About this website

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“The Book of Sail” is a website to learn about some great cruising equipment, gadgets, useful ideas, and on occasion, some sailing wisdom. I hope you’ll find this website a useful resource whether you are coastal cruising or sailing across oceans. I believe these ideas can save you money, save your back, and make you more comfortable on the boat.

I am the author, Bill Cullen, also know in some circles as “Captain Billy”. I live in Tampa, and am a member of the American Sailing Association (Instructor), the Tampa Sailing Squadron, The Dolphin Cruising Club, the Catalina 350 Owners Association, the Salty Dawgs  and the Seven Seas Cruising Association.

I have been a professional captain & delivery skipper, for 50 years. I was a yacht broker for a decade, and I have owned and restored two dozen sailboats. I have over 100,000 miles of offshore racing, cruising, and delivery experience that include duties as captain, navigator, cook, tactician, helmsman, repairman, and quite often “all of these at once”. I have raced in offshore regattas that include Mexico, Montego Bay, the BVI, Bermuda, and Nassau, and the Caribbean. I have also cruised the Bahamas, Eastern and Western Caribbean, the South Pacific, the French canals, crossed the Atlantic and sailed the Med. You may have read my “How To”, and “Gadget” articles in various sailing magazines including Sail Magazine and Southwinds.

I make presentations to clubs and sailing organizations that are professional, entertaining, and informative. (free or expenses only).  I have been a speaker at the SSCA GAMs in Annapolis, St Augustine and St Pete, the World Cruising Club in Norfolk, the Brandenton Yacht Club and the St Petersburg Boat Show. I am also an instructor for Cruisers University at the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis.  If you’d like me to be a speaker for your organization or event, just drop me an email and I can send you a list of possible subjects. thebookofsail@gmail.com

Please share your inventions and ideas with me and I will publish them here and give you credit. We all need to share what we’ve learned with the cruising community. The idea of this website is to do just that, and by doing so, making everyone’s cruising life more enjoyable.

Following the description of some items I may have a link attached to Amazon or another website. I have shopped around for these items, and found these deals to be about the best you can do. I have also tested some of the “similar” items, for instance, competitors jiggler hoses, buckets, etc, and found the items that I have linked you to are the best ones.
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PS. Andy Schell has posted a “Podcast” of a “Gadgets Presentation” that I did for the World Cruising Club in Portsmouth recently. You can listen to it by going to his great website, http://59-north.com/sailfeed/2014/11/10/live-podcast-billy-cullens-gadgets
Go to his website for lots more great info; http://59-north.com/#offshoresailingadventures. Thanks Andy!


The Seven Seas Cruising Club recorded a talk I gave on Gadgets at the International Cruising Conference in 2020.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZOQGt6H650

7 comments

  • Lee Ann

    We really enjoyed your website! We are dreaming of the day we can go cruising! Thanks Captain Billy for the tips!

  • Hi,

    We very much enjoyed you talks at the St Pete Boat Show. We liked the Up-N-Out Ladder a lot and tried to buy one from their web site. The site doesn’t let us check out.

    As an FYI – the business sold a couple of years ago and the old owner’s contact info is still on the site. He gave us the new owners cell phone but he is unresponsive. The previous owner said he had given the number out over two hundred times and has asked the new owner to update the site for two years. We also tried to order from one of the distributors listed on he site but they laughed and said they order product and never get a response. We find it remarkable that a person would buy a business and then go dark. You may want to pull that slide from your presentation unless you have another source.

    Mark and Cindy
    s/v Cream Puff

    • I spoke to the new owner of the company. The company name is still Scandia Marine Products, inc. The new owners name is Dave Johnson. He said they are in the middle of transitioning the company website, and he should have it up and running in February. He said they are making product, and selling product, but he is behind in orders right now. He hopes to have that fixed soon too. Dave lives in Apollo Beach and can be reached at davej@powerstepinc.com or (soon) Davej@scandiamarineproducts.com Once he gets the website working and orders flowing, I plan to write up this great product.

  • Hi Captain Billy,

    It was a pleasure to meet you on “A” Dock, the other morning, at Harborage Marina. One of the greatest side effects of the sailing community is the wonderful people we meet.

    Your website has been bookmarked! I’m in the process of purchasing the Cuban YoYo, and I might just make a recycling bag like yours.

    We’re clearing out on Saturday, heading south toward the Keys…then on to the Bahamas.

    Cheers,

    Ken & Christine Burkimsher
    s/v Keani – Liverpool, Nova Scotia

  • Hi Bill,
    Good meeting you this morning at St Pete Boat Show. Enjoyed your talk about cruising out islands. My daughter are exploring them one at a time via mailboat and rental car but will probably be spending more time afloat when she gets out of college. I look forward to seeing you again soon. If you have electrical or systems questions feel free to drop me a line.
    Ed

  • Anonymous

    Hi Bill. Thanks for the great presentation at St. Pete Yacht Club. Can you give me more specific information regarding the very loud water overflow alarm. It’s definitely something that we need, and so many of them out there are not very loud!

    Deb

  • Bill – your companionship and knowledge on my recent June return to the Chesapeake Bay from Georgetown, SC up the ICW was much appreciated. With consistent southerly winds all the way through our crossing of the Albemarle Sound, I’m glad you made sure we had the sails unfurled as often as possible, even in narrow areas of “the ditch”. I learned a lot from you about boat and sail handling in tight situations and in heavy weather. Along the way it was a pleasure to hear about your many sailing and trekking adventures. Though your experience outweighed mine, you always respected me as skipper, offered recommendations, and encouraged me to take the helm in tricky situations. I look forward to sailing with you again. And again, a big thank you.

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