Sailing the Shipping Forecast: Dover Dover sea area is a relatively small but significant wedge of water between Deal and Beachy Head on the English coast and across to the…
Yachting Monthly
How we relocated our floating family home down the North Sea
When you’re asked to take any boat from A to B, it’s always easier if you can do it with your own trusted people on board. This wasn’t an option…
Rogue waves! What can they teach us about managing risk at sea
If there is a single point on the planet that figures in the imagination of every sailor, it’s Cape Horn. It lies at the southern end of the South American…
How to work out the strength of a piece of rope
Rope strength is measured in a variety of ways but it is important that the end user understands what that strength is in order to decide whether the rope is…
Sailing a 5,000 mile loop on the Atlantic: ‘Six months in a leaky boat’
Finally we had arrived in the Azores from Newfoundland, a passage described in YM February 2025. En route we had discovered water leaking into the forepeak and the heads compartment…
We sailed to the Winter Olympics
The crackle of skis on vertiginous pistes, an icy puck at the base of a brawling mass of burly hockey stars or the moment of silence before the lycra-clad ski-jumper…
Navigating medical emergencies at sea
Why do accidents happen at the most inopportune times? Occurring when you least need them and potentially putting a crew member out of action or more. Accidents vary from the…
Finding my feet (and my sense of humour) in yacht racing
My friend Claire told me there was no such thing as a slow race, but that’s exactly what I got – twice. The first in Uproar, a Hunter Impala, with…
Why now might be the time to upgrade your yacht’s toilet
Efficient use of power is rarely far from a skipper’s mind, so building in capacity to flush toilets using battery power when the tried-and-tested mechanical option is so much less…
Cruising to the starting line: How to get started yacht racing
As a committed cruiser of 30 years, I often wondered what the point of yacht racing was. There seemed to be a lot of expensive looking boats, some shouting, confusing…