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.
Catamaran Maneuvering Mastery
As now learned, Cats can turn inside their own length, they can vector sideways, and using the bulldozer effect you can instantly rotate the Cat to point in any direction, you can do almost anything.
Motor Sailing
If the wind is light and your time is short you might want to consider motor-sailing—using your auxiliary engine...
Charter Provisioning
Many charter companies can stock and provision your boat before you arrive. This is a good idea for the basics but there is usually little imagination in the food that is supplied.
Understanding Weather Systems
Weather is a highly complex natural phenomenon. Globally, it is all connected and operates on a multitude of physical laws.
Crew Briefing Video
It is important to know how much experience your crew has before you embark on any sailing adventure. For our boat, we created a video walkaround introduction to the boat covering safety items and also just general items on how we want our boat looked after.
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.
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.
Risk of Collision when Sailing
The Rule of Risk of Collision is that every vessel shall use all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances...
Types of Anchors
Anchor design has been the focus of much research over thousands of years, and as a result, there are
The Types of Sailing Charters
There are two types of sailing charters; captained and bareboat. The captained charters have a professional captain on board to navigate and operate the vessel, and usually...
Propeller Entanglement
If there is a sudden slowing or stopping of the engine while motoring it is possible that you have picked up some floating line, hopefully not from your vessel.
Anchoring Rode and Scope
To hold a sailboat, the anchor must naturally be attached to the vessel. This is accomplished by using “rode,” which is either all chain or a combination of rope (nylon line) and chain.
When Turbulent Flow Happens in Sailing
An airplane stalls and falls out of the sky when the wings stop producing as much lift, similar to when turbulent air flow happens in sailing...
Sailing Safety Equipment
There is a plethora of equipment specially designed for a variety of emergencies at sea. Some are inexpensive...
Catamaran vs Monohull: A Real-World Comparison for Cruisers
Comparing catamaran vs monohull for cruising? This guide breaks down comfort, sailing feel, cost, safety, and real-life tradeoffs that matter.
Sailboat Maneuvering Topics
With practice, wind direction and current direction are not too much of a problem. But what can get you into trouble is extremely high winds. Be prepared to change...
Galley Stove on a Charter Boat
The vast majority of vessels in charter fleets are equipped with propane-burning galley stoves.
Getting the General Feel of Maneuvering a Catamaran
Some have compared maneuvering a catamaran with driving a bulldozer. Well . . . perhaps!
Standing Rigging
To keep the mast from toppling over, an array of rods, cables, ropes (lines), and wires are attached at various spots on the mast and run down to the bow, stern, and sides of the vessel.
Sailing Heave To
When you have successfully hove-to (heaved-to), your sailboat will be in a stable situation with the mainsail and headsail still up. Your forward speed will be minimal and...
Fire on a Sailboat
Putting out fires quickly is essential. The sooner you find the source the quicker the fire can be extinguished.
The Nautical Chart
Safely maneuvering a vessel while using positions derived from various coastal and near coastal sources is called coastal navigation.
Using Spring Lines for Docking
A spring line is just a dockline that is placed strategically from the boat to the dock to help maneuver and turn the boat in place - get it safely into the dock or safely away.
Electric Windlass
An electric windlass is a powerful electric winch that greatly helps in the lowering and raising the anchor.
