How to Handle Wind Gusts and Rounding Up

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Rounding up is so – so – so dangerous. Last weekend we were out sailing and a speed boat came ripping by at about 20 knots to the windward of us and only about 60 ft away. Yes they are stupid – yes they should know better and yes they should be shot – but […]

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Man Overboard

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In this post I want to tell a few stories that will alert you to the fact that MOB is going to happen to you, and often when you least expect

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How to cure seasickness naturally

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On our most recent yacht charter to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, we encountered one day with reasonably high swell and only about 10 knots of wind. Being on a broad reach was not the ideal heading for this but alas this is the direction we wanted to go – from the Bay of […]

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Man Overboard captured on video

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Racing out on the harbor a few weeks ago one of our guys suddenly found himself in the drink. I was able to capture a few clips on video in between helping to make sure that he was safe. This is a real safety tip that you should probably take a lesson or two from. […]

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When to reef a sailboat

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While all sailboat designs are different and will sail optimally at different heel angles and reef points, there are a few generalities that we’ll cover in this sailing blog. General reefing point number 1 through infinity: Don’t scare the beegeebees out of those on board by heeling the boat over too much. While you may […]

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How to dock a sailboat in heavy wind

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Docking a boat on to an end-tie or tee head with a strong wind blowing you off requires some knowledge on how to do it and it’s one of those things that you SHOULD practice for WHEN the time comes. Trying to just sidle up along side like you might do in a no wind […]

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Reefing a Catamaran

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Here’s a question from a student. >>>>>>> Grant, I would like some clarification on the steps taken to reef a main sail on a cat.  I’m going out on a 48ft cat and prob want to reef the sail before i go out…. Do i reef it while at the dock or in the water […]

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More about Heaving-to in a sailboat

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This is an add on to the last post we did on heaving to. I was looking over our Storm Tactics online sailing course and found this image we created which best shows a boat in a heave-to situation in a storm. They say a pic is worth a thousand words so with this blog […]

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