Boat Smart Archives

COVID19 and Sail Training (Updated: Jan 2022)

by Fin | Wed Jan 2022 | Boat Smart, Deep Waters, Head to Wind, Rules & Regs

Topmast is committed to conducting courses in a safe and responsible manner to ensure the health and safety of our students and Instructors. At Topmast we are mandated by the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act and will act accordingly. We carefully examine...

Baltic 42 in the Erie Canal – Scraping By!

by Fin | Sat Jul 2019 | Boat Smart, Head to Wind

This spring I was fortunate to spend some time with Erin and Marie on their Baltic 42. We had a great sail from Rhode Island to New York city where I jumped-off and Erin and Marie carried on up the Erie canal to Lake Erie. One of the concerns was the 2m keel and...

Obeying The Buoys

by Fin | Wed Dec 2017 | Boat Smart, Rules & Regs

No one possesses the literary skills to make the subject of buoyage interesting – no one. Buoys, their markings and light attributes are a dry subject and a necessary evil in maritime training schemes. Still, getting them wrong can have very real repercussions....

Water Levels in The Great Lakes

by Fin | Sun Oct 2017 | Boat Smart

It’s been a fascinating season sailing on the Great Lakes, not least of all for the unusually high water levels experienced this year (2017). While most RYA students are familiar with the subtleties of tidal heights and secondary port calculations from their theory...

Keel Failure and the Deadly Inversion

by Fin | Thu Jul 2017 | Boat Smart

A Bad Day at the Office The Old Salt Blog recently posted a slightly inflammatory but informative piece on keels falling off (here) which raises more questions than it answers. Whether or not the few tragic incidents require an overhauling of design specs or...

Falling Leaf – Man Overboard Method Christened.

by Fin | Thu Jun 2017 | Boat Smart, Head to Wind

Before RYA Examiner Dave De Wolfe came out to Kingston from Halifax to examine two of Topmast’s students at the Yachtmaster level we had a phone conversation about the efficacy of various man overboard techniques. It took a few minutes but we both agreed there’s a big...