The excitement of a new boat, even after you’ve toiled over it to prepare for its maiden voyage, should not be an excuse to neglect your safety preparation, nor forget your operational checklists...
We offer several types of article covering a wide range of topics. Choose your topic or article type below:
- Feature Articles. Discussions of one or more topics regarding Seamanship, Safety, and best practices afloat.
- School of Hard Rocks. First-person narratives of ... challenging ... experiences and lessons learned.
- Safety Moments. Short items suitable for a quick read or presentation to a group.
- White Papers. In-depth dives into topics of interest.
- Travelogs. Stories of near and far journeys afloat, including selected articles from our Voyages magazine
- Videos. A growing library of streaming content, from weather seminars to member highlights.
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School of Hard Rocks
Subject:
Preparation of Boat and Crew
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School of Hard Rocks
Subject:
Navigation and Piloting
In view of Stan’s apparent knowledge, I delegated the pilotage to him and, stupidly, didn’t keep an eye on the charts and the marks although I had read up on the passage. At that stage we did not have a chart plotter so we were relying on paper…
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School of Hard Rocks
Subject:
Preparation of Boat and Crew
... We were being blown onto the dock and had to make a hard turn to starboard into the wind to get out of the boatyard. This was not really a problem, but just when I went to use the bow thruster that we had tested days earlier, it failed. A…
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School of Hard Rocks
Subject:
Preparation of Boat and Crew, Electronics
A few minutes later, however, the familiar sound stopped, and the swing of the rudder and tiller came to a halt with perhaps 10 degrees of port rudder locked in. Before I could get to the tiller and lift the tiller pilot off its pin, the boat flew…
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School of Hard Rocks
Subject:
Preparation of Boat and Crew, Damage and Repair
I idly looked aloft at the tricolor light, and it appeared to be showing its red light aft, which didn’t register as a problem, at least initially, until I looked aloft again and now saw the green light showing aft. It became obvious that the light…
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School of Hard Rocks
Subject:
Overboard
This story is not a bluewater sailing story, but it illustrates how you can get into trouble in calm waters within sight of home. A friend of mine had this happen to him a few years ago and told me the story the next day, while he was still somewhat…