24
votes
Specific Chinese carabiner QA?
This item might be identical to a certified one, but the seller is clearly not aware of certifications, so you should assume it is not certified - in short:
Do not use this carabiner for safety-...
- 21.7k
22
votes
Accepted
Sailing an age-of-sail sloop with 2-man crew
Sailing any square-rigged vessel beyond a dinghy with just two crew would require some combination of specialist rigging, excellent ability to predict or know the weather, and extraordinary luck.
The ...
- 336
20
votes
Accepted
Why did Lewis and Clark use square rigged boats?
From the article you've linked, they were under sail a little more than one-tenth of the time [on the river]. Perhaps that could have been a bit greater if they were schooner- or lateen-rigged, but ...
- 26.1k
16
votes
Swimming while in the high seas
Yes. My wife is a geologist and has been on a couple of research cruises in the south Pacific and Indian oceans. It used to be quite common to have a "swim call" when the seas were calm. The vessel ...
- 3,034
16
votes
Can I sail a raft on a European river with commercial traffic?
The good news
Navigating the Danube with a raft is certainly possible, and has been done: for instance, Flossbusters are a group of Dresdners who went all the way from Bertoldsheim to the Black Sea ...
- 3,752
15
votes
Accepted
What is the hand-pedal device called on an Open 60 sailboat?
It is a 'on-station grinder', a centralized station for turning the winches of the sheets (lines) attached to the clew of a sail. They are multi-speed, meaning you can have a serious mechanical ...
- 861
15
votes
Sailing an age-of-sail sloop with 2-man crew
Joshua Slocum completed the first single-handed circumnavigation in his sloop the Spray in 1895-98. This is somewhat late for the 'age of sail', but I don't believe he used any technology that wasn't ...
- 251
14
votes
Accepted
Why did wetting down canvas sails increase the speed of a sailing ship?
Wetting the sails down helps hold more wind by closing the gaps and making the sails stand flatter.
Now the sails had to be kept wet, for a wet sail holds more of the wind than a dry one. Water had ...
- 69.2k
12
votes
Accepted
What type of rope to use for the mainsheet of sunfish?
You most definitely want to be selective when selecting rope for a sailboat's running rigging. I'll group sailboats into two categories: racing and non-racing. Racing sailboat is simply any boat where ...
- 10.7k
11
votes
Accepted
11
votes
Avoiding microbial contamination of diesel fuel
Bacteria and fungi can only grow in water, not in the fuel itself. If a fuel tank is unused and resting for a longer time, the small water content in the fuel can separate at the bottom and provide a ...
- 5,153
11
votes
Accepted
What type of trailer do I need for my Granada 24 sailboat?
Do I need to use a trailer made to measure, or can I use any trailer
that can carry any boat of a specific category within its range of
specs (keel type, weight, and dimensions)?
You don't need a ...
- 23.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Do square-riggers also use 'aircraft-wing-style' propulsion?
TLDR: Yes, square riggers can use the airfoil type propulsion, though not as effectively as a fore-and-aft rigged ship.
In slightly more detail, there are two reasons why this is the case.
Despite the ...
- 1,831
11
votes
Accepted
What do the numbers on a sail boats sail represent?
One word: Racing
The numbers themselves usually don't mean anything. Usually, the number is essentially "how many sails of this model have been produced before this one".
So, the first boat will ...
- 10.7k
11
votes
Specific Chinese carabiner QA?
The main issue is that fraud and misrepresentation is rife in the chinese manufacturing sector.
When I was working in outdoors retail, I saw a couple press releases where Petzl was facing ...
- 5,045
10
votes
Accepted
What are the main disadvantages to a kiteboat in terms of long distance bluewater sailing?
The examples on the site only show inshore sports sailing with a hydrofoil. This does look like fun, and downwind performance can be exceptional. Though I doubt that inshore fleet racing would be ...
- 11.7k
10
votes
Accepted
How can I prevent a fiberglass crack in my sailboat from getting worse?
Gelcoat cracking is pretty much a fact of life in boat ownership. The sun and water is a tough environment. However, gelcoat cracking is usually not too concerning as long as it is fixed right away.
...
- 10.7k
10
votes
Accepted
When trimming my sails, why would I want them to stand flat, versus having some belly?
I didn't intend to self-answer, but after hours of 'net searching I seem to have stumbled on the answer, provided by an Olympic Gold Medalist sailor from Australia, so I hope we can trust it. You can ...
- 5,168
9
votes
Accepted
What is the purpose of being close-hauled when sailing upwind?
While a close-reach or beam-reach is going to give the vessel the highest speed through the water, this may not be what you want. Being close-hauled will point you higher so while you lose speed, the ...
- 24.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Contacting a yacht on IJsselmeer (Netherlands)
I looked up the GSM coverage map from KPN - the former state telephone company - and virtually all of the IJsselmeer is covered according to that on 4G.
Can't tell from experience though but I'd ...
- 206
9
votes
Help me interface these two nautical devices
Garmin GPSMap 182C and Simrad TP32 share the same language (NMEA 0183), but they do not have enough in common to talk about.
The NMEA sentences that the 182C can transmit are GPRMC, GPGGA, GPGSA, ...
- 191
8
votes
Accepted
Portable ladder for sailboat?
Simplest thing I think would be to buy a climbing aider/etrier:
It's light, it packs up small in your bag, and they're pretty easy to come by, you can just order one from a climbing shop.
All you'd ...
- 53.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Outrigger and/or leeboard when sailing a canoe?
The right way to view the pros and cons is to understand the basic mechanics of how a sailboat works, so you can decide what's appropriate for your situation.
The first thing to be aware of is that ...
- 10.7k
8
votes
Accepted
How is underdeck rigging done?
Not everything needs to be located underdeck, often some hardware is semi-sunk in the deck, or grouped at a navigation/manoeuvring location on the boat. This can make it less visible. Even in more ...
- 3,280
8
votes
What do you call it when a sailboat starts to have trouble?
I grew up around sailboats and live on an island. I have always heard the word "foundering" used to describe a boat taking on water and sinking. I have heard the word "flounder" ...
- 2,924
8
votes
Accepted
What should I look for in a used wet suit?
You do not want a 6-7mm wetsuit for spring canoeing, you'd have trouble moving freely in it, and you would overheat very easily. They use 7mm wetsuits for arctic diving. I surf and swim in glacier ...
- 53.5k
8
votes
What to do with a yacht when a stronger wind blast comes?
If your concern is regarding broaching, then the two actions you take are:
allow the head to come towards the wind, reducing the sideways force. This can be instant.
if needed, slacken the main, ...
- 24.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Why is sailing straight downwind considered dangerous?
You are under the assumption that it requires a 90 degree shift. Having had my fair set of accidential or uncontrolled jibes before I switched to cat sailing (where we do not run straight downwind for ...
- 7,165
8
votes
Accepted
automated system for detection of "problems" and waking up from sleep on a yacht at night
Yes, these systems exist. They are for instance equipped on some Open60 race boats (unfortunately can't find the name of the system they use). And then of course there are AIS and Radar.
Neither of ...
- 1,448
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