How to Completely Rewire Your Sailboat

It’s an enduring truth that appearances can be deceiving, especially with electrical systems. When I inspected Summer Dance before buying her, the electrical system looked like one of the boat’s strong suits. It had an upgraded panel and a new battery. The wiring was all original except for spliced connections to the panel. There weren’t any…

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Single Line Jiffy Reefing Made Easy

Your ability to reef your mainsail is one of the most important sailing skills that you can learn. Your reefing rigging plays an important part in that. You can do it with just a few short lengths of rope but it will be more time consuming and difficult than it needs to be. That method…

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Beware of Galvanic Corrosion!

Galvanic corrosion is what happens when dissimilar metals are in contact within an electrolyte and an electrical current is applied. That’s the technical definition. The practical description 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.

$tingy’s 12-Point Winterization Checklist

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…

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How to Clean Sails at Home

Just like a white shirt is a magnet for spaghetti stains, your sails are magnets for stains, dirt, and mildew. Unlike a white shirt, you shouldn’t bleach or machine wash your sails, it will ruin them. That means don’t clean them in a chlorinated pool, either. For hundreds of dollars, you can send your sails…

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Restore Your Exterior Teak to Better Than New

Is your topside brightwork weathered, worn, and sorely in need of refinishing? If so, this is one project that you’ve probably been putting off but you know it needs to be done. The job isn’t particularly difficult or expensive, it just takes plenty of time to do it right and to get good results. But…

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