
When Cell Service Disappears These Skills Keep You Safe
From Mayday calls and the phonetic alphabet to code flags and hand signals, the offshore communications that still matter out there.

From Mayday calls and the phonetic alphabet to code flags and hand signals, the offshore communications that still matter out there.

Day one of the 2026 Boat of the Year trials was a Chesapeake mess. The Leopard 52 went anyway. It was the right call.

A LaGuardia runway collision and tug captains asking why sailboats hide their AIS: why no single electronic system sees everything.

Before the crew wakes and before the sun arrives, there is a window offshore that belongs to the sailor standing the dawn watch alone.

A cruising sailor joins a mixed crew on a Beneteau 36.7 in the BVI and rediscovers that racing is more fun than she remembered.

Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevada draws racers from across the country with winds that rival coastal sailing on a good afternoon.

More crowds, more fees, more commercialism. As soon as the marina falls astern, the things that matter about cruising are unchanged.

Jamie Gifford pounded into the Sea of Cortez on a boat with a comfort ratio of 35.5 and learned what the formula cannot account for.

End ties, T-heads and wide-lift yards: the infrastructure gap that every cruising cat owner eventually has to plan around.

From a 1986 transatlantic record attempt with Robin Knox-Johnston to the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, one sailor’s ringside view.

Two to four knots faster on a Pacific crossing saves days. The sailors doing this math are not beginners.

Here’s what 35,000 miles on both monohulls and multihulls has taught one saiilor about the pros and cons of each.

From Mayday calls and the phonetic alphabet to code flags and hand signals, the offshore communications that still matter out there.

Day one of the 2026 Boat of the Year trials was a Chesapeake mess. The Leopard 52 went anyway. It was the right call.

A LaGuardia runway collision and tug captains asking why sailboats hide their AIS: why no single electronic system sees everything.

Before the crew wakes and before the sun arrives, there is a window offshore that belongs to the sailor standing the dawn watch alone.

A cruising sailor joins a mixed crew on a Beneteau 36.7 in the BVI and rediscovers that racing is more fun than she remembered.

Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevada draws racers from across the country with winds that rival coastal sailing on a good afternoon.

More crowds, more fees, more commercialism. As soon as the marina falls astern, the things that matter about cruising are unchanged.

Jamie Gifford pounded into the Sea of Cortez on a boat with a comfort ratio of 35.5 and learned what the formula cannot account for.

End ties, T-heads and wide-lift yards: the infrastructure gap that every cruising cat owner eventually has to plan around.

From a 1986 transatlantic record attempt with Robin Knox-Johnston to the Caribbean Multihull Challenge, one sailor’s ringside view.

Two to four knots faster on a Pacific crossing saves days. The sailors doing this math are not beginners.

Here’s what 35,000 miles on both monohulls and multihulls has taught one saiilor about the pros and cons of each.
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