26 Used Boat Review
The first fiberglass auxiliary sailboats were built in the late 1950s; for the record, the first was the 40-foot Philip Rhodes-designed Bounty II (1956),...