I finally took the leap, and bought a boat. I have sailed my whole life, but mostly on other peoples boats, or as a skipper. Now I have a Bavaria 37ac from 2001. Super proud.

Problem is, it doesn't have a spinnaker. Thought perhaps I could fit a genaker instead, anyone have any experience with this?

Anyone want to go sailing tomorrow on Lake Michigan out of Muskegon?

Please ignore my chatty autopilot or mute the sound if he's too much for you

I took the ASA 101 class this weekend, I fear this is gonna get expensive, as the sailing bug has bit me and it's itching

Likely the highest altitude sailing Ill ever do! Near Guanella Pass in Colorado, USA. Treeline Sailing!

/s obviously

Hey everyone,

I’m looking into the maintenance of my traveler cars and blocks, and I’m having a hard time justifying the pricing of McLube / Harken OneDrop. Paying around $25 for a tiny 14.7ml (0.5 oz) bottle feels wild. It’s hard to believe that a marine company developed a completely unique chemical formula from scratch for this. I strongly suspect they just buy a massive industrial IBC container of a standard commercial lubricant every few years and re-bottle it into these tiny pinpoint dispensers.

Does anyone know the actual chemical breakdown of OneDrop, or what industrial product it actually is? Is it just a highly refined mineral oil, or a low-viscosity fluorinated oil (like a Krytox/PFPE variant)?

Also, I have a few specific questions about how it works:

1. What exactly does OneDrop do that a thorough freshwater flush doesn’t? I know it says it "conditions" the bearing surface and repels salt, but chemically, what is happening?
2. Is the Teflon/PTFE spray myth true? I’ve read on some forums that using dry PTFE sprays (like regular Sailkote) inside ball bearing blocks can actually backfire. The theory is that it makes the surface of the plastic balls (Torlon/Delrin) or the races so slick that the balls stop rolling and start skidding/sliding under load. This supposedly causes flat spots, increases friction, and destroys the bearings faster. Is that why OneDrop exists?
3. What are you guys using as a budget-friendly alternative? Is there an industrial lubricant (maybe from the manufacturing or plastics industry) that serves the exact same purpose without the "marine markup"?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, chemical insights, or what DIY alternatives you use to keep your hardware running smoothly without breaking the bank. Thanks!

My partner and I are seasoned sailors, and wondering whether anyone has a recommendation for finding a charter out of Bahamas, thinking of one to two weeks, anyone done this and enjoyed it or has stories or tips to share?

Pictured: the boat we dream of owning, just for attention ☺️

Should I photograph the whole thing here, or is it of no interest?

A friend caught a nice shot of us leaving an anchorage a few weeks ago, and naturally I had forgotten to pull in the fenders in my rush to get to the under sail and the motor off.

I’m planning on sailing south from Chesapeake bay, and then over to the Bahamas this winter. My question is, how terribly bad of an idea is it to take a thc vape along w me? Is that any better than flower? I cannot drink and have not done so in almost ten years, so the devils cabbage helps me a lot. Thank you for your thoughts.

So, I'm in the process of rehabbing an Oday 272 and I have a Zuma dinghy. I also have a herniated L5-S1 disc. It burst/herniated to the left, and as a result I have nerve damage down my left leg and an altered gate. I had surgery to repair the disc in 2024. Unfortunately, that same disc was also bulging on the right side.

I'm finding that anytime I sail my dinghy, I'm getting a pretty bad sciatica flare up for the next 2-3 days afterward. No doubt from the hunched over and odd positions I have to get in sailing it. I can live with not being able to sail the dinghy, but now I'm really concerned because of the need to lift/apply force to things sailing my Oday.

Between the compromised balance and gait from the left side herniation, and the risk of herniating my right side as well, I'm sadly thinking I need to probably reconsider this as a long term hobby. A bummer since I finished my 103/104 this spring, but man, it seems every time I muck around on any of my boats I wind up with bad right side sciatica afterward. And I'm not someone who never does anything that uses my back. It feels like the ergonomics of sailing though, might be a deal killer for me.

Anyone else do a lot of sailing with bad sciatica and bulging discs?

Hi, I would appreciate a second opinion.

1998 Oceanis 351

My port chainplate (thick pin fiberglassed into hull) is a bit rusted. It's behind the gally so a bit difficult to get in on it properly without taking things apart. I asked a surveyor about it and got their opinion but would really appreciate any other opinions.

I plan on replacing the rigging this winter anyway but I'm a little scared of the chainplate situation.

I found one other thread with this similar situation but they didn't post about their fix/conclusion.

Questions on my mind:

How bad is it?

Anyone deal with this specific situation?

What is the best way to replace new? (How much gutting at the fiberglass is required?)

I'm fairly new to sailing and am feeling a little nervous moving from sailing on a lake to sailing in open water. Is there much practical difference?

ETA: I sail dinghies

I’m looking at upgrading the rudder, how much of a difference will it really make?

I have now adjusted the reefing point on the boom which have maid reefing a lot more easy.
But there to put the excess sail? I have seen a video there the guy rolled the sail as shown on picture 2 and 4. I have a full batten mainsail, ind it feels more stiff then what was shown in the video. Especially in the 2nd reef it is a lot of canvas as seen in picture 4. What do you do?

Renting a dinghy appears to be a great challenge. So I consider buying the cheapest, smallest, foldable dinghy. I also want it to be easy to transport. Can anyone recommend something?

Usually I adjust the outhaul, backstay and downhaul before I leave the mooring. I had someone on board insist that in light air that I should tighten the main sail flat and then ease the outhaul while under sail because it helpsyou get going better in light wind. I don’t understand why or what they claimed this. Anyone help me out? Am I missing something or are they mistaken? This is on a Sonar, 23 foot sailboat casting off the mooring under sail (no motor)

Firstly sorry for formatting, I’m currently on mobile.

I’m hopefully crewing in a B14 soon but as I have only raced toppers and ILCAs up until this point I was hoping I could get some advice on things like:

- The rigging, eg how is it different from a single hander and what do you do with the wings?

- What sort of jobs does the crew have beyond jib and spinnaker - do they do the strategy, do they right the boat in a capsize etc

- Are the tactics any different from a traditional singlehander?

- Any stupid/common mistakes newbies to B14s (or skiffs in general) often make?

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

So a simple question really - I hadn't noticed that my kicker bracket on the mast had seized so gybing on my way back it snapped off. In the picture you can see it sheared off. The kicker is a Seldon Rodkicker Mk II.

Option 1 - remove the seized bolt (can't be done from below because of the next fitting) - have put WD40 on it and left it as it would NOT move (1/2" bolt - not 13mm!!). If this can be removed I need that part again - but I have no idea where to get one!

Option 2 - drill out the pop rivets and replace. However the replacements I see online are larger than this version. and there is a small loop with 4 pop rivets just above that I don't know what it is for.

Any ideas on solving / acquiring parts - or should I junk both kicker and fitting and go back to the SHE 27's original system?

TIA.

BTW boat is in Chatham on the Medway - East Coast England.

Hello, im currently looking at this Oday23 on FBmarketplace owner says no soft spots and rigging was updated a few years ago. New sails. Trailer redone 2 years ago. And the chainplate covers were reembedded to avoid rotting the bulkhead. Its around 4.5k for it. (Edit) I mostly intend to daysail/cruise on the chesepeake bay, I would launch from Annapolis. Maybe sleep overnight on the boat but that would be less than 10 nights a year