Charles Doane

Executive Editor at Sail Magazine

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Articles

Wavetrain: A New Documentary Film, 76 Days Adrift

1 week ago | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

This passage reflects on the enduring impact of Steve Callahan’s remarkable survival story—his 76 days adrift in a life raft after his sloop Napoleon Solo sank in 1982. The experience, chronicled in his bestselling memoir Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea, has secured its place in maritime and adventure literature since its 1986 release. Now, the story has taken on new life through a documentary film by emerging filmmaker Joe Wein, who discovered the book by chance and was deeply inspired.
Bayesian Tragedy: Important Revelations in MAIB Report

3 weeks ago | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

May 17/2025: NO! The near-simultaneous accidental deaths of accused fraudsters and tech moguls Mike Lynch and Stephen Chamberlain—in disparate locations, of disparate causes—was NOT the product of an evil corporate revenge plot. It was purely coincidence. Charles Doane established as much in his previous post on the sudden sinking of Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian while at anchor off Sicily last August 19.
Eight Bells: Don Casey

Feb 19, 2025 | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

We have a sad note from Don Casey’s wife, Olga, that Don, one of SAIL magazine’s most popular and prolific writers, died suddenly of a heart attack in his backyard in Miami Springs, Florida, on January 25. He was 77 years old. His very first book, Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, published in 1987, quickly established him as a leading voice in the Keep It Simple Stupid school of cruising under sail.
Eight Bells: Don Casey

Feb 19, 2025 | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

We have a sad note from Don Casey’s wife, Olga, that Don, one of SAIL magazine’s most popular and prolific writers, died suddenly of a heart attack in his backyard in Miami Springs, Florida, on January 25. He was 77 years old. His very first book, Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach, published in 1987, quickly established him as a leading voice in the Keep It Simple Stupid school of cruising under sail.
Boats and Their People: Blue Dancer & Charlene Gauthier

Jan 10, 2025 | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

Charlene Gauthier, who goes by the diminutive Char, is herself a rather diminutive person. Not even 5 feet tall, weighing less than 100 pounds, just turned 70, she’s never been one to let her size, gender, age, or grievous misfortune stand in the way of what she’d like to do next. Twice divorced by age 37, with two daughters by her first husband, Char once worked as a professional truck driver, owner of a big Peterbilt 18-wheel tractor-trailer she ran for nearly 15 years.
Book Review: Last Days of the Slocum Era

Nov 26, 2024 | sailmagazine.com | Graham Cox |Charles Doane

By Graham L. Cox, Vol. 1 (301 pp) $35; Vol. 2 (351 pp) $35, Random Boats Publishing, May 2024 Like many cruising sailors of my generation, Graham Cox was first inspired to dream of bluewater voyaging by teen circumnavigator Robin Lee Graham. Unlike most of us, however, Cox had a chance to actually meet Graham in mid-voyage.
An Obsessive Sort of Sailor

Sep 15, 2024 | soundingsonline.com | Charles Doane

In the early spring of 1893, a seemingly unassuming young man, a clerk who then worked in the British House of Commons, made a fateful decision—he would learn to sail. His name was Erskine Childers. He had a slight build, poor eyesight, a weak chin, and was partly disabled, walking always with a limp to favor his left foot, the result of a hiking injury years earlier.
An Obsessive Sort of Sailor

Jul 22, 2024 | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

In the early spring of 1893, a seemingly unassuming young man, a clerk who then worked in the British House of Commons, made a fateful decision—he would learn to sail. His name was Erskine Childers. He had a slight build, poor eyesight, a weak chin, and was partly disabled, walking always with a limp to favor his left foot, the result of a hiking injury years earlier.
More Than a Dash of Grit: an Alberg 30 Sails Again

Jul 10, 2024 | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

Shortly after I first met Mary Therese Kubek last October, aboard her 1968 Alberg 30, I handed her a copy of Bernard Moitessier’s first book, Sailing to the Reefs. I explained the connection—that the names of the two boats featured in Moitessier’s famous memoir, Marie Therese, were the same as hers. I mentioned also that Moitessier, unfortunately, had wrecked both these boats. I’m not sure Ms. Kubek appreciated the coincidence.
Boats and Their People: Daniel Hays and Sparrow

Apr 24, 2024 | sailmagazine.com | Charles Doane

Daniel Hays, at age 63, is now almost 10 years older than his father David was when they sailed around Cape Horn together in a tiny 25-foot cutter named Sparrow. That was back in the mid-1980s. They co-wrote a book about their adventure and spent seven years pitching it. When finally it was published in 1995 as My Old Man and the Sea, it became an instant bestseller. A fine photograph of Daniel sailing Sparrow singlehanded graced the cover of the November 1995 issue of this very magazine.