The Cape Dory Board

Robert, as you can see from the responses, we all love the boat we have. Having recently moved from a Ty to a 27, we are delighted with the upgrade. Decent head, V-berth, good room in the salon, reliable inboard, nice dodger and a simple joy to sail. It's even fun to overnight on the mooring! And, i...

The very professional looking directory is a very nice touch. I know I would have re-upped my dues eventually, but I was so impressed with the directory that I went directly to my checkbook.

Excellent job.

Our Ty had a nice setup for running lights. We used a small marine 12 volt battery which I charged in the spring using a simple charger and never had to recharge during the sailing season. We bought a simple panel switch @ W'Marine that included a cigarette lighter (and then could charge the iPod to...

As an owner of a boat that's new to us, I can appreciate the need to celebrate these "Firsts." You set the anchor, chilled out for a bit and got back underway. On Impromptu, that calls for another celebration! Nice going, Denis!

Local daily newspapers in the Northeast yesterday and today report that a search has ended for a 65 year old man who fell off his 32 foot sailboat just off the Rhode Island coast at 5 pm Monday with seas around 1 foot and winds about 12 kts. He was hit by the boom; his wife was left on the boat. May...

On page 46 of the July issue of Sail Magazine, there is a picture of a boat that looks like a Cape Dory. It is not identified, but the clear implication is that this is the boat of the couple who wrote the accompanying article. The author's biographical footnote says that they sail a Catalina 25 (?!...

Be sure that your assortment of Band Aids includes some high quality butterfly bandages. If someone gets cut badly, there is no substitute.

My PO put a plastic quart milk jug in the bilge and ran the ice melt drain hose into it. You just empty the jug as needed. No messy bilge. The hand pump idea is neat; but the milk jug works pretty well and is even easier to install.

If I'm reading the Don Casey wire gauge table correctly, at a 6 amp max load, you could have a round trip run of 30 feet and still get away with 10 gauge (AWG) wire. But considering 1) the relatively small difference in price, 2) the likelihood that you may someday wire something else on your boat w...

Depending on what else you stow on your Ty (mine had a decent anchor, a small but sort of heavy battery for running lights and a bunch of other stuff that I probably didn't need) and how much captain and crew weigh, there isn't much tolerance between the cockpit floor and the waterline. I wouldn't g...

Our Ty had both the backstay clip and a topping lift. For most occasions, the topping lift provided more function (e.g. reefing), but when we left the boat on its mooring, we always just clipped the boom onto the backstay clip. I suppose if you add a topping lift you could call the clip unnecessary,...

If your only need is to get back to the dock on a windless day (when there would likely be no waves) you don't need to worry about shaft length. It gets really dicey when you're motoring into 2+ foot waves and the prop pops out of the water every 8 seconds. Then it seems like no outboard shaft is lo...

Go with the electric. You don't need the HP of an outboard, so why make your boat uglier and more unbalanced than it needs to be?

I had a Tohatsu 4 hp on my Ty because I sailed in an area with strong currents. It was a great little machine, but it never looked good hanging off the stern.

Like everyone else at the annual meeting, I was disappointed to learn that Andy Vavolotis was not able to deliver a talk to the group. But Dave Perry's presentation was completely fascinating and chock full of really interesting information. (For example, Andy wanted to shorten the name of the compa...

We covered our typhoon weekender with the mast unstepped and a cheap tarp from a hardware store or wherever. I lay a 2 x 6 board from the stern to the cabin top (about 7 feet) to make the peak of the enclosure. To prevent the sides of tarp that cover the cockpit from getting weighted down with snow ...