Your Outboard Dies 6 Miles Out: The First 10 Minutes
A lone skipper, a dead main engine, a failed auxiliary — and a flat radio battery. What you do in the first ten minutes decides everything.
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The Fog That Swallows You in Two Minutes
A yacht with two radar screens still collided in fog. Why your GPS won't save you — and why COLREG Rule 19 will.
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Flat Calm to 3-Meter Waves in 15 Minutes
117 boats set out in fair weather. A squall took the wind from 15 to 50 knots — and six lives. The anatomy of the storm, and the warning that was there.
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Sails Intact, GPS Working — Thousands of Miles Off Course
Two sailors drifted five months across the Pacific with a registered EPIRB they never switched on. The real cost of pushing past your limits.
Read the article →USCG Fines & Penalties: What a Boarding Actually Costs
19 categories of enforcement, from a missing fire extinguisher tag to defying a Captain of the Port order — with fine ranges and seizure risk.
Read the article →Real Incidents & USCG Boardings: 6 Cases
Three fatal accidents, three Coast Guard boardings gone wrong — the source, the rule, and the fix for each, from the last two seasons.
Read the article →What Lights Does a Sailboat Show at Night?
Sidelights, sternlight, the tricolor — and what changes the instant you start the engine. Cited to COLREG Rule 25.
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Dragging Anchor: When the Bottom Doesn't Hold
A 29-foot sailboat aground on Lake Erie at midnight — what dragging anchor actually looks like, and the habits that prevent it.
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Man Overboard: The First 90 Seconds
A textbook recovery in a Puget Sound race, and a capsizing that ended in hypothermia. What separated the two outcomes.
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