So You Just Bought Your First Sailboat—Where Do You Begin?

Photo courtesy of Dianna Keen at These Days of Mine You’ve fantasized about it, you’ve looked, you’ve shopped around. You crawled in, under, and around a bunch of sailboats that other people wanted to get rid of. Finally, one grabbed your imagination more than any other. In your mind’s eye, you could see yourself as…

Read More

Quick and Simple DIY Turnbuckle Boots

This week’s project is one of the easiest you’ll ever do to your sailboat. There’s no epoxy, painting, drilling, wiring, or splicing involved. If you can saw through a piece of PVC pipe, you can do this job. Heck, this might be a good project for a junior crew member to work on their stingy sailor…

Read More

How to Rebuild an Outboard Motor Water Pump

If you’ve already read 15 Outboard Motor Maintenance Blind Spots You Can’t Afford to Miss and discovered that your outboard motor’s water pump (#7) is one of your maintenance blind spots, then this post is for you. It’s also for you if you didn’t read that article and you don’t have a clue how to…

Read More

Why Your Swing Keel Lock Bolt Won’t Save You in a Knockdown

If you spend much time around other C-22 owners or online C-22 forums, you’re bound to hear the following myth over and over. It goes something like this… The Catalina 22 uses a locking bolt to keep the keel down in case of a knock-down.

How to Rig a Cruising Spinnaker in 4 Stingy Stages

If you don’t have a spinnaker for your sailboat yet, aren’t you a little envious of those big, colorful, billowing sails you sometimes see at your favorite cruising spots? Nothing says, “Yeah, we’ve got this!” quite like a racing or cruising spinnaker. It’s as though the sailboat is puffing its chest out with confidence and…

Read More

Sew This Jib Sock to Protect Your Furled Headsails

If you install a cruising furler like I describe in Headsail Furlers For the Trailer Sailor and you don’t also add sacrificial cover strips to the leech and foot of your headsails, those edges of your sails will be constantly exposed to UV sunlight and the weather and will deteriorate much faster than the rest of…

Read More

Turn Those Chain Plate Bolts!

Do you have problems with your shroud turnbuckle T bolts or toggles binding or bending when you step your mast? If so, your chain plate bolts might not be rotated at the right angle for those parts to work the way they’re supposed to.

Is COVID-19 Keeping You Off The Water?

It’s still a little early here in the northwestern US but some brave skippers are beginning to go sailing. For you folks on the coasts and more to the south, the weather shouldn’t be keeping you off the water but the novel Corona virus outbreak might. Mrs. $tingy and I have been self isolating for…

Read More

Make this Easy and Elegant Wine Glass Rack

This project is sure to be a hit with the ladies. It’s easy to make, increases your storage capacity, and it adds a touch of class to any cabin. The glasses don’t slide around or clink together like other racks, even in rough sailing conditions or going down the road. The glasses are easy to…

Read More

Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 5: Installing

This post is the continuation of Refinish your swing keel for best performance – Part 4: Sealing and painting and the last post in the series. I describe: how to prepare the hull, tips for keeping the keel centered in the trunk, the proper method to tighten the hanger bolts, and end with a materials list and a…

Read More

Refinish Your Swing Keel for Best Performance – Part 4: Sealing and Painting

This post is the continuation of Refinish your swing keel for best performance – Part 3: Fairing. I will describe: building a fiberglass reinforced guard on the leading edge, applying the final waterproofing coats of epoxy, bonding centering spacers on the upper end, priming with a barrier coat of epoxy paint, and applying ablative bottom paint last.