[This is one of those MadMariner features, but I’m extremely late republishing it here, for some reason. I think I just forgot about it! So forgive me for republishing this about eight months late. —Tim]

Back in early 2008, there were only four passable online cruising wikis – boater-maintained, real-time electronic bulletin boards to exchange information [...]

“Hey, you got your ActiveCaptain in my Rose Point Coastal Explorer!”
“Well you got your Coastal Explorer in my Active Captain!”
“It tastes great!”
ActiveCaptain’s Jeffrey Siegel just sent out the announcement below, and it should come as no surprise that I’m fairly “gung ho” about this. In my previous Cruising Wiki surveys (Cruising wiki shoot-out #1 and [...]

Time for another Navagear feature at MadMariner! This time, it’s a new look at all the cruising wikis I could find. Longtime readers will recall Cruising Wiki Shoot-Out #1 from about 18 months ago.
A lot has changed since then…and yet all the contenders still have room for improvement. To be fair, I’m a fairly [...]

When I first encountered the Wichard Gyb’Easy boom brake, I thought “Hey, cool, a kind of self-tacking preventer”.
And then I thought “Why not just use a conventional figure-eight descender, like climbers use?”
And then I started doing some research. It turns out my thoughts aren’t all that original; lots of people have wondered if [...]

[Steve Roberts added a comment on my recent press release posting about the Nav-Tracker service from Paradox and EMS Satamatics. With Steve's permission, Navagear will publish his comments in full here, as a stand-alone blog post.
See, if anybody is qualified to argue for a "home-brewed" alternative to commercial vehicle security, tracking, and monitoring services, it [...]

I learned about RejeX at the Seattle Boat Show last winter, and figured I’d give it a try as a window coating. It’s made by the same folks who produce CorrosionX, another magical concoction I’ve been using around the boat.
You know, sometimes these amazingly unbelievable coatings actually work as advertised. That appears to [...]

I’m aboard Two Lucky Fish at Port of Edmonds, my home marina, and I’ve met several members of the Minnkota Cruising Club. They held a small Memorial Day service this morning, and I was invited to participate.
What a great idea. While it’s wonderful to be out on our boats for the long weekend, [...]

Rope for standing rigging, eh? Yeah, I’m familiar with the concept. It’s obsolete technology, from the era of wooden sailing ships, and it looks something like this: Apparently, my thinking is somewhat out of date. Modern materials technology is giving new life to "old-school" rigging principles.
Colligo Marine claims that synthetic rigging is cheaper and [...]

[Fellow C-Dory folk Bill and El posted a quick review of the SPOT "Satellite Personal Tracker" today. SPOT is a clever little not-an-EPIRB and not-precisely-a-PLB product we've discussed before. Bill has given me permission to reprint his review here. See it in its original context over on the C-Brats site. --Tim] [...]

We took a cruise up to Port Townsend last weekend, and it was decided that my younger daughter and I would stay out at Fort Worden State Park, tied up to one of the mooring buoys. These mooring buoys have a reputation for being less than comfortable due to their exposed location just inside Point [...]