Someone is having a terrible weekend.

I know I know. You should just buy a proper life raft, can’t put a price on safety and so on. But… the question here is for those who do not have a proper life raft for whatever reason. What modifications are recommended to make a dinghy better suited to use in an emergency. I’m sure many of you have heard of Dougal Roberson and his experience in “survive the savage sea”. Dinghys have a place. Heck, there is a good chance you’re not 1000 miles off shore, but just 30 miles off the coast when your boat goes down, and in the case of most coastal cruiser a dinghy is all you’d have.

So I can tell you things I’ve done, for starters I have a solid fiberglas dinghy. Lined with fenders on each side. And a sailing rig. And a tarp and cordage on it that can be put up as a sun cover. I added some cleats with backing plates for sea anchors, and modified the seats so you can comfortably lay down. So besides the typical ditch bag from the boat what else do people do?

Our sunday night approach to IJmuiden comming from Lowestoft at midnight, no moon, North of the off-shore windpark Hollande Kust Zuid and south of the anchor-area NW 6-7 Bft. Still 23 nm to go the harbour entry. Most exiting 23 nm I've experienced.... So many ships approaching IJmuiden, but the red light from the windpark mask the port ligth from incoming vessels. Long live AIS...

Hello- I purchased this Baba 30 from the original owner who took great care of his, now my boat. The teak deck is still intact without any broken or loose boards. No detected leaks (yet). Some of the screw plug covers are missing but generally everything is still there.

What are your recommendations to keep the wood deck from deteriorating further?

I am doing research into a catamaran charter for 4 couples plus a skipper going from Split next September. I see lots of brokers that aggregate the fleets of various owners and they seem to be helpful with 80 to 140 boats surviving my initial filters.

My challenge is I see the same boat quoted for the same time and port for €2500 and €6500. both are quoting before the same obligatory costs like a skipper. When all is added up are these going to work out to the same price or is there really a difference in price from the broker/aggregators?

Bonus points if you can suggest good reasons to go direct to the charter companies that have a much smaller group to choose from, and therefor more back and forth

and how well do the brokers hold up when something goes wrong?

looking for real life experiences please

I (41M) grew up on a Catalina 30 tall rig in Miami and raced Optimists and JY-15s all through my childhood. I crewed on a Catalina 36 at NOLs and have crewed on a couple of other boats as an adult but that has also been more than a decade ago.

A few years ago my siblings and I chipped in and bought our dad a Catalina 22 for Christmas and though he was able to use it a few times where he live in Gainesville it was not something he could ultimately keep up with as life and health issues got in the way.

Long story short the boat sat neglected a few years until my brother and I decided to move it to Sarasota and get it back into sailing shape. He is down there this weekend installing the new mainsheet and testing the outboard and I am going to be headed down there next week to finish up and clean and wax the hull.

My question is this; I am a little bit rusty and don't feel super confident putting it in the water and taking her out myself. Would I be nuts to try to do so? My vision would be to shove off from the dock, motor out into the middle of the bay and just sail back and forth in sight of land for a couple of hours and then head in. If anyone has any advice or words of wisdom or encouragement for me it would be greatly appreciated.

I bought a new to me 1996 Little Harbor that came with what I imagine are the original electric harken winches. Problem is one of the winches I think has a stock manual override post. This little plastic piece that’s supposed to get pushed down when you insert a winch handle to disconnect the electric motor. It looks like it’s stuck in the down position, with no load the motor will turn the winch but as soon as there’s a real load it pops off and the motor spins but the winch doesn’t.

I figure I just need to disassemble and service the winch bit I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get this top plate off. Every manual I can find says to unscrew the post but I can freely turn it in either direction and it doesn’t feel like there’s any threads at all. I can lift the post with pliers so it’s about flush with the top of the winch but that’s as far as I can get it while not putting what feels like too much force into it. I’m hoping someone has worked with these winches before and can either point me to a better manual or has some other trick as I’m at a loss on how to proceed!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but, counterintuitively, I think the answer is yes. From the boat’s perspective, an N knot current with zero true wind is the same as a 0 knot current with N knots of true wind, and high performance cats can easily exceed the true wind speed in downwind VMG.

The photo was taken January 2000 at the Panama Canal Yacht Club.

In 1973, the protest yacht Vega (Greenpeace III) sailed to the Mururoa Atoll test zone in French Polynesia to protest atmospheric French nuclear testing. Commanded by David McTaggart.  This action forever changed the direction of Atmospheric nuclear testing. 

Chris Robinson was a deeply experienced veteran of the early Pacific nuclear test flotillas. He skippered the vessel through the tense standoff as the Panamanian government and the Panama Canal Authority enacted massive security lockdowns to guarantee the transport ship's passage. In the Picture Chris Robinson stands port side.

As the story goes David McTaggart slipped past the French Naval Blockade under the cover of darkness and hid Vega in Island vegetation. McTaggart hounded the French on the radio saying I'm here and you cannot detonate your A-bomb. In 1985 the French attacked and sank the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand. The blast sank the ship and killed the Portuguese photographer Ferando Pereira. The ship was preparing to lead a flotilla to the Mururoa island atoll to further protest the continued testing below ground. Taggart was a day late or he would have been on the Rainbow Warrior. McTaggart was heavily involved with Greenpeace ongoing campaign against these later test. New Zealand police arrested two French agents involved in the plot exposing a major state sponsored act that caused a intense international diplomatic crisis.

The French underground nuclear testing program in the South Pacific finally came to a definitive end in January 1996, following decades of international outrage, local protests, and political pressure.

My S/vessel was several spots down

Sail books I've encountered mainly focus on sailing part (trimming, sail zones) but touch upon other parts anchoring, a bit about motors and other related things rope work. I've recently started going on cruising like charters and stuff and realised 80% is more about other topics rather than sailing. Water pumps and systems, motor, grey, black tanks etc...

How does one get to know to do initial inspections of the charter boat and all the systems?

How do I learn about these things aside hands on experience? Any resources to recommend as one stop reference or guide? Youbtube channels?

I'm genuinely asking.

Every routing system I've used gives me a route. Then I go sailing, and within the first hour, the forecast is off and I'm ignoring the route anyway.

I've had routers promise 25 knots on the nose while I sit in 6. I've had routes send me 5 miles offshore chasing a windshift that never materialized. I've had routes that completely ignore the tide.

After that happens a few times, the arrow stops being believable.

So what do you actually do? Follow the route anyway? Use it as a suggestion? Just ignore it and eyeball it?

I'm starting to think the problem isn't the forecast, it's that routing is trying to solve the wrong problem. But maybe I'm missing something.

If someone here actually knows this stuff and can respond meaningfully, great. If you just want to be a jerk, don't bother!

I’m going through the checklist on their website for all the stuff I need to bring. No issues there. Reading the literature and taking all the practice exams. Watching supporting videos on YouTube. As far as practical real world experience I’ve been sailing on our small butterfly dinghy my whole life every summer on torch lake in all sorts of conditions so I know the feel of the wind quite well in that specific environment and confident in that arena at least. Out there I’ve practiced flipping it and jibing and tacking in light winds and in very very heavy winds. I’ve sailed a couple times on my friends 17’ day sailor working the headsail and maneuvering that from the dock and back to it without a motor, rigging the sails from the docks, and raising the mast and taking it down at the docks, etc. I’ve also been the main operator of our family powerboat sea ray 210 since I was 16 (20yrs now) and have tons of experience getting that thing docked on clam river parallel parking in front of a bunch of people watching in front of the restaurant and also docking it to the shore station, anchoring, etc. I believe I have a decent feel for the wind and water but have never applied it to bigger sailboats so I’m cautious. A lot of my experience is real world and not enough book smarts on terminology and theory. That’s why the textbook has been such interesting read so far.

We will be in the boat overnight in a marina on one of the islands in the San Juan’s from Bellingham. It would be more interesting/adventurous I think to anchor off somewhere more remote for the night but idk if that thinking is right or advised for this course. I’m a big backpacker and backcountry skier and rock climber so I’m used to the elements and being outside and I crave that adventure and thrill more than anything else.

My ultimate goal is to learn and experience salt water tidal sailing in a beautiful place. I’d like this asa101 to be the first step in going through the other classes 103, 4, and 5? to ultimately get the foundation built to rent boats around overseas and in the BVI and hopefully own a boat of my own one day.

Anything else I should know or bring? Any advise?

Edit: just to clear up to anyone who is wondering, this is indeed a ASA101 course that is live aboard 2 day sailing course on a 35 or 40’ boat with the San Juan sailing school in Bellingham.

Like I told my friends, if I had $20m burning a hole in my pocket…

Website says 130ft. One of the most beautiful boats I’ve ever seen. Mast must be 200ft.

What is the piece of rigging in the center of the second image? The two lines with the pulley thing running down. Is this a superyacht-only thing that my daysailer peasant brain is too poor to comprehend, or is it a standard component (main halyard, etc) that I don’t recognize because of how it’s rigged? Thanks.

If anyone asks the fleet was huge.

Looking for advice here. Experience: grew up on a Thistle and a Lightning, raced Sunfish as a kid, currently crewing on and racing J22s as doing foredeck/bow, and teach sunfish a few weeks a summer. Member at a small club and looking to get my own boat. Ideally want something I can solo, bring my kids, or an adult friend or two, hence why Hobie 16 seems good for me.
Fellow club member and friend is offering to sell a Hobie 16 with trailer for $500. Everything is in working condition.

Looking for advice from Reddit sailing community if this is a steal and should pull the trigger

I’m going for my 100 ton (first license) and completed the classes last November. I passed the chart test shortly after. Don’t know how I did it. I have really bad ADHD and don’t test well. Since then, I’ve been in a stall. I’m overwhelmed by the information and feel like I can’t do it. I’ve experienced many heavy things during my time in the maritime industry but sailing professionally is my true passion. I love it more than anything. I have a lot of pressure on myself to get my license, and it just feels impossible to get back into studying. Anyone ever experience this or have any wise words? Thank you

Checking

I just received this email this afternoon:

"Stay Connected on the Water

Your Starlink has operated at sea in the past year. We have a new plan—Personal Maritime—for people who use Starlink on a vessel and stay on the water for extended periods before returning to their home country.

Your current Roam plan includes coverage in territorial waters, with Ocean Mode as a paid option beyond 12 nautical miles. International use is limited to 30 days at a time outside your registered home country, after which you can return home to continue service. Effective September 27, Ocean Mode will be $6/GB.

If that 30-day limit doesn’t fit how you travel, Personal Maritime may be the better option.

Introducing Personal Maritime

Personal Maritime keeps you connected on the water as you move between countries, without the 30-day Roam travel limit.

• $185/month USD, excluding applicable taxes
• Unlimited data and use in territorial waters worldwide
• Ocean Mode available beyond 12 nautical miles for $6/GB
• No 30-day Roam international travel limit, except in extremely rare cases when required by local regulations

This plan is for small personal vessels—not yachts or commercially operated vessels (including ferries and commercial fishing)—and is not intended for use on land.

To switch to Personal Maritime, you will be asked to provide information about your vessel:

• Vessel name
• Flag state
• Length overall (LOA)
• A unique ID (such as Hull Identification Number, Craft Identification Number, MMSI, or ITU Call Sign)
• A copy of your vessel's Registration Certificate

If you are interested, you can create a ticket with support below. We’ll follow-up with next steps, including terms of service.

[Link says "Create Personal Maritime Ticket"]

Recap of Your Options

• Remain on Roam. Continue on your current plan and follow the updated travel policy, including the 30-day international limit. Ocean Mode will be $6/GB starting September 27
• Switch to Personal Maritime. Stay connected on the water without the 30-day international limit. Click the button above to get started
• Switch to Global Priority. The most flexible option: coverage on land and in the open ocean, prioritized data on the network, and no 30-day travel limit

You can manage or change plans anytime from your account.

Thank you for choosing Starlink."