Electronic navigation comes in all shapes and sizes these days, from an app on your phone to a purpose-made top-end marine chartplotting and instrument system costing multiple thousands, and from…
Practical Skills
Why two headsails are better than one
The vast majority of production sailing boats these days are rigged as sloops and fitted with a genoa on a furling system. Many older boats, from before the advent of…
How to deal with heat and cold at sea
Extremes of temperature whilst sailing affect not only our comfort but may have a significant effect on health and wellbeing. The scourge of hypothermia or, on the opposite end of…
What to do if someone anchors too close to your boat?
Clara, Fi and Ahmed are cruising north Brittany on Clara’s Rival 34, Grace. Clara is a recently-qualified Coastal Skipper, and Fi and Ahmed, who are both more experienced sailors, are…
Your ultimate pre-season marine electronics checklist
We are all familiar with the list of things we need to do to get our boats ready for the coming season, but one area often overlooked is our electronics.…
How to deal with a prop wrap
Sadler 29, Nimbus, is on passage from North Shields to Grimsby when the engine falters and cuts out. Skipper, Tim, instantly suspects a prop wrap as they’ve already passed a…
How having a checklist could save you and your boat
Would it sound far-fetched if I told you a simple piece of paper could save your boat from expensive breakages and repair, or even peril, and in extremis, save the…
How to get started in a career as a sailmaker
How do you get started in a career as a sailmaker? It’s an interesting question that one Yachting Monthly reader, Catarina Santos, from Santa Maria in the Azores, was grappling…
Solving yacht engine trouble: ‘Water had got in through the filler cap’
A year or so ago I was helping a friend, Monty Halls, bring his boat Sobek, around from Plymouth to Dartmouth. As we were leaving Plymouth breakwater, the engine died.…
How smart technology is finally fixing the humble bilge pump
Bilge pumps are such a simple, standard piece of equipment that very little has changed about them in decades, but now their shortcomings are being dealt with by a range…