On Watch
21 What Is Cruising, Anyway?
by Steve Callahan
From monos to multis, from minis to maxis, from crowded crews to perfect solitude, Steve’s life in boats has been eclectic
Sailor Profile
27 Born a Commodore
by Dieter Loibner
Long before Warwick Tompkins Jr. amassed his 500,000 sea miles, he’d acquired the nickname to match his birthright
Passage Notes
39 A Child’s Christmas in Paradise
by Carolyn and Bob Mehaffy
Families celebrating Christmas along Mexico’s Pacific Coast find they have little trouble adjusting to the absence of snow
People and Food
51 Fishing Without Bait
by Dan Welch
Along a lonely stretch of the Great Barrier Reef, abucket of home-brewed beer trades for handfuls of banana prawns, tiger prawns, blue swimmer crabs, and delicious Moreton Bay bugs
Log of Ithaka
Improper Behavior
by Douglas Bernon
As any 5-year-old can tell you, disassembling complicated machinery is the easy part
Features
Cover Story
52 A New Contest for New Boats
by Tim Murphy
Competition for the Boat of the Year contest is sharpened as CW adds a nominating round, selects 22 new sailboats, then picks the best
62 Antarctica: The Missions Begin
by Peter Lane Taylor
In the final installment of a two-part series, Gambo’s crew crosses the Antarctic Convergence Zone for weeks of research and mountaineering
67 Hey, Dude, Where’s Our Boat?
by Andrew Krajacic
Their Pacific crossing is all fun and games till a gadget slides off the cabin top and two brothers?the ship’s whole complement?dive in after it
72 Closing the Fourth Circle
by Webb Chiles
Having reached Australia from New England, Webb reflects on the four boats, the nine lives, and all the voyages that led to where he is today
Hands-On Sailor
Voyaging
78 Everest Horizontal Capsized
by Tim Kent
After sailing 30,000 miles to take second place in his Around Alone class, Tim Kent loses the ballast bulb from his Open 50 on the way home from Bermuda
Boathandling
84 Self-Steering for High-Performance Hulls
by Evans Starzinger
Contemporary sailboat design, which encourages greater acceleration, poses a new set of problems for traditional windvane self-steering systems
Offshore Sailing
90 Albert Takes On Otto
by Tony Gooch
During a solo circumnavigation, this sailor kept careful notes about his electronic autopilot and his mechanical self-steering vane and brought back some compelling conclusions
Systems
96 Bring On the Noise Busters
by Steve D’Antonio
Excessive vibration can harm more than just your ears, so we’ve explored several solutions for stopping your boat’s shake, rattle, and hum
Reviews
Gear Review
Making the Hard Choice
by Darrell Nicholson
For their simplicity and durability, hard dinghies are still the choice of many longtime voyagers
7/Editor’s Log
8/Mailbag
10/Shoreline
89/Another Opinion
111/Chartering News
151/Advertiser Index
