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Articles are of general interest to the entire CCA membership, and are not particular to any specific station. Categories include Feature Articles, Safety Moments, White Papers and For Ocean Racers.

  • Cardinal Valor
    Overboard in Warm Water
    A passenger on a Carnival Cruise Ship, traveling from New Orleans to Cozumel, was reported missing about 13 hours after he was last seen onboard. A search ensued, and the passenger was spotted by a commercial vessel, which then relayed the coordinates to the Coast Guard. He was picked up by a Coast Guard MH-60J shortly thereafter, apparently hypothermic, and was transferred to a local hospital where he was reportedly recovering. Read more
  • Fortunately, this guy was less than 100 feet away
    Mind your Alarms
    A short trip becomes a near disaster by ignoring engine alarms. Read more
  • The Author, listening to music.
    ​​​​​​​The Stereo Doesn’t Work? Sometimes, one thing leads to another.
    I took down the radio panel and, with a multimeter in hand, was able to determine that the stereo wasn’t getting its 12 volts. When I improvised a 12-volt supply, it came to life. Progress, but a mystery remained behind the dead 12-volt supply line, which disappeared in the direction of the breaker panel. Read more
  • Belt and Suspenders
    Standing in the Way of Progress: Redundancy is not necessarily bad
    After sitting next to Stan for about an hour, I stood up to stretch and get some blood flowing in my legs. As I did, I heard the faint but unmistakable snap of a circuit breaker going from the On to the Off position, followed by the sound of an alarm coming from the computer that was displaying the charts. “What happened to the GPS?” asked Stan as he looked at a message on the screen telling him that the GPS signal had been lost Read more
  • Navy Ships
    Handling Emergencies - Perspective from Big Ships' Practices
    Former Navy Captain Mark Lenci suggests how the principles of handling emergencies on large ship can be applied to smaller private yachts – yachts capable of being cruised comfortably by two people. The principles can be easily extended to crews of more than two people, larger yachts, and professionally crewed vessels. Read more
  • Video: Panel on Seamanship

    In March of 2018, three of our members presented a panel in seamanship to a full house in New York Yacht Club's renowned Model Room.

    Presenting were:

    Read more
  • Electric flare
    The Future of Flares

    Safety Moment, Cruising Club of America, SF Station, Sept 2018

    Chuck Hawley

    Read more
  • Overboard Recovery: Avoiding Running Over the Victim
    Typical MOB situations (dark, rough seas) may make maneuvering the rescuing vessel tricky. The development of the Lifesling and similar devices assists in recovering a person in the water without having to get dangerously close. Read more
  • Stay on the boat, float if you don't
    Life Jacket Update
    Inspect, test, and practice your life jacket! Read more
  • In a test pool
    What Makes One Life Jacket Better Than Another?
    How would you go about figuring out if a life jacket design is capable of saving a life when used in rough water? What would you look for? How would you measure the life jacket’s effectiveness? Which models would you accept, and which ones would you fail? Read more
  • Simple liferings
    New Ideas on Personal Safety Gear
    Fast forward 20 or so years, and Stan is again sailing on state-of-the-art multihulls, but now on Gitana 17, a foiling trimaran, whose crew intends to set the around the world record: the Jules Verne Trophy. While the personal gear that the crew wears is similar to what we had on Playstation, there are some subtle differences. Read more