If you’ve already been sailing for a while on a friend’s or a family member’s sailboat, then you probably have a good idea of what you want and what to look for. But if you’re relatively new to the sport and shopping for your first used sailboat, it can be a daunting task. There are a lot of used sailboats on the market and their condition runs from one extreme to the other, with corresponding price tags.

How do you know what to avoid that can cost you dearly to repair? What is reasonable to expect for an aging sailboat? And what marks a well-preserved pocket yacht?

One of the biggest challenges that I read about in the many emails that I receive from subscribers is finding time to work on their sailboats. We all live busy, modern lives and as much as we would like to spend more time restoring and improving our sailboats, there never seems to be enough time.

We procrastinate, hoping for a better time when circumstances will be more favorable. More often than not, we simply never get around to it.

We can even begin to feel guilty or discouraged about working on our sailboat, to the point where we make excuses to not work on it. What once was a joy can becomes a chore and a burden. We might even stop sailing as much because something needs fixed. From there, emotional gravity can pull us down to the final step, selling the boat to be rid of the burden.

If you’re a regular reader of this website, the odds are good that you’re also a do-it-yourselfer. And if you’re a DIYer, the odds are good that you have an above average mechanical aptitude. You have an instinctive curiosity for … Continue reading Six DIY Skills Every Skipper Should Know