Sail Far Live Free

The racer-cruiser concept has been around since the early 1960's (see Ted Brewer's 50 Years of Cruising Sailboat Evolution ). Today's examples seem less of a compromise and are able to offer excellent cruising accommodations while still being competitive on the race circuit. But compromises still exist, nonetheless. Now there's a new kid coming to the racer-cruiser neighborhood and I'm intrigued because the project collaborators are two designers who have produced several models that fill my cruising spirit with envy. Island Packet's founder and current CEO/Chief Designer, Bob Johnson, has teamed with his old buddy Tim Jacket, ex-President and Chief Designer at Tartan and C&C, to begin producing a "performance cruiser" called the Blue Jacket 40. The BJ40 is planned to be the first in a series of boats to come out of this collaboration. They'll be built at Island Packet's facilities and are said to be a melding of Bob's cruising design...

"...in the dismal fog I felt myself drifting into loneliness, an insect on a straw in the midst of the elements." - Joshua Slocum from Sailing Alone Around the World , 1900 Clouds on the Water  by K. Walters

"When I said I liked a sea life, I did not mean to be understood as liking a merchant ship, with an airless cabin, and with every variety of disagreeable odor." - Frances Calderon De La Barca from Life in Mexico  (1843) referring to her experiences onboard the packet ship Norman . Frances seems to be voicing my opinions too, as I also like a sea life but not because of the odors that living in a confined space can sometimes produce. The fact is, cruising boats carry more than just their crew and associated gear between ports. Human waste is also along for the ride, presumably well-contained in a proper holding tank. But said waste tends to promote biotic growth and thereby some funky odors and bi-product gases. Invariably, the gases need to escape somewhere. A proper holding installation includes a vent to the exterior of the boat where the gases can exit and relieve tank pressure and mitigate the build-up of odor. However, sometimes the gases escaping carry with th...

" It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind  that determines which way we will go. " -Jim Rohn Changing Directions by K. Walters

"And there's this one particular harbor, sheltered from the wind Where the children play on the shore each day, and all is safe within A most mysterious calling harbor, so far but yet so near I can see the day when my hair's full of gray and I finally disappear" - Jimmy Buffett from One Particular Harbor Playing on the shore in the cozy harbor at South Benjamin Island We all have "one particular harbor" where we go to get away from it all, where all is safe within; a place of peace and comfort. Some of us only ever physically visit that one particular harbor a single time, but revisit often in spirit. Some are blessed to live life in the shelter of their one particular harbor for as long as they please. Others must share time away from the harbor, but find a relaxing sigh in the memory of a past visit or a smile in planning the next. For me, a tiny little gunkhole on the south side of South Benjamin Island in Lake Huron's North Chann...

" A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries. " -Unknown While I don't know who first made the above statement, I'm pretty sure they must have made it before LED flashlights powered by lithium batteries became available. Reliable lights are a near necessity while cruising and LED's have made it so battery powered lights use very little energy while still providing bright, usable light. This past season I made a wholesale switch to LED's on our sailboat, both in the cabin fixtures and flashlights we carry. I'll save my thoughts on using LED's in cabin fixtures for another post, but today I want to shine the spotlight on a brilliant little flashlight. I'm not going to profess to you that I've found the holy grail now that I've got an LED flashlight. In fact, I'm guessing most of you probably already have one too. They've become so common now that you can buy them at the dollar store and throw them away for a new one wh...

Gaining Leverage  by K. Walters

"Being hove-to in a long gale is the most boring way of being terrified I know." - Donald Hamilton There are plenty of times in life where things get crazy-busy and we need a break, or the environment surrounding us gets stormy and we simply need a way to ride it out. Times like these are when I wish there was something in our daily life analogous to heaving-to aboard a sailboat. For those that do not know, heaving-to is a sailing tactic that allows the sailboat to slow forward progress almost completely while requiring no input from the crew once the sails and rudder are set. I like to think of heaving-to as a way to anchor in open water. Heaving-to can be useful for taking a break form sailing and having a meal down below or fixing equipment that can't be tended to under normal sailing circumstances. It can also be used as part of a man overboard maneuver or as a way to ride out a storm, both of which require special considerations (see below). We practice heavin...

"Oh Lord above send down a dove with beak as sharp as razors, To cut the throats of them there blokes what sells bad beer to sailors." - Lyrics from A Sailor's Prayer Haul Out Stout (by K. Walters) I brewed a hearty cherry stout ale on the day that Island Bound was hauled out to mark (and commiserate?) the official end of our 2012 sailing season. " Haul Out Stout " seems like a fitting name for this beer. Now that fermentation, bottling, and bottle conditioning are complete, we cracked open a few bottles recently and had a taste. Memorable and delicious...just like our sailing season!

"And I advise all sound cruisers to anchor properly in a harbor, not tie up at a marina, the yachtsmen's slum."   - Samuel Eliot Morison , Pulitzer Prize winning author and Rear Admiral of the US Navy Reserve We've always enjoy the simple pleasures of staying on the hook. There's something peaceful about the way the boat gently bobs and floats around the anchor. But I have to admit, even with our massive Bruce-style anchor and chain rode, we sometimes roll over in the middle of the night and wonder if we've dragged or drifted. That's when setting an anchor alarm is reassuring.  We don't always set an anchor alarm because we have the right ground tackle and we take our time to get a good anchor set. However, when the wind comes up or we're in a very crowded anchorage, we typically set an anchor alarm using our Garmin handheld GPS. But during the last couple of cruising seasons our iPhone and iPad have begun to take over some duties from the...

"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood." - Ralph Waldo Emerson , from Self Reliance Few that know the Great Lakes question what makes them great, but I've come to realize there are many folks who know nothing about the Great Lakes, or totally misunderstand their significance. Once when I was visiting San Diego, a local at the bus stop asked me if the lakes ever completely thaw in the summer. Another time someone wanted to know if I was able to see Wisconsin across Lake Michigan while standing in Michigan. And like many Great Lakes sailors, I've heard multiple times from our salty brethren that we're just "pond sailors". I think I know what Emerson meant when he said; "To be great is to be misunderstood." Words like "great" and ...