Moving the engines aft creates more interior space, but it also places the rudders ahead of the propellers. I would test low-speed maneuvering on each engine ...

For decades, cruisers gathered in Grenada because it sat just below the hurricane box that shaped many marine insurance policies. In July 2024, Hurricane Beryl ...

A ship's hull behaves like one enormous beam, bending through hogging and sagging as wave crests and troughs support different sections. Push that steel beyond ...

In a moving Northern Hemisphere hurricane, rotation and forward motion combine on the starboard side of its track, creating stronger winds and more violent ...

Fantome's hull was built from thousands of overlapping steel plates, caulked and fastened by hand with red-hot rivets. That was the same basic method used on ...

Rio Dulce has sheltered sailors from hurricanes for generations, but its entrance lies behind a sandbar with only five or six feet of water. A massive schooner ...

Finished in an Italian warship yard in 1927, this 282-foot yacht began as "Flying Cloud". She then passed from an English duke, to a Guinness heir, and ...

A hurricane does not steer itself; larger wind patterns high above it, called steering currents, carry it like a cork in a river. When those currents weaken, ...

In October 1998, the 282-foot riveted-steel schooner Fantome entered the western Caribbean with 31 people aboard and Hurricane Mitch building over the horizon. ...

At $100,000, a Lagoon 42 can look like an incredible bargain, and I think these boats make spacious, fun cruising platforms for the Caribbean. However, I would ...

Early-season hurricanes often form far across the Atlantic, giving sailors time to watch them develop and track their approach. In October, the western ...

Sharks, rocks, and pirates are not what scare me most when I sail offshore. Hurricanes are unpredictable, impossible to outrun, and powerful enough to ...

Standing rigging progresses from standard 1×19 wire to compact strand and finally to solid rod, with each step increasing strength and stiffness while reducing ...

A 12-inch change made while building the Valiant 40 left its sail plan out of balance with the keel. Adding a bowsprit corrected the problem, improved the ...

This 2012 Hughes 40 weighs less than five tons despite its 40-foot length and massive 30-foot beam, giving it the ingredients to be an exceptionally fast ...

The Antigua 58 Pilothouse is spacious, unusual, and packed with features that could make it somebody’s dream cruising boat. It may be a good boat, but the ...

Dutch builders have generations of experience producing beautiful steel and aluminum boats capable of cruising anywhere in the world. Koopmans yachts combine ...

A deeper keel places more weight farther below the boat, helping it resist quick rolling and feel stiffer in the waves. Like the pendulum on a grandfather ...

There's a bit of a stereotype about the Finns in the sailing world...but not a bad one. Finland is home to respected builders such as Baltic and Nauticat, and ...

This 60 year old Sparkman & Stephens yacht has an incredible pedigree, a valuable mast, and a recently reduced asking price. The aluminum hull could still ...

An older fiberglass boat will usually have obsolete electronics, aging wiring, and at least a few places where water gets inside. The important question is not ...

The Cal name became famous through successful designs like the legendary Cal 40, but the Cal 44 came from a very different period in the company’s history. ...

Cooper sailboats can be good performers, but their large acrylic windows were not always engineered with enough frame overlap. Once the adhesive begins to ...

This Robert Harris design was built by Ta Yang in Taiwan and earned a reputation as a stout bluewater cruiser. Unfortunately, the original teak decks also ...