After some initial hubbub, I haven't heard much recently about the new boating laws in Canada and Florida that require certain pleasure craft operators to carry a special ID card or face a fine. Mandatory boating safety courses and licensure have been debated in many places in recent years, usually with much resistance from the boating community. The argument for a required course and some form of licensure is simple: boats, particularly those with motors, can be dangerous to others on the water just as automobiles are, and therefore operators should have a minimum knowledge of safe operation. Those resisting such regulations often oppose increasing government regulations and feel that the water is one of the last bastions of personal freedom, and that a required safety course is not only ineffective but also a toehold for government to begin levying additional fees and restrictions.

So far, both Canada and Florida make the process fairly simple and inexpensive, allowing the taking of an online course to meet the requirement. Still, I've heard that only a low percentage of boaters in Canada had acted before the September 15, 2009 deadline. Florida's law takes effect January 1, 2010, and applies (for now at least) only to those born in or after 1988.

As a sailor, I have mixed feelings about this legislative trend. It is true that people have died after collisions with fast-moving boats operated poorly, but I'm not sure whether an online safety course and ID card will make much of a difference.

What do you think?

Sailors often compare the shape of a sail to that of an airplane wing to explain how sailboats can sail upwind, since the physics of both (the Bernoulli principle) is similar. And now the new fixed wing sail of the US contender in the America's Cup race this February will literally be using a wing—and one that is actually much bigger than the wing of a Boeing 747. The huge BMW Oracle trimaran has begun trials using a 58-meter carbon-fiber wing instead of a traditional fabric sail on a mast.

After the latest court ruling, the race is now scheduled for Valencia in February. The trimaran with this gigantic thin wing looks so futuristic that it's sure to attract lots of excitement and awe during the race. Although it's called a fixed wing, in the sense that it cannot be hoisted or lowered like a traditional sail, it nonetheless has moving parts to allow for shape changes on different tacks with different wind gradients. As this Scientific American article describes, the wing is a much more complex engineering feat than an airplane's wing. We've come a long way from what now seems a very simple Marconi rig!

Photo courtesy BMW Oracle

Waking to heavy frost this morning in New England, my thoughts naturally turn to those sailing south in warmer climates. Over 60 cruising sailboats in the Caribbean 1500 rally left Hampton, Virginia, earlier this week headed for Tortola in the British Virgin Islands—and don't I wish I was aboard one of them!

These are mostly sailors who will spend the winter cruising around the Caribbean, many to return homeward next spring before hurricane season, some heading for faraway waters. I've crewed in this fleet twice in recent years but didn't have the getaway time this year. It's a great way for people who feel more comfortable knowing there's likely another boat not far over the horizon to do a longer voyage.

So as I head off to the boatyard again this weekend, heat gun in hand, to shrinkwrap my boat for the winter, I'm thinking of all you hearty souls out there in the warm waters of the world! For fun I'll read your daily updates and follow your positions on the tracker. Ah, life on a sailboat! If you can't do it right now, at least you can read about it!

If you're living in a northern climate and you've hauled out for the winter, better get moving soon on winterizing your boat's engine and water systems before the first hard freeze comes along. Don't make the mistake I once made and had to pay for in the spring with shock, expense, bruised knuckles—and almost sinking my boat!

The power of water's expansion during freezing is astonishing. Anywhere water gathers in your boat is vulnerable to damage. Follow your engine manual to winterize its cooling system. Then make a good winterizing checklist and pump antifreeze through every single waterline and hose in the boat, including some you may forget about. (Deck wash-down pump? Shower sump? Manual bilge pump?)

In my own case, in the first year with a new-to-me sailboat, I didn't forget or overlook as much as assume too much. I carefully filled every line and hose with antifreeze, and shrinkwrapped the boat for the winter. Launched her in the spring, excited on a warm but windless day, and motored to my mooring. Shut down, prepared to lock up and leave the boat ready for sailing come the weekend, and noticed the bilge pump running. It shut off, I turned away (thinking probably just the stuffing box drip), stowed a few more things, got ready to go—and heard the bilge pump come on again. Oh no! Read more...