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On performing pre-departure checks before our first spring sail, I found this message on the display of the Icom 3330G VHF/DSC/GPS set: No position, No time. Setting sail out from land, I cleared the message from the display, only to get another: GPS signal has been lost. The radio was removed...

How long can I expect a solar panel to function? Do they become less efficient over time? The one in question is a simple 30-Watt panel of the sort sold for use in caravans. It has been secured to hatch cover with Velcro and taken off every winter. Cheers.

I had the engine oil, impeller and spark plug changed last winter, and the engine had been running well until I tried to increase speed to outrun a thunder storm last Sunday. The engine speed increased to about half throttle, but would not speed up beyond that even with the throttle fully open...

Having replaced my dinghy's rope-tailed wire halyard with hollow-braid Dyneema, how should I secure it after hoisting the jib? What sort of cleat would work best? I spliced a loop in the halyard above deck level, and set up a four-part Dyneema tackle hooked to the loop to tension the halyard...

On a recent cruise, the wire portion of the jib halyard parted where it passed over the block on the forward side of the mast. I would like to replace it with an all-rope halyard, which would be easier to fix on a cruise. Since the jib halyard provides the tension for this rig, I've been...

What weight of Dacron cloth do people like for sails on boats such as Wayfarers, Ospreys, and Drascombes cruising in the Channel, the Irish Sea, North Sea, etc?

Does anyone have a permanent boom gallows, and if so, do you find it useful, and are there any problems with it? They used to be common on traditional boats. As a single-hander, I struggle to fit my scissor crutch when changing to the trysail or sailing under headsail alone in a seaway. It...

I am replacing the fixed-mount VHF radio on my small sailboat, and I see that the new radio has a grounding wire in addition to the positive and negative DC leads. The old one had only positive and negative leads. I take the battery out of the boat to charge it once or twice in a season, but...

Can anyone tell me how I would inspect or change the water cooling impeller on a 2010 Yamaha 2.5 HP four-stroke outboard? Where is it located? I don’t think there is a problem, but I would like to do any maintenance before there is one.

Has anyone ever installed a hatch through the foredeck to get better access to the storage space in the fore peak of a Wayfarer? The boat is GRP, but I would like to build a hatch in teak to match the seats in the cockpit. Any ideas or comments from the wooden boat crew would be appreciated!