Boat Pre-Departure Checklist for Skippers and Charter Captains
Documents, weather, engine, required safety gear by vessel length, fuel, and the crew briefing most skippers skip — the checklist that catches what memory doesn't.
Read the pre-departure checklist →
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.
Read the outboard engine-failure emergency guide →
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.
Read the fog and Rule 19 collision-avoidance guide →
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.
Read the sudden-squall weather guide →
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 seamanship and limits story →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 USCG fines & penalties reference →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 real incidents & boardings cases →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.
Read the navigation lights guide →
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.
Read the dragging-anchor guide →
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.
Read the man overboard procedure →