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Boat prep safety is no accident

Posted by Dave on Jun 8th 2023

Boat prep safety is no accident

Thankfully, boaters have become more aware of on the water risks and the ways to mitigate and manage them – life jackets, dead man cords, tethers, alcohol awareness, even sun protection. Unfortunate …

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Centering your steering

Posted by Dave on Apr 3rd 2023

Centering your steering

We've been banging on about the wisdom of finally replacing your boat's old and worn chain and wire, and offering a spoonful of sugar to help the process along. The response has been very encouraging, …

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One wheel good, two wheels better?

Posted by Dave on Jan 10th 2023

One wheel good, two wheels better?

When I first started racing on big boats, the coolest boats all had gigantic wheels, preferably sunk deep into the deck. Getting the helmsperson outboard as far and as comfortably as possible was the …

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Boat Show Season

Posted by Dave on Sep 6th 2022

Boat Show Season

And just like that, here we are once again at boat show season already. We don't do nearly as many shows as Edson used to do in the old days - there aren't nearly that many shows these days anyhow - b …

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Cable tension dos and don'ts

Posted by Dave on Jun 29th 2022

Cable tension dos and don'ts

A few weeks ago, we published a post about steering cable tension (link) which has proven to be remarkably popular and useful. The photo at the bottom of that post shows the tightening nut instal …

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Crossing Oceans

Posted by Dave on Jun 16th 2022

Crossing Oceans

The ocean crossing hype is real. Last night we watched the premiere of 11th Hour Racing's film Under The Hull (link) at Fort Adams in Newport RI, the Newport to Bermuda Race (link) starts to …

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Steering cable tension

Posted by Dave on Mar 24th 2022

Steering cable tension

An underappreciated element of sailboat steering maintenance is cable tension. Most people don't think too much about it, but in minor cases it can cause some imperfect steering responses and markedly …

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Some Safety at Sea Basics pt 2

Posted by Dave on Mar 15th 2022

Some Safety at Sea Basics pt 2

First off, for anyone planning to do coastal cruising of any sort, please consider taking a Safety at Sea course. I took my first before a Bermuda Race about 20 years ago and still use lessons fr …

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Some Safety at Sea Basics pt 1

Posted by Dave on Mar 11th 2022

Some Safety at Sea Basics pt 1

There's no arena where the proverbial ounce of prevention is more valuable than safety at sea. Murphy's Law and simple logic dictate that things always go wrong at the worst possible moment - nice sun …

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