Features

• Get your boat anti-fouled for free!
  Ease spring fitting-out by entering our competition to win up to £1,500 worth of Seajet anti-fouling and let professionals do the work for you!
  
  
• Fitting out special
  Essential checklist of 30 pre-launch jobs. Plus, how to check your lifejackets; versatile vacuum pumps on test; and is sail-valeting worth the money?

• Lost and hound
  Fluke, a stray dog, embarks on an ocean voyage with Adrian and Lot Sparham aboard Moonshiner and even keeps the pirates at bay
  
  
• Surviving heavy weather
  Even a small breaking wave can exert a force of 10 tons. Evans Starzinger offers some storm force tactics

• Arthur Ransome?s lost story
  The unpublished tale of Ransome?s honeymoon cruise with his Russian wife has just been rediscovered. Dick Durham meets the man who unearthed the manuscript

• Brittany hideaway
  Ken Endean visits Lannion Bay in North Brittany and discovers the perfect hideaway anchorage

• Destinations ? Free chart: Yarmouth
  Is this Britain?s most popular harbour? Our insider?s guide to this lively stopover includes detailed harbour plans

• Shadowfax in the Med
  Part eight of Justine Oliver?s tale of the 33ft sloop?s voyage from Hong Kong to the UK

• Curry on cruising
  Mike Peyton on the delights of winter cruising: silent creeks, pub lunches and curry for supper
  
  
• New gear at the London show
  The YM team report on chart software innovations, new DSC radios, radar, safety gear, clothing and more!

On test

• Compromis 11.30DS
  This sturdy deck saloon yacht from Holland promises above average performance, says James Jermain

• Legend 356
  A 35-footer for under £70,000 with plenty of living space.
  How does the new Legend perform?
  
  
• A-Z of second-hand boats
  Buying a used boat? Our cut-out-and- keep series continues with the Fs, including the traditional Fisher range, classic Folkboats and innovative Freedom yachts
  

  Regulars

• Editorial
  
• On Watch
  
• Readers? letters
  
• Any questions ?refurbishing a cooker
  
• How to subscribe
  
• Libby Purves ?on the tiller girls
  
• Next month & YM books
  
• Blue Water Letter ?from the Canaries
  
• Blue Water Postscript ?new books reviewed
  
• Around The Coast Property
  
• The Confessional

  Sailing skills

• Question of Seamanship
  Collision avoidance with radar in fog
  
  
• Learning Curve
  Monsters of the deep!
  Alastair Buchan recallsa mystifying trip into the fog and a close encounter
  
  
• Yachtmaster Class
  Tom Cunliffe

• Better Boat Handling
  Simon Jinks tells you how to sail off a berth

• Sea Sense
  With Des Sleightholme plus book review