David Thoreson has sailed all over the world, more than 70,000 bluewater miles. But his favorite place to sail is small cluster of lakes tucked in the nation’s heartland known as Okoboji.  “

The myth that one-design racing produces cut-throat competition doesn’t apply to these classic classes. Head to any of the winter circuit regattas, weeknight races or even the national and world championships and you will find a atmosphere that is more like a family reunion than hard-core battle. Built on the philosophy that sailing is better with friends, and that lending a hand with tuning or rigging tips, these one-design classes are bringing new sailors into the sport with “more-the-merrier” attitudes. 

Features  19 Modern day Spanish Armada          Rollicking sailing, sublime beaches and  new friendships are found on a flotilla charter off Mallorca

There’s a freedom that comes with trailerable boats, whether dinghies, small keelboats or powerboats. Your next adventure is just a highway away. But first you have to get there. But that’s not to

I  have been following the design work of John Welsford for some time now. His SCAMP design caught my attention and it has become quite a popular class in the Pacific Northwest. It’s hard not to like pocket-cruisers but so many of them appear to me to be “toy boats” and not the kind of boat I would want to sail. John’s designs escape this type and are capable little vessels that perform well and are aesthetically very satisfying. I pestered John for one of his designs to review and he finally broke down and sent me the drawings for his Pelegrin 17-footer. John’s designs are aimed at the home builder so design details are simple but effective.

I have been aware of the Dufour line of boats for longer than I can remember. I even sailed a Chicago-Mackinac race 44 years ago on a Dufour Arpege. We were the slowest boat in the race. But that’s another story. This new Dufour, an Umberto Felci design, is a great example of the extreme proportions that Europeans are using in order to get maximum accommodations into a given LOA.

This new boat from designer Ted Fontaine and built by Pacific Seacraft in North Carolina has been getting a lot of attention lately. This could be due to the fact that hull No. 1 was built for singer

 How do I fix a failed fiberglass repair? Dear Boat Doctor, I need some advice on a failing fiberglass repair at my keel stub joint. There is a crack that appears to be the result of repair tha

 You may be familiar with the concept of the sailing timeshare, that is, fractional sailboat ownership in order to be able to sail for a few weeks a year in an idyllic place like the tropics. A f

I witnessed an enormous spinnaker acting like a parachute-type sea anchor built for a battleship being pulled through the water on a kite string by a sailboat driven by strong wind and big waves.

Features  24 To Land’s End in a little boat One man’s quest to sail around every offshore lighthouse in Britain leads to big adventures in little boats 36 Touch of class One-design clas

In October 2015, the Nathanael Herreshoff-designed New York 40 Marilee was brought to the custom boatyard French and Webb in Belfast, Maine, for what was supposed to be a minor rebuild. It was discove

Vlad Murnikov and I have been friends for many years. I met Vlad shortly after he set up shop in the U.S. following his 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race adventure on Fazisi, an 82-foot radical offs

When Terri and Thomas Sand first started dating in 2013, they didn’t know it would lead to a new love, not just for each other but for sailing. Since then, the couple has made a five-year plan that is taking them from learn to sail classes to sailing off on a world cruise on their brand new cruising catamaran. 

What a thrill it brought, pressing my face against a hazy plexiglass airplane window, and seeing whitecaps scattered on the sea from 29,000 feet. Following last year’s tragic season of storms in the Caribbean, I was flying to the British Virgin Islands for the Spring Regatta, which has been bringing sailors to Tortola and the surrounding islands since 1972. As the flight descended through the tropical sky, I began to see the telling signs of destruction. Hundreds of homes were without roofs and scores of boats were askew and aground. But this isn’t a story about destruction. It’s a story about revival, and how sailors are helping bring that about.

In the moments after you realize you have run your boat aground, it’s best to take a deep breath and recite The First Rule of Holes: “When you’re in one, stop digging.” Many of the steps you a

Take a classLenny Shabes photo If you already sail, you might think that your ship has sailed as far as classes go. But learn-to-sail classes are just the tip of the iceberg. Most sailing schools

Just as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet nears the finish line July 1, having zoomed around the world aboard high-tech 65-footers at speeds often exceeding 30 knots, sending high-tech drone video updates of every thrilling moment, 19 solo sailors will leave Les Sables d’Olonne, France, for a nonstop circumnavigation race aboard 30-footers retro-outfitted, meaning no GPS, satellite weather, watermakers, AIS, radars, chartplotters, instruments, autopilots, digital watches or even iPods. These hardy skippers in the Golden Globe Race are going old school on the 50th anniversary of the inaugural race in 1968.