What’s the sailing maneuver you’re worst at? If it’s not tacking and gybing, it’s probably docking, especially if you sail single-handed or short-handed. Sailboats aren’t very maneuverable in tight spaces. If you don’t do it frequently enough to get good at it, it’s sort of a semi-controlled crash landing. You can make the process a lot easier, safer, and more predictable with this easy, cheap upgrade.
It’s a cloudless mid-summer afternoon. You’ve had a great day of sailing but you’re ready to drop anchor, start dinner, and relax for another stunning sunset. You’ve been in the sun all day so some shade would be great but you don’t have a bimini on your sailboat. You don’t really want to go down into the cramped cabin yet. The first mate will be making dinner and you’d just be in the way.
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 its proud owner and in command of its sails and rudder. You made the decision and you brought it home.
How do you step the mast on your trailerable sailboat? With a gin pole? With the trailer winch? With the help of friends or family? With your fingers crossed? No single system works for every sailboat or for every skipper. If you’re new to mast stepping, you don’t like your current method, or you just want to simplify or speed up the process, this post is for you. I must warn you though, this is a long post, even for me. To make it as short as possible, I’ve included five YouTube videos that show how this system works. By the end of this post, you’ll know everything about how I step the mast on Summer Dance single-handed in minutes, even on the water.
Continue reading “How to Step a Mast Single-Handed With or Without Using the Boom as a Gin Pole”
In a previous article, I described how to rig a cruising spinnaker. If you don’t have a spinnaker yet, or even if you do have one but you don’t want to raise it for short runs, one of your best options when sailing dead downwind is to set your sails “wing and wing.” That is, with your mainsail eased all the way out on one side of the boat and your headsail eased all the way out on the other side of the boat. With both sails catching as much wind as possible, you’ll achieve top speed.
Continue reading “Use Your Boat Hook to Sail Faster Downwind”
Galvanic corrosion can happen when dissimilar metals, stainless steel and aluminum, for example, are in contact with each other, exposed to an electrolyte, and an electrical current is applied. That’s the technical definition. The layman’s definition is it’s the white stuff that grows around your stainless steel fasteners in your aluminum mast and boom when you are around salt water.
Continue reading “Beware of Galvanic Corrosion!”
When fall arrives, many owners haul out their sailboats to store them for the winter. Months of nothing but exposure to the elements gives rust, mildew, marine fouling, and chafing time to claim new territory in the battle for ownership of your sailboat. But you can keep the enemies at bay by doing these simple maintenance tasks every year when you dry dock your sailboat. They’ll help you to keep it top shape and ready to go when the first bright days of spring arrive.
Continue reading “$tingy’s 12-Point Winterization Checklist”
It can be tempting to keep every possible item that you might ever need aboard your small sailboat. You know, Boy Scout style, ready for anything. But storage space is very limited and the more you keep aboard, the harder it is to find what you’re looking for. Getting organized below deck not only makes your sailboat more comfortable, especially for overnight trips, but it also makes your sailboat safer by eliminating clutter and excess weight.
Continue reading “Tips To Get Organized Below Deck”
I buy a lot of used sailboat hardware on eBay and craigslist.org. The reason is simple, I usually can’t afford new! If you’re reading this and you aren’t independently wealthy then you know how expensive parts and supplies for our boats are. I only buy new when I can get a great discount and buying used isn’t practical or safe. The only way that I can indulge a little in this hobby is by keeping costs at a minimum. That’s why this is called the $tingy Sailor blog, after all.
Continue reading “How to Restore Rusted Parts”
The $tingy Sailor 