This is a HTML copy of sites that had previously been in my bookmarks. Most should be of interested, to other with a few exceptions such as direct links to weather in our local area. Most are related to sailing and so they are linked from my sailing web page.
The list below is a table of contents. Click on any subject to go to the collection of links on that topic, or just page down and browse the entire collection of links.
These links are directly related to sailing.
Of course the first thing to list is the compac web site. Its a little short on detailed information, providing only a little background on the company and the brochures in PDF format.
The Compac Yacht Owners Association (CPYOA) is not a legal entity as far as I know but there was intention at one time to go in the direction of a formal owners association. Right now it is one of the better discussion forums for compac owners.
This for years has been a very active discussion forum. The message volume can get quite high, often 500 or more messages a month and exceeding 1,000 message one month. If you've got a question about Compacs this is a good place to ask.
This is a very good online forum and general resource for all types of trailerable boats.
Kurt is currently a liveaboard and the keeper of the CPYOA site.
A Compac with one of the nicest interiors I've ever seen. Some very fine craftsmanship went into the owner modifications on this Compac.
Bill has a practical family boat in Grace Period. Bill sails in Sioux Falls, SD.
Bob is the author of "The Handbook of Trailer Sailing" and quite a few other books ranging from scuba diving to treasure hunting to shark diving. Bob ownes a CP16 and CP19 and is quite active on the Compac online forums. Most Compac owners consider "The Handbook of Trailer Sailing" a must read.
The web page for my boat, so of course its a great site!
A technology showcase vessel for clean energy marine power and propulsion
Obviously there are very many boat owners associations and these are just a few. These are a few I've found interesting. The Hunter web site if very heavy on advertising. The Precision site is very well done and commercial free.
The Sailboat Shop is a Compac dealer in central NJ. This is where I bought my CP23/3. They have a limited stock, mostly Precision.
This is an excellent Compac shop in NC. They have new and used sailboats and a sailing school. There is quite a bit of useful information on their web site.
This is Compac dealer in Deltaville, VA. They also have a good web site. They tend to have a very good selection of used boats.
Used sailboats in central Canada. This is actually a collection of sites which sell sailboats, with an emphasis on Canade, but some US borkers listed.
A very large set of listings with boats located all around the world, but mosting in the US.
There are two organizations with sailing certification programs to serve as a standard and as guidelines for sailing instruction. These two organizations are American Sailing Association (ASA) and US Sailing. Having bought books from each organization, the ASA organization seemed to me to have more of a recreational cruising sailor's focus where US Sailing seemed to be a larger organization with powerboat and racing interests mixed in. The US Sailing books seemed to me to be geared toward preparing potential charter customers for the experience and might be influenced by this sort of commercial interest. US Sailing seems to be by far the larger organization.
Following is a list of some sailing schools that I know about.
This is a sailing school in Mystic CT. This is where I took Basic Keelboat and Coastal Navigation.
This is where Richard Crisler teaches sailing. It is affiliated with US Sailing. Richard is a Compac sailor, owning one of very few CP33 (before it became the CP35). Richard is very active on the Compac discussion forums and many Compac sailors have taken lessons from him and made glowing remarks.
Blue Water Sailing is a large school with multiple locations. They advertise quite a bit, but I've also read positive comments on this sailing school and it is one that I might consider in the future. Blue Water Sailing School is ASA affiliated. The only problem with the Blue Water courses is they tend to bundle them.
NorthU is the seminar series given by North Sails. These are Cruising and Racing oriented with an emphasis on sail trim. They are not affiliated with ASA or US Sailing but the courses seem good and you can buy the books for the course without taking the course. I have the "Cruising and Seamanship" course workbook and its a good book.
These sites offer the written portion of USCG certification. Both offer home study programs.
New England Maritime Academy is well known and well respected in the region. They offer the whole array of licencing courses and exams from OUPV (6-pack) Captain to Master 200 Ton and various endorsements. Their course schedules and prices are online.
Never heard of them until google found them for me. They have lots of class locations and the full array of classes but no schedule or class durations or pricing on their web site.
What originally prompted me to collect and review links related to online sailing instruction was a boy scout sailing trip. One of the troop leaders asked me to help prepare instructional material for the scouts. The two of us briefly discussed using the outline of one of a number of books we had read. Our initial outline covered much of what is in the book "The Annapolis Book of Seamanship". We considered other books but wanted to compress the classroom coursework in a keelboat and a basic cruising class plus some navigation into six 45 minute sessions. Some material, such as first aid and provisioning are covered by the boy scouts in the form of first aid, camping, and cooking merit badge material and could be omitted. Here are some of the links I found useful.
The course is described as follows by Boat Safe.
This Basic Boating Safety course is approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) and recognized as acceptable to the United States Coast Guard Recreational Boating Program. Most insurance companies give marine insurance discounts to persons successfully completing a NASBLA approved course.
You can either take the test for free or in some states you can pay a fee and take the test for qualification for a safe boating certificate. In CT the fee is $15 and a safe boating certificate is required to operate a boat in CT inland waters or for a CT resident to operate a boat in CT coastal waters.
ASA describes the standards as follows.
The complete Standards are contained in the ASA Official International Log Book. They are minimum Standards and nothing may be deleted if a Candidate is to be awarded ASA Certification. On the other hand, schools may add to these Standards if they wish to stress or emphasize local conditions which might be encountered or particular characteristics of the boats used during instruction. It is recommended that sailors planning to follow these standards become proficient in swimming, first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and arresting bleeding.
This online resource was quite useful for preparing material for the boy scout training. These are outlines of the course material covered by ASA. The book, "Sailing Fundamentals" by Gary Jobson provides the necessary details. ASA puts a bit of emphasis on understanding the legal responsibilities associated with sailing and safety. The ASA outlines are the minimum material that must be covered for an ASA course, and covers the material on which the test is based.
The standard we are most interested in are:
Given the time limitations and given that the scout training is not for ASA certification, a subset of the above standards will be covered with the addition of some practical information not covered. The ASA standards provided an excellent checklist for our own training material to avoid accidental ommisions.
These courses are quite complete. There are a number of short videos using the RealPlayer streaming video format. The organization (and in places the HTML formating) could be better. The whole thing seems to be a lot for a bunch of scouts to read on their own but its a great resource for anyone who is relatively new to keelboat sailing and cruising.
This is not intended to be a course. It is a collection of links to prior SailNet articles that are related to sailing basics. This is a good collection for someone that already sails to pick up information on a specific topic. It would not serve well as a course, despite having a great deal of good information, though sometimes anecdotal and more interesting than purely informative.
The purpose of the Hoofer Sailing Club "shall be to promote sailing at the University of Wisconsin by providing the organization, equipment, instruction and financing necessary to encourage recreational and competitive sailing." This is a nice tutorial covering sailing the cat rigged Badger Tech Dinghy. This wasn't quite right for the boy scout training, but a very nicely done tutorial.
This is an web page with animated knot illustrations from a scout troop in the UK. It is extremely well done and covers all of the basic knots that a sailor or boy scout will need. The scouts should already know most of the knots. A few knots that are more sailing specific are not covered in the Boy Scout manual. The only common sailing knots missing from this site are the bunting hitch and the fishermen's bend (which many sailor's can't tie anyway, so its not a major ommision by any means).
Despite the useful resources found online the most useful resources proved to be good books on sailing. Most useful were "The Annapolis Book of Seamanship", "Sailing Fundamentals", and "North Sails Cruising and Seamanship Workbook". See "Books and Magazines" below and book reviews at this web site.
They call themselves "the sailing magazine for the rest of us" and that quite well describes it. This is a magazine about buying and caring for older boats and about the community that takes pride in sailing them.
This is a magazine for wooden boat owners, builders, and designers. Boats range from canoes to schooners but mostly concentrates on small boats. They are affiliated with the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine. I don't get this magazine.
This is a magazine for the professional boat builder, designer or repair shop. It tends to be mostly about power boats. I don't get this magazine.
This is a magazine about Cruising and Offshore sailing. The boat reviews tend to be about really big boats, mostly 50-60 feet. I don't get this magazine mostly because I'm not in a postion to do any international cruising on a 50 footer.
Bob is the author of books ranging from scuba diving to treasure hunting to shark diving. Most Compac owners consider "The Handbook of Trailer Sailing" a must read.
If you'd like reviews of books I've read, this is where to find them.
ABYC is a non-profit organization that has been developing safety standards for boat building and repair for over 50 years.
Boat Design and Boatbuilding Projects, Plans, Software, Books, Concepts, Reviews, and Resources
A BoatUS article on rigging failure and a rigging inspection checklist.
This is the organization that publishes the "Small Craft Advisory" online newsletter/magazine. There is a lot of information relevant and of interest to boaters.
The following are sites that have boating industry related courses. These would be mostly on interest to someone interested in working in the boating industry.
The US Naval Academy has not only their course listings but a great deal of information on what is covered in the courses. In some cases material used in the courses is provided. Quite a bit can be learned just browsing this site.
The Westlawn Insitute of Marine Technology has been teaching yacht design courses since 1930 and counts many famous designers and current boat makers as their alumni (including founder/owners of sizeable companies such as Morgan).
Marine surveying might be a bit easier field to break into than yacht design. This is a course given by NAVTECH.
ProBoat E-Training courses cover topics on boatbuilding and on marine surveying. ProBoat E-Training is affiliated with Professional BoatBuilder Magazine.
This is a site for boating courses, boating tips, and boating safety. It includes a free online course that satisfies some state requirements for a boating safety course. They even have a web page to quiz yourself on the captain's license exam.
This web site tells you how to do your own Vessel Safety Check. You can also request an inspection.
This web site tells you how to read you boat hull ID number. You can tell the boats manufacturer code, serial number, date of certification (month the boat was completed), and model year.
This is a boat plans page off the Glen-L web page. It has a catalog of boat plans and photos of the boats. You have to pay for the complete plans.
This is an organization that matches crew with crewing opportunities. It does cost $199 to join and I can't vouche for whether it is worth it.
I haven't chartered so I can't comment on how good or bad any of these charter companies are.
Sponsor organization of the Strictly Sail boat shows.
This is the home page of the largest and oldest in water boat shows. Unfortunately their web page only lists the show that is about to take place or in the winter, the last one that occurred. Included are the Sailboat Show and the Powerboat Show in Annapolis. The latter is not of much interest to me.
This is a web site that lists many sail and power boats, many no longer in production. They provide some minimal information online and more information on their CD. The purpose of the web site is to get you to buy the CD but they do provide quite a bit of information on boat overall specs and a few photos and manufacturers brochures for free.
The weather channel provides good weather prediction that is very specific to a given region. These reports are of more interest to the general population and recreational boaters since it focuses on temperature and precipitation.
NOAA/NWS (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / National Weather Service) provides marine forcasts that are more oriented toward the serious mariner. There focus more on wind speed and direction, wave heights, and visibility rather than temperature and precipiation. NWS also offers weather forcasts for the landlubber. For NOAA forcasts, a good place to start is the NWS home page, then going to a region home page and then looking for marine weather forcasts. Having found this for you area bookmark it. It is very useful to have the text lists of forecast bookmarked if you are impatient and plan to use this over a low speed Internet connection. Below are bookmarks for the area I most frequently sail in.
The main sources of charts is NOAA. NOAA no longer prints and distributes charts. Instead they offer the electronic form to qualified distributors who then print up to date charts on demand. The NOAA MapFinder provides a way to pick out the specific charts that you need.
Maptech is a commercial provider of charts. Their charts are suitable for very near coastal cruising and are a favorite among recreational boaters. I sometimes find that I sail farther out into the Atlantic than the local Maptech chart goes. The NOAA charts however are a nice waterproof paper and have privately maintained buoys that don't appear on the NOAA charts which are the means to navigate in some smaller harbors and channels (such as ours).
Maptech's web pages listing charts are a little easier to use than NOAA's MapFinder. This is mainly because Maptech does not have the shear number of overlapping charts of different scale that are offerred by NOAA. MapFinder queries can get quite cluttered.
Cruising Guide Publications offers chart kits and cruising guides covering North Carolina to Florida.
Below are some links related to celestial navigation. Celestaire sells sextants, almanacs, books and many other things related to navigation and piloting. The rest are informational sites.
Note: I haven't got around to adding annotation to the remaining set of links. I also haven't checked them in quite a while.
To the extent that alternate energy is of interest to cruising sailors that are interested in either an electric auxilliary or solar and wind panels, this section may be of some interest to sailors. Things like fuel cells and hydrogen storage seems to be no where near practical at this time, but are of academic interest (maybe).
Is home schooling of interest to sailors? Its a stretch if the sailors are trailers sailors, but if you live aboard and have kids you'll need to home school. It could be of interest anyway.