Doug Henschen is a freelance writer, communications strategist and video writer and producer.
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Articles by Doug Henschen
Can Reliefband Sport Prevent Sea Sickness? Our On-Water Test
The author’s friend, Jeff, has always been prone to motion sickness. In a test in 10- to 13-knot winds, a Reliefband Sport wearable device helped our test subject keep sea sickness at bay. (Photo/ Doug Henschen) Some people are prone to motion sickness while others are not. For those who suffer from this malady, sailing isn’t usually their sport of choice, and with good reason. Nausea and vomiting are not fun, and when you’re hit with a bout of motion sickness, it can take a day or more to recover.
The Quest For the Right Inflatable Dinghy
Latest Sailboat Reviews Latest Blog
East End Journey: Timing the Barriers to Long Island’s Top Destinations
Sailing from the populous western end of the Long Island Sound to The East End is a long haul that ends with a potentially dramatic passage through fast-moving currents off the tip of Long Island’s North Fork. (Image/ Apple Maps) The East End of New York’s Long Island shelters within its North and South “forks” popular cruising destinations including Greenport, Shelter Island, Sag Harbor, and Montauk.
Anchor Rode Buyer’s Guide: How to Select the Right Chain or Chain-Line Combination
An undersized anchor chain can put your boat on the "rode" to real trouble in a blow. (Photo/ Mahina Expeditions) If your anchor chain is too light, your boat is on the rode to perdition. Forgive the pun, but an inadequate anchor rode (whether all-chain or a combination of chain and line) is a sure path to “utter ruin,” the third American Heritage Dictionary definition of “perdition.” To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member.
Handheld VHF Radio Buyer’s Guide: Explore 20 Models, from Low-Cost to High-End
Photos not to scale, sourced from ACR, Cobra, Icom, Standard Horizon and Uniden. VHF radios are not included among the minimal safety equipment required on pleasure craft by the US Coast Guard, but they should be. VHF radios can be used to contact nearby vessels, marinas and emergency services. Almost all VHF radios receive weather channels, providing access to forecasts and warnings that are important to the safety of your vessel and crew.
The completed rudder restoration on the author's 1976 Albin Ballad 30. (Photo/ Doug Henschen) Does your rudder feel unsteady, with play in the tiller or wheel? Do you experience vibration at certain speeds or slapping or thudding sounds as you tack or gibe? Is your boat of a certain age where wear and tear on rudder bushings or bearings and fittings is a given? To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member.
Wireless Engine Cut-Off Switches Evolve Into Man-Overboard Alarm Systems
Six systems now go well beyond the traditional kill-switch lanyard—the latest, including Garmin's OnBoard (center), pair a hard-wired hub with wearable fobs and chartplotter or app integration to log MOB positions and guide crew back to the person in the water.
Winch Buyer’s Guide: A Look at 7 Brands and 76 Self-Tailing Models
Our 2026 winch buyer’s guide details how construction choices affect weight, grip, and long‑term serviceability. Beyond the shape of the hull and the presence of a mast, nothing distinguishes a sailboat from a powerboat more than the sight and sound of a sailor cranking on a winch. While powerboaters get underway by moving the throttle forward a few clicks, sailors hoist sail, typically with the aid of a winch.
Inside Sail America’s Plan to Grow the Sport and the Industry
Sail America president, Adam Cove, soloing aboard “Team Wicked Wily Wildcat,” an 18-ft. Marshall Sanderling, during the 2024 R2AK (Race to Alaska). The race only permits sail or human power, so Cove fitted a foot brace, seen below the tiller, to ease rowing as needed. Cove was the first soloist to cross the finish line.
Six New Products for Sailors at the Miami International Boat Show
From the convention center to the in‑water docks, the 2026 Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show was packed with new gear for sailors, including electronics, safety equipment and electric propulsion systems debuting alongside the latest sailboats. (Photos/ Doug Henschen) Marking its 85th run in 2026, the February 11-15, 2026 Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show enjoyed a five-day run of warm temperatures, sunny skies and plenty of new boats and marine products.
Top 10 Practical Sailor YouTube Videos of 2025
The world of media and content creation is changing, largely driven by consumer consumption demands but also by ever-rising printing and mailing costs. In the boating and sailing world, many print titles have disappeared, while others have hung on by fawning to advertisers, ostensibly selling cover placements and gushing boat and product reviews. To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member.
Find your sailing essentials and want-to-haves at an independent, recommended retailer. You can’t maintain a boat without ordering a few marine supplies, so Practical Sailor readers offered (mostly) high praise and appreciation for our guide to “16 Independent Marine Suppliers You Should Know About.” To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member. Sign in Join Practical Sailor Get full access to Practical-Sailor.com – more than 4,000 articles – for just $34.
16 Independent Marine Suppliers You Should Know About
Online juggernaut Amazon, big-box behemoth Walmart, and West Marine—with more than 250 stores nationwide—are the biggest sellers of marine supplies in North America. But bigger isn’t always better. In fact, the big names don’t always have the widest selection, unique and niche items, or the best prices. In the case of Amazon and Walmart, you can likely forget about knowledgeable or available staff. To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member.
Give Old Boat Parts New Life as Holiday Gifts
Sailboat Parts, a creative retailer based in Grasonville, MD, turned the Transom of an old Lighting into bench seat. (Photo/ Sailboat Parts) There’s nothing worse than getting or giving yet another ugly sweater or never-to-be-worn tie. Why not try up-cycling old boat parts to give new life to retired gear? Here’s a dozen or so ideas for do-it-yourself (DIY) reuse of what would otherwise become nautical discards. Not the DIY type?
Is U.S. Sailboat Manufacturing Facing Extinction?
2025 has not been a good year for U.S. sailboat manufacturing. Com Pac Yachts closed its doors in May and, as explained in this Practical Sailor video, the future of Catalina is now in doubt, with its Largo, Florida factory shut down and a dispute playing out between the company’s buyer and seller. To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member. Sign in Join Practical Sailor Get full access to Practical-Sailor.com – more than 4,000 articles – for just $34.
Quiet Power: Electric and Hybrid Propulsion at Annapolis
A tour of the 2025 Annapolis Sailboat Show showed signs of progress on the electrification of auxiliary power. Particularly notable was the emergence of hybrid propulsion options, with at least four large (44- to 60-ft.) hybrid-powered boats on display at the show. As in the automotive world, hybrid-powered boats promise the combination of diesel engine range and reliability with the torque, efficiency and, most importantly, option of clean and quiet operation using electric motors.
Albin Ballad 30 Used Boat Review
As my son and I eased my 30-ft. sloop up to the dock at our winter yard in Mamaroneck, NY, a gentleman came racing down the gangplank from the neighboring yacht club and offered us a hand with our lines. “Is this an Albin Ballad?” he asked eagerly, before the boat was even tied off. “Why, yes it is,” I replied with surprise.
Gas Vs. Electric Outboards: Consider Your Total Sailing Carbon Footprint
If you own or intend to buy an electric outboard because it is clean and quiet, read no further. Today’s four-stroke outboards are much cleaner and quieter than their two-stroke ancestors, but they can’t match electric outboards on these two qualities. As noted in Practical Sailor’s recent Buyer’s Guide: 10 Gas Outboards for Cruising Sailboats, gas outboards offer advantages over electrics including better range, higher top-end speeds, faster “refueling,” and lower initial cost.
Buyer’s Guide: 10 Gas Outboards For Cruising Sailboats
Latest Sailboat Review Latest Blog
DIY Tiller Lock and Emergency Tiller Pilot
Whether you own a Raymarine Tiller Pilot (ST1000 or ST2000) or the Simrad Tillerpilot (TP10, TP22 or TP32), the day may come when this autopilot for your tiller-steered boat stops working. Detailed below is a variation on an old idea for an easily home-built device—let’s call it the Teaky Tiller Pilot—that will fill in in a pinch. As a bonus, the device also serves as a tiller lock that will reduce wear on your rudder bushings while you are away from your boat.
Buyer’s Guide: 14 Electric Outboard Options From 2.5 to 9.9 Horsepower
Battery power has come a long way, whether considering automobiles, power tools, lawn and garden equipment, or marine outboard motors. Cost parity between electric and gas models is nearly at hand in the auto industry, and energy-dense Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFeP04) battery prices are expected to drop 11 percent per year, every year through 2030.
Handling Anchors on Boats Without Anchor Lockers
How do you keep an anchor and its rode at the ready if you don’t have an anchor locker up at the bow? It’s a common challenge for owners of older cruising sailboats in the 22- to 30-foot range. To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member. Sign in Join Practical Sailor Get full access to Practical-Sailor.com – more than 4,000 articles – for just $34. Join today and save 42% off our full price. Already a member? Click Here to Sign In | Forgot your password? | Activate Web Access
How to Sell Old Sailing Equipment
There’s nothing more satisfying than installing a great new piece of equipment on your sailboat, unless it’s completing that upgrade and then selling the old gear to defray some of the cost. To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid member. Sign in Join Practical Sailor Get full access to Practical-Sailor.com – more than 4,000 articles – for just $34. Join today and save 42% off our full price. Already a member? Click Here to Sign In | Forgot your password? | Activate Web Access
Schaefer SnapFurl: Gear Graveyard
Sailors looking to add or replace a headsail furling system on a daysailer or small cruising boat in the 16-foot to 28-foot range will discover two cost-competitive options in the Schaefer Marine SnapFurl CF-500 (for 16 ft. to 24 ft. boats with 1/8 in. to 3/16 in. forestays) and CF-700 (for 24 ft. to 28 ft. boats with 5/32 in. to 7/32 in. forestays). A key to the low cost of both models is the two-piece polyvinyl chloride (PVC) extruded plastic luff foil.
Restoring a Classic: How to Get into Sailboat Ownership on a Budget
Some sailboat buyers want (and can afford) to plunk down a boatload of money to get on the water right away. For others, restoring a great used sailboat is half the fun. For handy types with the tinkering bug, as well as the sailing bug, the restoration approach can be a budget-friendly, cash-flow-driven way to get into boat ownership. To continue reading this article or issue you must be a paid subscriber.
Constellation Research Presents the 2024 Enterprise Awards
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In many ways, the themes that dominated 2024 were a continuation of the generative AI revolution started in 2023. And then the switch flipped from generative AI to agentic AI and CxOs started to focus on returns and production deployments. So long proofs of concept and hello returns on investment.
By Liz Miller, Andy Thurai, Doug Henschen, Larry Dignan Verified, Holger Mueller, Steve Wilson, Chirag Mehta, Martin Schneider
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Constellation Research
Amazon Web Services Evolves SageMaker into a Unified Data Platform Centered On AI
Standing on the shoulders of the lakehouse trend, AWS takes data platform and data workload unification a step further than its rivals. AWS Re:Invent saw plenty of data- and database-related announcements, but the obvious highlight was the announcement of the new Amazon SageMaker. The announcement was delivered as the climax of CEO Matt Garman’s opening keynote.
Zoho Advances its Value-Leading Analytics and Business Intelligence Platform
Zoho Analytics 6.0 brings AI-infused upgrades to data management, natural-language interaction, and data science capabilities – all at super-low prices. Zoho is not just a cost-competitive disruptor in the CRM, personal productivity and collaboration spaces; since 2009 the company also has been steadily gaining market share in the business intelligence (BI) and analytics arena.
AWS Introduces Two Important Database Upgrades at Re:Invent 2023
Monday night, Nov. 26, at Re:Invent 2023, AWS’ Peter DeSantis, SVP of Utility Computing, announced two important database features: Amazon Aurora Limitless Database and Redshift Serverless AI Optimizations. Here's my analysis. Amazon Aurora Limitless Database: Announced in private preview, This is an automated sharding feature for Aurora PostgreSQL that will enable customers to horizontally scale database write capacity via sharding.
Chief Technology Officer
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) brings technical and business acumen to organization to align technology-related decisions with the company's future. Most times they are responsible for recommending a company's overall technology direction. On the technical front, the CTO is responsible for setting the technology innovation trends and determining how this is applied to the business.
Chief Sustainability Officer
AWS re:Invent 2023: Perspectives for the CIO | Live Blog I'm excited to be live from AWS re:Invent 2023 in Las Vegas. This year's event is packed with announcements about the leading-edge of cloud computing and the hot topic of the year, generative AI. News Analysis: Sam Altman's Steve Job's Moment And Satya Nadella Just Saved His Microsoft Stock Price Sam Altman just faced his Steve Jobs moment when the OpenAI board fired him on Friday.
Tech Optimization
Sam Altman just faced his Steve Jobs moment when the OpenAI board fired him on Friday. The balance between too much governance and not enough innovation was the challenge OpenAI faced. This was a very immature board with members who had never built companies, never moved from ideology to commercialization, nor had any pragmatic board experience.
Data to Decisions
News Analysis: Sam Altman's Steve Job's Moment And Satya Nadella Just Saved His Microsoft Stock Price Sam Altman just faced his Steve Jobs moment when the OpenAI board fired him on Friday. The balance between too much governance and not enough innovation was the challenge OpenAI faced. This was a very immature board with members who had never built companies, never moved from ideology to commercialization, nor had any pragmatic board experience.
2024 and beyond at CCE 2023: A few predictions to ponder
Constellation Research analysts outlined a series of predictions for the years ahead at Constellation Research Connected Enterprise 2023. CEO Ray Wang was moderating an early panel at CCE with our merry band of analysts about predictions. He was put on the spot and asked about ERP in the next 10 years.
Constellation Research Offers a Fresh Take on the Analytics and Business Intelligence Market
Your top choice in analytics and BI should not come down to a one-size-fits-all assessment. Constellation’s 2023 Analytics and BI Market Overview report helps buyers identify a short list that fits their organization. Analytics and business intelligence (BI) products have long helped companies become more data driven. The market is mature in many respects, but these days analytics and BI platforms are evolving in three important ways: Cloud deployment.
What to Expect from Generative AI in Analytics and Business Intelligence
I'm wrapping up research for a fresh Market Overivew report on analtyics and business intelligence (BI) products. As in other arenas, the timliest, most potentially game-changing trend in this space is the introduction of Generative AI capabilities. We've already seen announcements from Microsoft, Salesforce/Tableau and ThoughtSpot, and we'll undoubtedly see more. Here's a quick rundown on what to expect.
π AWS, Infosys & Google Cloud Named
By Constellation Analysts With all the chaos and innovation that came out of 2022, we saw some incredible advances in enterprise software and growth in the leaders that continue to drive these innovations. Itβs been quite a year charged with talks of a recession, a down market, the metaverse, Web 3.0, and, of course, crazy news stories like Elon Muskβs takeover of Twitter and the downfall of FTX. And with that hereβs our enterprise tech version of βSpotifyβs Wrappedβ for 2022β¦ β
đź’« CCE > 2 Weeks | Constellation Newsletter
By Doug Henschen Rising interest rates, persistent inflation rates, supply chain disruptions, and the aftermath of the pandemic have ushered in a period of economic uncertainty. Prognosticators and pundits have been quick to predict an impending recession, yet as of Q3 of 2022, consumer demand and employment figures remain strong. Every responsible financial leader knows it’s time to prepare for a downturn, but how best to be prepared for the unique combination of forces in today’s market?
Workday Rising 2022: Measuring Progress on Planning
Workday executives and customers detailed the evolution of the company’s ‘plan, execute, analyze’ platform at Workday Rising 2022 in Orlando. In what seems like a wrinkle in time, it has now been four years since Workday acquired Adaptive Insights (since renamed Workday Adaptive Planning). Funny how a pandemic can help to make time fly.
Tableau Looks to Democratize Data Fabrics
Data fabrics improve access to data wherever that data resides. Now Tableau wants to expose more business users to fabrics using its Tableau Prep, Tableau Catalog and data management capabilities.
Happy belated July 4th ð Register today for CCE!
By Doug Henschen Vertica is a leading analytics platform that can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid fashion and is also available as a database service on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Vertica is one of the most important products in the portfolio of Micro Focus International, a global software company based in the U.K. with annual revenues of $2.9 billion (fiscal year 2021).
Snowflake Summit 2022: Educating the Masses on Cutting-Edge Innovation
The gap between Snowflake’s bold and innovative vision and its product and customer realities were on display at Snowflake Summit 2022. Attend any big annual enterprise tech show, and you’re likely to hear about the vendor’s far-reaching vision for innovation. That’s why we’re shown those “forward-looking statements” disclaimer slides that nobody ever bothers to read.
Planful Adds Projections, Boosts Collaboration on its Financial Performance Management Platform
If business leaders (and the world at large have) learned anything over the past two years, it’s that change is constant. In its mission to help companies prepare for change, financial performance management vendor Planful unveiled new predictive and collaborative capabilities at its May 23-25 Planful Perform 2022 event in Las Vegas.
Tableau Gets Back on the Conference Circuit in a Time of Change
It was Albert Einstein who said, “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” With apologies to Einstein, I’d say the ability to change is also the measure of a good business intelligence (BI) platform and vendor. I had changing customer needs and expectations very much in mind when I attended Tableau Conference 2022 (TC22), May 16-19, in Las Vegas.
ThoughtSpot Rides the Wave of Customer Cloud Transitions
The return to live tech conferences is heating up, and so, too, is competition in the always-competitive business intelligence (BI) and analytics market. At its May 9-12 Beyond.2022 event held in Las Vegas, ThoughtSpot made it clear that it is accelerating growth by focusing on companies that are moving to modern cloud data platforms offered by the likes of Snowflake, Databricks, Google and AWS.
Research Report: Inside Constellation's 2021 Enterprise Awards
Despite the chaotic pandemic environment, 2021 was an amazing year for enterprise tech IPO's, product launches, and new technologies. CXO's were given the budgets to refactor their business models, add additional talent, and invest towards a digital future. Amidst this backdrop, enterprises changed how they worked, what they sold, how they monetized, why they existed, and who they worked with.
ConstellationTV Episode 24
Show links: https://www.youtube.com/user/ConstellationR or https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellation-research or https://twitter.com/CRTV_Show Join Constellation Research analysts for the 24rd episode of ConstellationTV, the enterprise technology show where Constellation’s research team shares the latest news, trends, and features on the enterprise. ConstellationTV is here to bring you the latest in what is disruptive and reshaping business and technology.
#CCE2021 was a HUGE success. Read more 🙌 Constellation Newsletter
Happy Thursday!(Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.) We are still re-living the incredible experience at CCE 2021 in beautiful Half Moon Bay, California. It was wonderful to see so many amazing tech leaders in person, and enjoy the wonderful sights and food at the Ritz! If you missed it, be sure to save the date for next year – October 24-27, 2022. Both CCE photos and TwoLine Studio's graphics are now available. Feel free to share them on social media tagged with #CCE2021.
ConstellationTV Episode 20
Show links: https://www.youtube.com/user/ConstellationR or https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellation-research Join Constellation Research analysts for the 20th episode of ConstellationTV, the enterprise technology show where Constellation’s research team shares the latest news, trends, and features on the enterprise. ConstellationTV is here to bring you the latest in what is disruptive and reshaping business and technology.
ConstellationTV Episode 19
Show links: https://www.youtube.com/user/ConstellationR or https://www.linkedin.com/company/constellation-research Join Constellation Research analysts for the 15th episode of ConstellationTV, the enterprise technology show where Constellation’s research team shares the latest news, trends, and features on the enterprise. ConstellationTV is here to bring you the latest in what is disruptive and reshaping business and technology.
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