East Coast Sailing School & Services
Live Your Dream
The sailor’s guide to seasonal inspection. Ensure you cover each system in this easy-to-follow checklist. Prevention is the best medicine to keep you on the water rather than in the yard this sailing season.
Spring is here. Time to step back, put on your inspector hat, and approach the boat as an independent hired inspector would.
Click to read “Spring Inspection Checklist for Boats” from Practical Sailor, written by Drew Frye.
A video tutorial showing how to customize the look and feel of Aqua Map to best suit your needs. Whether you prefer to increase the font size of text on the app or display only certain POIs from Active Captain or Waterway Guide, this video walks you through all the options available in Aqua Map to adjust font and icon sizes, edit the menu, map appearance, and more.
Click to view “Customizing Aqua Map: Appearance and Visibility” from Aqua Map.
Boating Safety Checklists Are Not For Nerds.
The pros use them to prevent boating mishaps and you should too.
“Kick the tires and light the fires!” That was something we would sometimes say in my Coast Guard days when heading out to the helicopter for a rescue mission. It was mild bravado, a way to make us feel…cooler.
Click to read “Boating Safety Checklists Are Not For Nerds” from Soundings, written by Mario Vittone.
With a storm coming, a crew member faces a dilemma: How to say no to the boat’s owner.
Years ago, I was invited to help deliver a schooner to Key West, Florida, only to be faced with an uncomfortable situation before we ever left the dock.
It was late fall when my brother and I arrived in Beaufort, North Carolina, to replace two crewmembers who had helped sail the schooner south from New York. The owner was eager to get to Key West…
Click to read “Listening to the Voice Inside Your Head” from Soundings, written by Pim Van Hemmen.
The sea is no place for absolutes about everything, which is why the safety community’s mantra about PFDs should be modified.
The U.S. Coast Guard says it, the National Boating Safety Advisory Committee (NBSAC) says it, and the National Park Service says it: “Always wear a life jacket.”
“It’s a phrase that’s all too common among boating safety experts…”
Click to read “Should You Really Always Wear Your Lifejacket?” from Soundings, written by Mario Vittone.
The rules of the road can help you avoid an unplanned get-together with another vessel.
“I will never forget the first time I hit another boat. I was 19 years old and sailing a Beetle Cat through the inner mooring field of Newport Harbor, trying to impress a girl who had come to visit. I was a first-year apprentice at the IYRS School of Technology & Trades. It was a beautiful warm June afternoon with blue skies and a 12- to 15-knot sea breeze filling in. I was sailing close-hauled but getting set unusually hard…”
Click to read “Collision Avoidance” from Soundings, written by Will Sofrin.