https://sailingmagazine.net/articles.sec-125-1-afloat.html Tue, 23 Apr 24 00:00:00 -0400 en hourly 1 https://sailingmagazine.net/article-971-good-will-hauling.html Hauling out a sailboat at the end of the season is usually a sad event for most of us. It means cold weather is fast approaching and, with the exception of hardcore frostbiting, our chances of getting out on the local waters before next spring are nil. I'd like to say I had a great sailing season this year, but I would be lying. I'd also be stretching the truth if I claimed to be anything less ...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-969-good-will-hauling.html Hauling out a sailboat at the end of the season is usually a sad event for most of us. It means cold weather is fast approaching and, with the exception of hardcore frostbiting, our chances of getting out on the local waters before next spring are nil.I'd like to say I had a great sailing season this year, but I would be lying. I'd also be stretching the truth if I claimed to be anything less than...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-919-being-out-on-the-water-takes-on-new-meaning-for-a-new-charter-company.html Even if you despise acronyms as I do, as sailors you undoubtedly recognize that ASA stands for American Sailing Association and EPIRB for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. But I'd bet my CQR anchor that the LGBT reference to a new sailing charter company and sailing school based in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York, may leave you stumped. If you're like me, living some days under a ...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-920-being-out-on-the-water-takes-on-new-meaning-for-a-new-charter-company.html Even if you despise acronyms as I do, as sailors you undoubtedly recognize that ASA stands for American Sailing Association and EPIRB for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. But I'd bet my CQR anchor that the LGBT reference to a new sailing charter company and sailing school based in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York, may leave you stumped. If you're like me, living some days under a ...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-886-neopolitan-dreams.html A few months ago, a national television news crew arrived at the docks in Naples, Italy, looking to interview one of the kids enrolled in Mascalzone Latino, the sailing school founded by world-class competitive sailor and shipping company heir Vincenzo Onorato.Onorato was worried about making a good impression because the free school gives street kids a unique opportunity to learn to sail, a skill...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-850-living-in-the-moment-at-sea.html One evening last December, while crewing aboard the supermaxi YuuZoo off the coast of Australia, the wind upped and steadied so that we were moving along at 18 knots with the waxing moon overhead and a shimmer on the water.The watch captain was keeping an eye on the sail trim, responding to every order from the helm. The winches squeaked and moaned. The angle of the canting keel was adjusted until...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-831-sailing-to-down-under-with-the-devils.html Every so often, life drops something out of the blue in your lap.That's how I ended up crewing aboard a supermaxi last month off the coast of southeast Australia, surfing the waves toward Tasmania as part of the annual Rolex Sydney-to-Hobart Yacht Race.Barely three weeks before the start of the race on Boxing Day, December 26, an email arrived from Tourism Tasmania. I thought it was SPAM. My first...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-813-born-again-sailors.html There's a small tavern near Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, down by the museum's vintage World War II submarine and aging battleships, where the wall memorabilia makes it clear that this city is the birthplace of the United States Navy.Hard by the waterfront in Beverly, Massachusetts, there's a sign that proclaims this small New England city north of Boston as the birthplace of the American Navy. ...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-800-fifteen-men-on-a-dead-mans-chest.html Let's face it. Most of us sailors head to the Caribbean for the caressing sun, turquoise sea, and because it's a place where we can act like we're 10 years old. It's all yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.I'd bet most of you have a few friends who are gray suit conservatives but break out of the mold when they arrive in Tortola, gladly abandoning their Scotch for a bottle of Pusser's or Mount Gay. I sur...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-781-bowing-to-bowditch.html If you walk around Salem, Massachusetts, a bipolar city if ever there was one, you'll get a heavy dose of witchcraft history and an equal shot of nautical lore. Literary types revel at the thought of author Nathaniel Hawthorne toiling inside the customs house in view of merchant vessels and warships, knowing he should have been pouring over cargo manifests when instead he was cranking out what was...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-764-good-sams-and-bad.html Most sailors are keenly aware that the sea is the last frontier-at least until space travel gets to the point where people can buy a rocketship for the price of a cruising sailboat.With that knowledge comes some serious responsibility, especially when it concerns helping fellow mariners in distress. Hopefully, if you see another sailor having difficulty, you'll veer from your itinerary, no matter ...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-715-listening-with-tania-aebi.html They're easy to recognize at any chart briefing because they're talking instead of listening and acting as though the whole affair is a waste of time. Usually these blowhards and know-it-alls are men, though I'm certain a few female sailors out there qualify as well. When not completely ignoring the charter manager's advice they pay close attention, prepared for any opportunity to chime in with a ...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-731-life-lessons-from-the-spanking-the-monkey-tour.html Seven or eight summers ago, a bunch of guys from a town north of Boston clamored aboard a sailboat for a weekend of fun, having no clue that their shenanigans would morph into the annual Spank the Monkey Tour.It was clear from the start that the trip was a boys' getaway, the hold stocked with beer, rum and home-cooked food. It was also understood that Philip Kersten, the skipper, wanted to include...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-640-practicing-the-art-of-self-deception.html When I was a kid we wrote school research papers using the Encyclopedia Britannica. My Aunt Stella had them on a shelf in her parlor, but the update editions hadn't been included in the purchase price so our information was usually a bit stale.That really didn't matter in the pre-Information Age, and today remains much the same if you're looking up a subject that doesn't change with every twist in...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-642-no-failure-to-launch.html The mere thought of launch day can give some sailors the jitters while others lapse into a smiling transcendental state as they contemplate the event.For most, launch day involves a single boat, whether it means backing the trailer down a ramp, or simply writing a check to the yacht club after the crane operator has completed the job. Oddly, where I live in Nahant, a tiny peninsula north of Boston...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-696-one-last-time.html Al D'Alessandro opens a file cabinet in his Marblehead, Massachusetts office and rummages for information about past boats, crews and races. The octogenarian is looking for evidence of his first Newport-to-Bermuda Race in back in 1970."Seems like a long time ago," he says. "I guess it was."Thirty-nine years to be exact. Al was 42-half English, half Italian, Harvard educated, former Navy intelligen...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-680-that-pirate-isnt-johnny.html Nearly four years have gone by since a hail of bullets tore into the 47-foot cruising yacht Gandalf as she made her way across the Gulf of Aden. Luckily, sailors Jay Barry and Carol Martini of Gloucester, Massachusetts, lived to tell about their encounter with pirates in the treacherous waters that separate Africa from the Middle East. They also won the distinction of having thwarted the ambush, m...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-237-all-sailors-are-rich.html When I was a boy in upstate New York, we'd sit on the front porch and watch the summer boat traffic on the Mohawk River, mostly tugs and barges or cabin cruisers, but occasionally a sailboat would come along with its mast lashed horizontally atop the deck.Often tanned and handsome, the folks aboard would wave as they waited for the operator of Lift Lock 17 in Little Falls to raise or lower their v...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-600-bob-bucks-boat-dream.html Every so often life brings us to a crossroads. Bob Buck arrived at one of these metaphorical intersections in 1998. Then in his mid-40s, he was simply tired of practicing law and the sea was calling. In Bob's case, it wasn't simply a matter of tossing aside some gumshoe law practice in a Podunk town where he earned enough to keep the creditors off his back and paint the house every five years. Bob...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-174-lorem-ipsum.html Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Mauris commodo, dolor sit amet sodales ultricies, quam tortor facilisis elit, eu vestibulum eros nibh ornare nisl. Nulla risus neque, dignissim quis, condimentum tristique, commodo eu, diam. Duis magna. Curabitur porta velit feugiat urna. Vivamus molestie scelerisque felis. Morbi eleifend turpis sed metus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Sed bland...]]> https://sailingmagazine.net/article-601-all-sailors-are-rich.html When I was a boy in upstate New York, we'd sit on the front porch and watch the summer boat traffic on the Mohawk River, mostly tugs and barges or cabin cruisers, but occasionally a sailboat would come along with its mast lashed horizontally atop the deck. Often tanned and handsome, the folks aboard would wave as they waited for the operator of Lift Lock 17 in Little Falls to raise or lower their ...]]>