When a neighbouring yacht caught fire Michael Roberts’ beloved Tern didn’t stand a chance. Here he recounts the devastating scene awaiting him...
Learning curve
Refurbishing a yacht: ‘We had a huge project on our hands’
Elizabeth Earle shares what she learned buying a dismasted vintage Amel in the wake of Hurricane Irma
‘I needed a hospital. With my last gasp I muttered Mayday’
A Greek island cruise becomes a matter of life and death when Michael Solano suffers a stroke nine miles from shore
‘I flew across the boat and landed headfirst’
Jenny Rorrison describes the series of events leading up to her brain operation following a knockdown at sea
“We watched as the mast and sails fell into the water”
Alejandro Perez describes the moment when ARC yacht Garuda was dismasted 600 miles from land
‘What I learned from a dismasting in Antarctica’
Veteran polar sailor and mountaineer Bob Shepton reflects on losing his rig while sailing with a crew of school leavers in the Drake Passage
‘We should have turned back when the storm hit’
Adam Dunlop and his wife Maria learned a few hard lessons when their engine started to struggle mid-Channel in worse conditions than forecast
‘We learned fast in fickle weather on the Cornish coast’
Ingmar Hupp encounters fog, a fouled anchor and a 44-knot wakeup call, all while attempting to adapt to rapidly changing conditions
‘What I learned deploying my series drogue in a gale’
Steve Brown found his series drogue a big asset when riding out foul weather in one of the world's most inhospitable sailing grounds
‘My solo cruise ended in a liferaft’
Phil van der Mespel had always dreamed of a long offshore adventure. When unforeseeable disaster struck, careful preparation for the worst-case scenario saw him rescued within hours