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.
Latitude and Longitude
The latitude and longitude coordinate system is the key navigational concept for sailing. It is the mariner’s coordinate system.
Vessel Lights and Shapes
Nighttime can be a beautiful time to sail. However, night vision is not the same as day vision and so rules have been established to ensure safety.
Understanding the Safety Position in Sailing
Learn how the Safety Position — a controlled, depowered close reach — helps sailors pause safely without losing steerage. Ideal for MOB drills, instruction, and more.
Navigation Introduction
The history of navigation is fascinating and dates back to as many centuries as we can imagine.
Mediterranean Mooring Techniques
Mediterranean Mooring Techniques is where the rubber meets the road—or, in this case, where the gel coat does not touch the big bad hard concrete wall.
Sailboat Battery Charging
Like a water bucket, batteries have a specific storage capacity and must be refilled/recharged when their contents of energy are depleted.
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.
Clothing for Sailing
Dressing appropriately for weather conditions is an important but often overlooked topic. Weather in the marina may be considerably different from weather beyond the marina and conditions can drastically change during your venture.
Diesel Raw-Water System
Raw-water means that the water is straight from outside the boat. It might be seawater - it might be
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...
Hull and Keel
A sailboat’s hull and keel receive considerable attention from a sailboat designer since they determine the capacity of the vessel, how fast it will go, and the degree of safety and comfort.
Docking onto End Ties
Wind blowing you off the dock end ties, plan a fairly steep approach so that you are facing more into the wind.
Springing a sailboat On and In
Coming up to a Tee-head is more the situation where you need to spring on. The need for accuracy in your maneuver is heightened when the space is tight.
Sail TellTales
"Telltales" attached to the sail in strategic positions to "tell" us what the wind is doing at that exact location.
Sailing Safety Introduction
Emergencies at sea extend from simple and almost funny episodes to major challenges that are extremely serious.
How to Book a Sailing Charter
There are a few things you need to know about booking a charter.
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.
Propwalk factors – The p factor
There are two combined reasons that work in unison to create propwalk.
Sailing Personnel Emergencies
As the skipper of a vessel, you are expected to be able to handle situations thrust upon you at a moment’s notice. Many of these situations are boat-related issues, but there are also crew injury issues for which you should be prepared to assess and handle at least enough until professional assistance arrives.
Holding a Constant Heading while Adjusting the Sails
We're heading to a specific point on land or a compass heading. Thus we need to keep the sails flying effectively...
Rudder Force with Spring Lines
The rudder can be a big help because it can change the direction of the thrust force.
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...
Crew Overboard
Crew ("Man") Overboard (MOB) is fortunately relatively rare, but chances are that in your sailing career it will happen.
Operating the Engine – Getting Familiar with a Charter Boat
Many modern sailboats are equipped with integrated engine throttle and transmission shift systems; called the push-pull cabling system.
