Climber-sailor-storyteller Etienne Messikommer wears a red, Cousteau-style hat. He appears in onboard interviews surrounded by splashes of colour and well-loved paperbacks. His speech is marked by a rare sense of…
Yachting Monthly
Saffier 27 review: ‘When you’re under way, pretty well everything can be controlled from the helm’
Many’s the time I have observed that plenty of people who own cruising yachts rarely – if ever – seem to go cruising. They sail around the bay on a…
Zen again: A 65,000-mile love story on a 1980s IOR classic
Zen Again is our Yamazaki Yachts Stinger 34 1980s IOR ¾ tonner. She’s gorgeous. She has a deep fin keel, strong skeg-hung rudder and tall masthead cutter rig. She displaces…
Boat Building’s Last Stand: A Visit to the Academy
Grinding through January and February underlines how much I hate the winter. Indeed, we have just booked a cheap and cheery week in the Canaries to soak up a bit…
The veteran sailor with a Substack: Colm Walker is meditating his way to the 2026 Golden Globe Race
There’s one tool Colm Walker swears by as he gears up for the 2026 Golden Globe Race: meditation. ‘I’m being very intentional about my land based life and footprint. That…
An ‘inherently selfish endeavour’ says solo sailor Henry Wootton of his Golden Globe Race: Here’s why he’s doing it anyways
Henry Wootton isn’t put off by the Golden Globe Race‘s reputation as ‘the Voyage of Madmen’ and ‘The Loneliest Race in the World’. Far from it. As he prepares to…
Sailing the Shipping Forecast in the Dover sea area: ‘Dover marina is a good place to pause’
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…
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…
April 2026
The April 2026 issue of Yachting Monthly is out now.









