Don’t even think of buying a used sailboat until you’ve downloaded and read the Used Sailboat Buying Guide, the Initial Checklist and Preliminary Survey Checklist all available for free at www.sailingmates.com.
The manual also shows you how to discover any “dealbuster” faults in a sailboat within 10 minutes and details other “cosmetic” faults that may indicate other [...]

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The most important safety system on your boat, after the structural integrity of your hull, is your bilge pump system.
Why? Well, what if you’re offshore when a thru-hull fitting fails, or you lose your prop shaft. In either case you now have a one and a half inch diameter hole in your hull about 3 feet below [...]

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