Many years ago, in the late ’90s, I had an old Star that I loved in a way that was inversely proportional to the aggravation it caused me. One of my top-five epic sails was aboard this boat, as was one of my top-five epic fails. The epic fail wasRead More

  Frequent readers of this magazine know I bought my “big” boat, a 1966 Pearson Commander, four years ago for $750. They also know, thanks to this space, that most of the sailing I do is here in Essex Harbor on the Connecticut River, where the boat lives on aRead More

The title of this piece is obviously a riff on the signature line from Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer,” a song that doesn’t get too much airplay anymore, but that all these years later (it was originally released in 1984) still affects me when I hear it. It’s theRead More

One of the many compelling things about the WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport, which this year took place June 28-30, is the number of interesting personalities you encounter while walking around there. The boats are beautiful, of course, but the men and women who build and sail them, and supplyRead More

Beer is definitely having a moment. I don’t think it’s going too far out on a limb to say that it was once the least-sophisticated member of the booze family, the matriarch of which is wine and its patriarch, spirits. Never snooty or considered much of a jet-setter, maybe moreRead More

Frequent readers may recall that my 1966 Pearson Commander, Good Buddy, was a bargain bin craigslist find; that I dragged her 60 miles to my home in Connecticut from Long Island. Because of the considerable distance between me and the boat (nearly 2 ½ hours by car), and her low-lowRead More

Several years ago I stumbled across the flyer for an intriguing small-boat race, and the kicker was that it was practically in my own back yard. Called the Connecticut River Dinghy Distance Race, the event, which always took place in early May, was sort of a Gumball Rally for localRead More

It’s always neat when what you assume about a given situation is wrong, but in a way that leaves you hopeful about the current state of things. Take last fall, for example, when I checked in on the progress being made on the Mayflower II, a reproduction of the famousRead More

Without a doubt, there are many distractions to help bridge the gap between boating seasons these days, a lot of them thanks to technology. I’m thinking specifically of online classifieds (a personal favorite; see the trouble it got me into), YouTube and Vimeo, sailing vlogs, and streamable documentaries – allRead More

I hate to admit this, especially since my wife has been saying it for years, but I think I’ve got a problem. The problem is that I have too many boats. While this may be true, I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone. Many of us suffer from thisRead More