The Penny-Pinching PhD Sailor
For more than 30 years, Practical Sailor has provided serious sailors and DIY boat owners an unbiased source of evaluations. We've done our best...
Inspecting Rivets and Screws for Trouble
Drew Fry
One of the interesting conclusions from our testing was the surprising strength among all of the test fasteners when loaded in the shear....
Mailport: Tourniquets at Sea
Tourniquets at Sea
Anthony Foglio
I'm an emergency medical technician with a local volunteer fire company and wanted to comment on your recent Inside PS blog...
High-Tech Anchor Rode
My primary anchor is a big hunk of steel on an all-chain rode, handled by a windlass. Secure in all bottoms, idiot proof, easy...
Fenders and Lines for Seawalls
To the lubber, tying-up to a bulkhead seems like the simplest of all docking situations. Perhaps with floating docks this is true. You just...
Dodging a Bullet When Caught on Bulkhead
The following is aimed primarily at boats that are unable to leave an alongside dock or bulkhead before wind and seas become dangerous. Any...
Make Your Own Rugged Fender Boards
We described a simple home-built version several years ago (Practical Sailor, December 2011); here we present a few simple upgrades on the same basic...
Make A Tie-down Strop
After hundreds of years of seafaring, there shouldn't be any new rope tricks. Then new high-strength materials like Amsteel came along, suggesting new applications...
DIY Fishing Gear for Sailors
We reviewed clamp-on rod holders a few years in the past, but found them expensive (see PS October 2006). Fortunately, there are alternatives that...
Simple Sail Repair
Often an old sail won't hold stitches, and some sailors hate to sew. A number of products proved strong enough and flexible enough to...
Jeanneau Yachts 65 Full Tour and Review
Choosing between a monohull and catamaran was already hard, but Jeanneau just made it even harder. The new Jeanneau Yachts 65 is a monumental...
Latest Sailboat Review
Beneteau 40.7 Used Boat Review
Beneteau began building boats in France in 1884 when Beneteau opened shop for the purpose of constructing trawlers at Croix-de-Vie. Eighty years later, under...