Indholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2025 i SAIL

Meet Riley! We’ve expanded our crew. While I’ve only been a father for six weeks, I’m convinced that sailors have an advantage that makes all of us the best parents (and grandparents). Perhaps your same bias will let you agree? On the matter of sleep, we already have a well-practiced watch schedule. And, for those times when that breaks down to handle unexpected sail changes (or diaper changes), we’re familiar with operating carefully in a sleep deficit. Fixing a clogged head makes even a blown-out diaper seem like a modest task—it’s all about expectations, and we’re trained to expect the worst. Flogging sails, the clunking of restless provisions, and waves slapping the hull are a good primer for all the noise that comes out of these small humans. We also…

After the Newport International Boat Show, SAIL’s technical editor Adam Cove and I joined Al Johnstone of J/Boats for a sail aboard the new J/36. It was a gorgeous September day on shore, warm in the sun, cool and crisp in the shade. Unfortunately, the idyllic conditions didn’t quite extend out onto Narragansett Bay, and we could’ve used 10-15 additional knots of breeze to be really happy. After a brief chit chat on the dock, we headed out. The J/36 joins the J/40 and J/45 to complete the company’s performance cruiser range. At the smaller end of a range like this, you often see features from the bigger siblings trickle down, and frankly the boat felt like more than 36 feet to me. Having spent a lot of time racing…

The anchor hit the water’s surface with a familiar splash and the chain rumbled over the roller, quickly at first and then slowed down to a pace that matched our slow drift. The crystal clear and shallow waters of the Exumas put all this hardware on display as we prepared to spend the night in the protected cove of Southwest Allan’s Cay. Two nurse sharks and a stingray passed beside Ben-Varrey’s keel as the mainsail leisurely danced down the mast and draped itself over the boom. A couple dozen iguanas scurried around the beach to the south. A faint pattern of ocean rollers crashing on the outer coral shore provided some background noise, but otherwise this paradise was quiet and void of civilization. It had been somewhere in the vicinity…

This story is excerpted from SAIL Contributing Editor Christopher Birch’s upcoming book The Four Seasons of Boat Maintenance (available for order soon)—a compendium of lessons learned during his 40-year career maintaining other people’s boats as the founder of Birch Marine Inc. in Boston. In this third preview excerpted for SAIL magazine, Christopher dives into the details of two of his 29 steps for winterizing. Canvas Maintenance Boat owners often resist this particular line item on my winterizing checklist (see page 67 for the full list). I’m not sure why it gets so much pushback, but I do know this work is important and should not be skipped over. Canvas dodgers, biminis, cockpit enclosures, sail covers, and all other summer canvas must be stripped off the boat prior to winter for…

From the security experts at GOST (Global Ocean Security Technologies) comes a new security tracker for small boats and dinghies. You can think of Kasper as a souped up, solar powered AirTag. The compact unit allows for geostationary satellite monitoring to ensure your boat, dinghy, or gear stays where it’s meant to, and users can set up a geofence to monitor any breaches. Unlike other security systems, Kasper is fully solar powered, so it works without being attached to the boat’s house batteries or shore power, and can be used continuously while cruising off the grid. The unit reports location every 15 minutes. Many security systems require a technician to install them, but the Kasper is simply bolted into place, which can be done by minorly tech savvy owners. Kasper…

Not for the first time this trip, I find myself wondering why the folk at Grand Soleil have opted for a boat test on an inaccessible stretch of fresh water hemmed in with 6,000-foot-high alpine peaks. It is early spring, and there is a dusting of fresh snow up there. Down on the shores of Lake Garda, where a succession of trains, buses, and taxis have delivered me to the ancient olive town of Malcesine, the water has a glacial blue tinge to it and the bite of winter still. The boat I’ve travelled across Europe to see is an innovative 33-footer called the Blue and, in a departure from Grand Soleil’s famous cruiser-racer lines, it is billed as a daysailer. Built with sustainability in mind, here is a boat…

“St Tropez was our box rule.” About five years after his last boat splashed, Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones was already dreaming about the next one. But Magic Carpet3, the first WallyCento, was a tough act to follow. It took seven years and the expertise of some of the industry’s best minds, but this year, Magic Carpete finally took center stage. Even a brief conversation with Sir Lindsay reveals him to be a genial, conscientious man, proud of his boat and quick to give credit to all those who made it happen. On a warm spring evening, in his unplacably European accent—a combination of English, Italian, and French—he talks of St Tropez, the sea, and his philosophy on running both a boat and a business. And having been the CEO of L’Oreal for…

It could have been the sound of a bird, or maybe the wave pattern changed? Was it the sun hitting my cheek through the portlight? Something startled me out of a deep sleep. What time was it? I had just slept three hours past my alarm: hard asleep for four and a half hours. This wouldn’t have been an issue if I were anchored in some cozy harbor, but I was in the North Atlantic single-handing. At least there weren’t rocks to hit, but the sides of those container ships aren’t exactly soft. A quick look around showed no sign of anything except ocean and sky. The waves had settled, the sails only needed minor adjustments, and the windvane autopilot was holding course. I had been fighting some tough weather…

Joining the Fleet Thank you for your article earlier this year that featured the organization Sail Beyond Cancer (March 2025). It inspired me to explore our local chapter in Salem, Massachusetts. In July, I had the opportunity to host my first mission on our boat Virgo. I can’t think of a more meaningful sail that she’s done. —Dan Rabin, Beverly, MA Variety: The Spice of Life I just read Lydia’s latest editor’s letter where she describes how after working all day on sailing pieces it’s nice to read a land-based piece (October 2025). It took me back to the 1980’s when I was a captain of a race boat. My owner went out of town, and I had a rare week off during the season. I spent a couple of…

I arrived at Sam’s New Year’s Eve party around 11:30 and tried the bell. No answer. I texted. No answer. After 10 minutes, it was starting to look like I was going to ring in the new year on the sidewalk with the city rats. It was fitting; 2024 had been a bit of a rough year for me. After we lost Alliance in the Newport-Bermuda race, it took a few months for me to start to feel normal again. When your job, your friends, and your hobby are all sucked into one single traumatic event, it’s hard to come back from that. The truth is, I was quietly having doubts about where to go from there. I wasn’t sure whether I could keep writing about sailing, whether I could…

Sailors like to think their fuel comes free. The wind, currents, the natural movements of the sea, and the sun power their journeys—a source of pride and the origin of the myth that sailors are stewards of the oceans and protectors of the environment. The truth is a bit more complicated. Sailors do use fossil fuels too, of course, and we make some unavoidable impact on the planet. The world of sailing is a plastic one: fiberglass hulls, dacron sails, canvas that is actually polyester, running rigging made of synthetic fibers, plastic clothing, plastic dishware, plastic containers, all manner of parts made of plastic. There is no getting away from it. The qualities of plastic are not just convenient, but critical, arguably a matter of life and death. Plastic also…