Boating Knowledge Base
Have a sailing question? Access NauticEd’s sailing and boating knowledge base, and gain in-depth answers to your sailing questions. If you’re interested in powerboating, visit our new powerboating blog.
Kids on a Sailing Charter
If you're considering a charter and considering taking your kids - DO IT.
Dual Rudder Monohulls
When a monohull sailboat has dual rudders, the boat will act with different characteristics than with a single rudder. Thus, the point of this module is to help you maneuver a dual-rudder monohull sailboat.
Raising the Alarm in Emergencies
A comprehensive list of how and the equipment used to raise the alarm in sailing emergencies
Winged Sail Vector Diagrams
Sail and Winged Sail Wind Force Vector Diagrams. And it's highly relevant right now because of the America's Cup AC45 catamarans using winged sails.
Getting the General Feel of Maneuvering a Catamaran
Some have compared maneuvering a catamaran with driving a bulldozer. Well . . . perhaps!
Sailboat Mooring Procedures
The procedure for tying to a mooring is theoretically very easy. You simply motor up and using a boat hook, grab the float and attach to it to your boat. It sounds simple but you will see many dismal failures when watching others try it.
Navigation Tools
No matter the chart in use, the navigator’s work largely involves the determination of direction and distances. The most useful tools for actual chart work are...
Sinking
A boat sits down in the water until it has displaced the same weight of water as the weight of the boat. It is a universal arrangement between boat and water...
Sailboat Electrical Panels
The sailboat electrical panel, located at the navigation station, normally has two distinct and separately marked sections; one section is devoted to 110-volt or 220-volt AC power and...
Docking Force Alignment and Moment Balance
When you are docking, if your boat pulls on a line attached to the dock, the line pulls back on your boat. If the forces are aligned, then nothing really happens.
Sailboat Design
Surely, the first sailboat was invented by a five-year-old child with a block of wood. He or she stuck a twig through a piece of animal skin and then down into a knothole in the wood.
Wind
Winds can be gentle, hardly felt, like zephyrs flitting about in a local area, or they can be vast movements of air moving swiftly across oceans and continents at low and high altitudes.
Narrow Channels and Traffic Separation Schemes
Rules 9 and 10 deal with narrow channels and traffic separation schemes, and mainly refer to larger commercial traffic...
Sails
Sails are sophisticated objects. It is not only the materials they are made from that are important, but also, the way they are cut and sewn.
True Wind vs. Apparent Wind
Learn the basic difference between True Wind and Apparent Wind...
Sailboat Diesel Water Systems
Diesel engines run hot because of high compression and therefore need to be cooled. Fortunately, ample cooling is readily available from the water the vessel is sailing in.
Communications while Underway on a Charter
Contact between vessels, or a boat and a land station, is usually carried out using VHF (Very High Frequency) radios.
Sail Twist Basics
How can the wind direction be different between the top of the mast and the bottom?
Action by a Give-Way Vessel
The Nav Rule Every vessel which is directed to keep out of the way of another vessel shall...
Action to Avoid Collision
When you reach the section on who is responsible to give way to whom - in certain circumstances...
Charter Freezer and Fridge Management
Freezers are typically top-loading and very deep. Take from home 4 -5 fabric shopping bags to stow similar items in the freezer. In doing this you...
Planning to use springlines when docking
Like a work of fine engineering, a spring maneuver requires a design. The key is to plan the maneuver by considering the wind, current, and other obstacles, then design the placement and directions of the forces and moments.
Head-on Nav Rules Situation
The Rule (a) Unless otherwise agreed when two power-driven vessels are meeting on reciprocal or nearly reciprocal...
Typical Sailboat Energy Usage
Here we show the devices and how much energy you would typically use on a sailing boat on a sailing vacation each day.
