March 2024

Sail

SAIL is the magazine of record on sailing.

Sail3 min read
Love Me, Love My Boat
Go ahead. Tell me who you love most in this world. I’m willing to bet that your boat makes the top five, perhaps the top three—even number one, depending upon where you are in your life at the moment. You can admit it; this is a safe space for this k
Sail4 min read
Continuing Education
Neil Evans has been talking about the merits of Harken’s T2 Soft-Attach blocks—most significantly the soft Dyneema shackle as its attachment point, rather than a metal head post and shackle—when he reminds his audience of marine professionals what th
Sail4 min read
A Steadfast Bond
John Stone is the kind of seafarer who has applied the adage “keep it simple” throughout his sailing life. This maxim has enabled him to sail thousands of miles on the one and only cruising boat he has owned—a 1982 Robinhood Cape Dory 36 aptly named
Sail3 min read
Cruising Tips
Running out of fuel or losing the engine by way of filters blocked with dirty diesel is bad enough, but ending up with an engine full of water transforms a serious nuisance into a catastrophe. One can lead to the other surprisingly easily. Cooling wa
Sail4 min read
Tuning Up
Sailors have a longstanding history with music. From ancient seafaring cultures to modern sailors, music has played a vital role in maritime life, offering solace, entertainment, and a means of communication. For those who also have a passion for mus
Sail6 min read
Hallberg-Rassy 40C
Hallberg-Rassy builds carry a reputation of solid offshore cruising boats. However, the forecast for my date with the 40C was among the lightest air the Annapolis area could offer. Arriving at the boat, a few more ripples danced across the water than
Sail11 min read
Stormy And Francis
Editor’s Note: In 1956, Alan Nicol—nicknamed “Stormy” for the weather he seemed to attract—was Francis Chichester’s main crew on Gipsy Moth II, sailing with Chichester in the decade before he completed his famous circumnavigation in Gipsy Moth IV in
Sail10 min read
In Good Order
It’s March, and if you’re like most sailors who’ve had to put their beloveds away for the winter, you’re champing at the bit to get down to the boatyard and spring her from the cold season’s confines. It’s understandable, but what you really need to
Sail5 min read
Beneteau Oceanis 37.1
I could feel the boat find her groove and settle in at 7.2 knots on a beam reach with the code zero flying. It was a crisp autumn day on Chesapeake Bay and we were hauling the mail with one finger on the wheel and twin rudders gripping below the wate
Sail2 min read
Sailing Scene
Share your experiences with other readers. Send your photos to sailmail@sailmagazine.com And don’t forget to sign up for our free eNewsletter, Under Sail, at sailmagazine.com/newsletter Here’s a very grateful compliment to SAIL for publishing Charles
Sail2 min read
Raymarine Alpha Series
I love quick and clear access to data when I’m racing. Even when I’m cruising, I enjoy running numbers through my head. In both cases, it keeps me entertained and drives me to push the boat harder and to sail better. Raymarine’s new Alpha series offe
Sail8 min read
Destination Nowhere
I woke at 5:30 on a Friday morning to the sound of rain on the deck. I was on the port pipe berth of my Moore 24, Gannet, anchored in 60 feet of water 13 miles off South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island where I live. We had anchored under a full moon in
Sail1 min readLeadership
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PRESIDENT GARY DE SANCTIS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF WENDY MITMAN CLARKE MANAGING EDITOR LYDIA MULLAN WEB EDITOR EMME HURLEY CRUISING EDITOR CHARLES J. DOANE CHARTER EDITOR ZUZANA PROCHAZKA TECHNICAL EDITOR ADAM COVE CONTRIBUTING EDITORS NIGEL CALDER, DON CASEY
Sail4 min read
Hybrid and Working
The 2023 Caribbean Multihull Challenge (CMC) introduced an unusual element to its three-day Sint Maarten-based schedule of racing: a rally. Race organizers found that the folks likely to wind up in Sint Maarten in late January fell into one of three
Sail6 min read
The Hidden Gift
When they think about the Society Islands, most sailors likely conjure the most famous of this French Polynesian group—Tahiti, Bora Bora, perhaps Moorea—the stuff that cruising dreams are made of. But from the moment we shimmied our 50-foot steel cut
Sail7 min read
Shorthanded Sailing: The Case for Simplicity
It was half past midnight and the wind had been building for the last few hours. We had left the west coast of Puerto Rico the previous morning, sailing off anchor and through the cut, and now were blasting towards the Turks and Caicos. It had been a
Sail7 min read
Runaway Diesel
The morning our diesel engine experienced a runaway started like any other. We were headed out of Monterey Harbor on our 1979 Cheoy Lee 41, Avocet, bound for Morro Bay. We fired up the steadfast if sometimes quirky Perkins 4.108 without issue, untied
Sail3 min read
Trust Your Gut
We had stopped to snorkel at Cayo Sal in Cuba, and I grabbed my mask and fins to check on the anchor. This weather-beaten, low-lying island was a great example of sketchy charts and missing markers. Within feet of our hook were the remains of a 60-fo
Sail3 min read
The Value of Mentorship
I saw the Horn at 3 o’clock this morning it gave me chills,” John “When Kretschmer said in a grainy video from the deck of his Kaufman 47 Quetzal in mid-December, hanging on the starboard shrouds and beaming with Cape Horn in the background. “It look

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