If you leave your sailboat exposed to the elements for long periods of time or if you just want to keep your brightwork bright, it helps to cover the main hatch to reduce damage from UV rays, rain and snow, and bird droppings. Making one isn’t hard and you can do it in less than…
Category: Cockpit/stern
Add More Cockpit Seating With DIY Stern Perch Seats
Small sailboats don’t offer a lot of seating options in the cockpit. Four adults are about the maximum that will leave room for the skipper to work the helm. For casual cruising, that means everyone is in the cockpit, not hiking out on the coamings or side decks. Most sailboats will accommodate six in the cockpit while…
Make This Simple, Low-Cost Tiller Lock
If you don’t have a locking mechanism on your tiller yet, don’t you sometimes wish you did? Then you could lock the tiller in place while you attend to other things for a few minutes or under the right conditions, relax and let the boat sail itself. A tiller lock is the next best thing…
Make These DIY Cockpit Scupper Grates
I have a serious mental condition known as OCD, Obsessive Compulsive DIY syndrome. I see something that needs fixed or replaced and I ask myself, “How can I make that?” The other night, I had an OCD attack and I just needed to go out in my shop and make something with my hands. It…
How to Add Coachwhipping to Your Tiller Handle
Want to add a decorative grip to the handle of your tiller? It’s not hard to do in a couple of hours and almost free with a few scraps of canvas and/or cord you may have lying around. Coachwhipping is one of those little touches you can add to your sailboat to give it a more…
How to Install a Tiller Lock
When we purchased Summer Dream, the only tiller control accessory she had was a contraption made with two pieces of shock cord joined in the middle with two wooden beads that formed an eye. It had hooks on the ends that could be attached to the pushpit stanchions. When the tiller handle is in the eye,…
Make this Simple Winch Handle Holder
The idea for this little solution came to me as I was making the crib board storage solution. The width of the vinyl channel that I fabricated for that project makes for a tension fit with a winch handle.
DIY Rail Mounts for Your Portable BBQ Grill
It amazes me how expensive boat grills and their accessories are. Of all the boating gear, they are the boat jewelry: glittering polished stainless steel grills, covers, and ridiculously priced mounting hardware for every conceivable configuration. But they don’t make the food taste any better. It must be big money for the manufacturers, knowing how much…
How to Replace Worn Tiller Bushings
While I was doing my How To Repair and Restore a Rudder project, I noticed that the tiller bushings were worn and loose. At the time, I hoped they would last the season until I figured out how best to replace them. That was wishful thinking. While putting Summer Dance in the water for our last cruise, one…
The $tingy Sailor 