GPS Tips & Tricks for Sailors

Handheld GPS devices have been around for over 25 years now. If you have one but don’t use it for sailing or if you’d like to use a GPS but don’t want to buy an expensive, dedicated, marine GPS, then this is the article for you. I’ll share some of the tips and tricks that…

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How to Fly a Flag Above a Masthead

One of the hallmarks of sailing artwork is a flag or streamer flown above the masthead. You often see them in vintage photographs, paintings of tall ships, and modern digital art. But you seldom see them in reality anymore. Why is that? Maybe it’s a dying tradition. Maybe its a practical result of all the…

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Put That Lazy Sheet to Work and Point Higher

It’s the holy grail of sailing, the one thing that is denied every sailor, yet they yearn and struggle for it anyway.  I’m talking about pointing higher upwind.  No matter how good of a sailboat you have or how good you are at trimming its sails, there’s a limit to how close into the wind…

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15 Perished in US Sailing Tragedies in 2016

Every year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States Coast Guard, and the Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety publish a report of statistics about recreational boating accidents. The 2016 report was just published and although there were fewer sailing deaths than last year, the numbers of general boating deaths, accidents, injuries, and…

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Make a Tiller Extension For Better Cockpit Mobility

If you like to sail in a moderate breeze or higher and you’re not afraid of getting the toerail wet then you want to be able to move around in the cockpit while still having control of your tiller. You want to be able to lean back into the lifelines, sit as far forward as possible…

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How to Add a Draft Stripe to a Sail

This project is a companion to my previous projects, How to Add Numbers to a Sail and How to Reproduce a Class Insignia on a Sail. If you’re getting started in club racing or if you just want to get the best performance out of your sails for cruising, draft stripes can help. A draft stripe…

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