Articles You Might Have Missed
A collection of popular articles posted over the last year
Some of you ask for more content, others tell us they can hardly keep up with what we’re posting and e-mailing already. Especially for the latter group, you might have missed some very good articles along the way as e-mails stack up and real life interferes with your reading about boats. Each day another article or two pops up, pushing otherwise excellent content deeper into the archives.
Here then are links to just a few of the most popular articles we’ve published over the last months. Enjoy now if you missed them—or maybe enjoy them again! —Eds
Sean Grealish’s recent Cruise Planning Tools is quite useful:
Our interview with survival expert Andre-Francois included lots of good advice:
Small Boats and Survival: The Andre-Francois Bourbeau Interview
There’s a reason Canadian survival expert and professor emeritus, André-François Bourbeau, is known as “Doc Survival.” After receiving his master’s degree in Outdoor Education he immersed himself in a doctoral program that, among other things, included four, 10-day survival trips—one for each of the seasons. Bourbeau spent time with primitive tribes in …
Kitrick Nielson’s well-written essay on desert cruising was enjoyed by all:
Suffering Spontaneity’s Consequences
Article and photos by Kitrick Nielson Today I've hiked into town before the Dollar General opens and it's already miserably hot. I find some shade and connect to the store’s free WIFI to try and make my new phone’s SIM card work. Here I get the same message I got all day yesterday. “Try again later.” Yesterday I woke up phoneless and stranded, and last night I had to rush to beat nightfall and row my little boat back out into the Colorado River where I camped on an island 100 feet from the gaze of waterfront patios. At least today started with a phone that works on Dollar General WIFI. Things today are going better than they had been.
Our comparison of three popular minicruisers was popular again:
Potter 14 vs Com-Pac 16 vs Montgomery 15
In 1999 we were hot on the trail of the best minicruiser; “best” being the one most capable and comfortable, while being easy to trail, rig and launch. Personal preferences had caused us to whittle our list down to three, although our minds were certainly still open. The three were: The legendary West Wight Potter 15, the beautiful lapstrake Montgomery 15, and the shippy little Com-Pac 16.
Folks seemed to appreciate Josh’s preaching to the choir:
Inches Over the Bottom
Magic birds were dancing in the mystic marsh. The grass swayed with them, and the shallow waters, and the earth fluttered under them. The earth was dancing with the cranes, and the low sun, and the wind and sky.—Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings There’s something about skimming over the shallows—the rocky bottom passing just below the hull—that I find especially…
Marty’s review of a book on Ireland’s small craft was a big hit:
Love Those Traditional Boats of Ireland
Bob Miller, cruising buddy and boatshop partner, loaned me Traditional Boats of Ireland—an impressive collection of historical information, photos, illustrations, line drawings and lore on the subject. Since not many of you are likely to buy the 668-page hardback (currently $397, up a tad from the $85 paid upon publication), we’d like to share a few boats in the book, which is out-priced by the even-more-rare
Finally, John Harris’s simple-but-elegant mod appealed to cruisers:
Two-Hour Galley Box
Article by John C. Harris I had a four-day cruise in PocketShip lined up and a lovely little butane stove without a proper place to sit while in use. The stove works fine perched on a cockpit seat or even the cabin sole, but I wanted a more ergonomic solution.
P.S. Don’t forget about the search function. In addition to our column categories along the top, that little magnifying glass allows you to search by topic.
For example, here’s what happens when you type the word “anchor” into the search:
•SCA•
I was unaware of the search function. I can't find it on the smartphone....likely because I'm not smart enough...
Nice collection! Of course I've seen most of it before since there is little the journal has printed that I haven't read, but it seems everyone misses something here and there. And thought I have begun a digital collection I doubt it will ever be totally complete. This will go in the collection for further reference although I may have to enquire of Josh how to get into the stored part if it requires another sign in. I hope anyone who wasn't around for some of these gets a peek!