Due to an abrupt increase in sailing magazine responsibilities (ironically), I've concluded I won't have time to sail Lunacy south for the winter this year. Instead, for the first time in three years, she'll be hauled out next week and stored on the hard here in the soon-to-be-frozen Northeast. I am none too happy about...
It’s been a while since we discussed all those mysterious numbers that both boat designers and journalists are always throwing around to confuse us when they talk about boats. You’ll recall last time I bloviated about displacement/length ratios. One big reason it’s a good idea to go to the trouble to calculate a boat’s D/L...
The week following the Annapolis show I returned to the Chesapeake to test-sail four different boats for SAIL magazine. You'll be able to read detailed reviews in future issues of the comic, but I thought I'd share a little preview of my experience aboard the Radical Bay 8000, the unique new production catamaran with a...
I meant to post something about this amazing video Hold Fast when I first found it, but it's quite long (over an hour), particularly for something put up for free at Vimeo. I've now watched it twice. I'm sticking it here in the Lit Bits category, because it rises to that level. This isn't some...
Yet another tidbit from Annapolis: Beneteau's new Dock & Go propulsion system made a big debut and was featured on a new Beneteau Sense 50 that put on a little show and attracted big crowds and rounds of applause every hour, on the hour, just like the fountains in front of the Bellagio in Las...
Yet another intriguing bit of kit I sussed out in Annapolis is this new Max-Prop Ecowind propeller from PYI. As described to me by PYI's Fred Hutchinson, the prop has a spring in the hub that automatically varies the forward pitch of the blades as the load on the blades changes. By maintaining optimal pitch...
Here's an impressive item I saw at the Annapolis show last week that may well find it's way aboard Lunacy sometime in the very near future. I'd already started shopping around a bit for some new headsail and staysail sheets, so I was quite happy to stumble across this stuff. The Ph.D moniker (it officially...
What did it take to get ex-Beatle John Lennon off his butt and back into a recording studio? A little dose of the Big Blue is what. Evidently, it was only after Lennon indulged a lifelong desire to learn to sail, and after he crewed aboard a 43-foot Hinckley sloop bound for Bermuda in June...
I've been padding around the big sailboat show here in Annapolis the last couple of days searching for cool boats and kit. Right at the top of my wanna-see gear list was Harken's new reversible winch, which is debuting here in the U.S. ahead of Selden's new reversible winch, due to be unveiled in Amsterdam...
Lunacy stopped here twice this summer--once on a weekend outing with the girls, and again when just Clare and I were coming back from Rockland. It is both a nice spot to visit in its own right and a good hidey-hole for those transiting Casco Bay in either direction. It is nearly the only place...
