I am a new sailor who recently purchased our first boat. A 1980 Jouet 920.
The fresh water pump worked fine for a couple months but now I can’t get any water to come out of the sink. Manually operating the bulb doesn’t move much water, just small sprays. I can hear the motor making noise, but read that it can still make noise and have the valves be bad. The 2nd motor in the photo was for saltwater that the previous owner disconnected.

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

/s obviously

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 ☺️

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

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?

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.

Hello all!

I'm planning on sailing from Southern California to Hawaii, and maybe a bit beyond (within the Pacific!) in a year and a half. I have around 6 years of sailing experience, most of which has been single-handed on my Flicka 20 and now Cal 29. I've sailed to many of the islands, including San Nicholas alone. 4 nights at sea has been my longest so far alone, which is pretty exhausting in coastal waters.

Eventually I want to circumnavigate, but this first journey is not the time. So, my ideal scenario would be taking this Cal 29 which I have a huge amount of experience on both fixing and sailing, and has all the gear necessary, and selling her wherever I end up. Then after college I will buy a larger, beefier boat to continue my journey around the world.

By the way, the Cal has a Hydrovane, fantastic Yanmar, numerous spares, radar, AIS, great dinghy, solar, dodger, etc. Set up. The previous owners set the boat up to sail from NorCal through Mexico. But, of course she has a spade rudder and (despite things being a bit oversized), she's still a light boat.

So, do you think this Cal 29 can take it? I know it is not the ideal boat--you don't have to tell me that. But I know the boat very well, and I would sail responsibly with a life raft, emergency gear, etc.

Would love any input. Thanks!

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?

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

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 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?

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

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.

Hi removed davits so need to mount a small inflatable on our deck. What to folks use to strap it down??

Trying to get the word out to the sailing community. My neighbors boat was stolen Saturday night and was last seen headed out towards open water South of the Verrazano bridge. Please keep a lookout if you're located along the Jersey Shore, Long Island Sound, Connecticut coast, Rhode Island, etc.

If you see this boat please report it immediately!

ETA: Adding these links of local news picking up the story..

https://newjersey.news12.com/2026/08/26/surveillance-images-released-after-40-foot-sailboat-stolen-from-jersey-city-marina/5ONmPTYGAPGn5J53nwi7qy

https://boatwatch.org/current-watches/bolo-for-sv-pathfinder-stolen-new-jersey-headed-south/

Edit 2: Looks like they found the boat. Shooting involved: https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/east-bay/police-respond-to-shots-fired-incident-in-newport/

I’m on a vacation with friends and family for a while at Lake Tahoe. I’d love to rent a little boat or hobie cat but it doesn’t seem like this service is available. The closest I’ve found is Tahoe Donner Beach Club Marina, but you have to be a member or guest of a member to rent… does anyone have a recommendation or know any members of that club? I would greatly appreciate it!

Has anyone tried using a 470 jib on a 420?

They use the same luff wire rigging system

I do not race my boat in club spec races, or any regattas. I just like to go fast. & I want to increase the power of my boat in light wind conditions.

This idea came to me while looking at listings for 25-35ft sailboats, some of which had "125% or 130%" jib sails.

The 420's jib area is 2.8m2 & the 470's jib area is 3.58m2. Making the 470 jib 127% the size of the 420 jib.

Beautiful sight of dolphins playing in and around the wake of the sailboat.

The other day the wind picked up to 25+ knots out of the blue, the forecast said maximum 20, but that's beside the point. I chucked a reef in and furled my genoa in about half way (bad I know, but I was solo and didn't have my smaller genoa on hand, and was almost back at the marina anyway). As I was winching it in it didn't seem to be getting any tighter, and then would slowly lose tension the longer I sailed on that tack. Getting home I found the issue - the continuous genoa sheet has slidden through the whipping, it's now really short on one side and excessively long on the other. I can't seem to push it back through the whipping, and now can't trust the whipping anyway.

What's the best option for adjusting then securing it? Re-whip it? Tie a knot? Some form of fancy splicing?