Messing About In Sailboats

March 2011 Issue of News From the Bow

via newsfromthebow.wordpress.com Lots of great stuff in this month's News From The Bow, the excellent newsletter for sailors: A guest post by Robert Eldridge White Jr as in Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book An evaluation of paper-based versus digital navigation tools The Boat US Smartphone app "Lightbulb moments", those flashes of inspiration on the water Best and worst of boat covers and lots more Strong suggest you check it out. In coming weeks I will featuring some of the best articles on Messing About. Read more →

What's New In This Month's News From The Bow

If you haven't seen it, you REALLY need to check out News From The Bow, the excellent sailing newsletter produced by my great friends Stu and Shana Hochron. Here's what this month's edition has in store according to Stu: One reader described a recent winter storm damaged docks. Could we determine, from the photos he’d taken, if anything failed and what caused the destruction? We asked Peter Schkeeper, a professional engineer who specializes in waterfront real estate, including dock design and maintenance, to give us his thoughts. We hope you find his conclusions as interesting as we do. Winter boat shows are an annual pilgrimage for many boaters. Armed with our camera we set out to bring you a slice of the 2011 New York Boat Show. Ever searching for the unique, we were pleasantly surprised at the number of items that fit that description. We hope you agree that... Read more →

News From The Bow is now a blog

A while back, I blogged about the excellent online sailing newsletter, News From The Bow. This month, they have moved the site over to Wordpress and will now be operating it as a blog. I think they will still publish on a monthly schedule. Strongly suggest you add it your blogroll.It's full of great articles, photos and poetry. Read more →

Avoiding Many “Avoidable Close Calls” (Listening To and Communicating with Commercial Vessels on Channel 13) by Guest Author Stu Hochron

Stu Hochron is founder and author of the truly excellent sailing online newsletter News From The Bow. He and his wife Shana sail their beautiful Freedom 45 in the Northeast mainly. The image is care of Bowsprite. You should definitely check out this truly original blog. Fantastic water colors. Adam New York’s East River is home to ferries, tankers, tugs (pushing and towing) and all sorts of commercial traffic. The safety of these working boats depends, to a significant degree, on their ability to communicate with each other while underway. Their captains are required to monitor channel 16, and so too should all pleasure craft. However, many pleasure boaters are unaware that nearly all commercial vessel VHF radio communications, including some calls to pleasure craft in their area, are NOT heard on channel 16. Consider this scenario: You are traveling on the East River (or Hudson River, or NY Harbor,... Read more →

Anchoring in the Northeast U.S. by Guest Author Stu Hochron

Stu Hochron is founder and author of the truly excellent sailing online newsletter News From The Bow. Adam Why Bother to Anchor? Every boater reaches a point when he/she either chooses to anchor, or when his/her vessel’s safety depends on proper anchoring. If you are like me, you prefer to avoid the hassle of approaching, tying up to, departing, and living on crowded guest docks. If you are lucky enough to carry adequate water and power to be comfortable “on the hook”, then anchoring gives you the opportunity to choose a “different road”. Our most beautiful photos of sunsets were all taken at anchor. Our most unobstructed stargazing has occurred at anchor. Our most memorable nights of peaceful dining and restful sleeping have occurred while at anchor. As with everything in life, however, the benefits of anchoring “out” come at some cost, including: taking the time to understand how to... Read more →