Being poked in the cheek and asked ‘Is this annoying? Is this annoying? Is this annoying?’ by my bored 11-year-old daughter Isla was indeed annoying. But what made it even…
Top stories
Marie Tabarly: Stepping out from a famous father’s shadow
Marie Tabarly, the daughter of French sailing legend Eric Tabarly, has stepped out from the shadows of her famous father and rewritten history, becoming the first over the line in…
Why marking the lines on your yacht is crucial
Many cruising yacht skippers mark very little on board their boats. They rely on experience and remembering how the sails should be set in various conditions. But it is an…
Cruising Corsica and Sardinia by yacht
Cruising the Mediterranean in my own yacht has always been a dream, and it finally became a reality in 2023, with the June delivery of a new Hallberg-Rassy 372 in…
Don’t let Thames sewage kill off this ancient oyster fishing boat
Samuel Pepys mentions oysters in his diaries 68 times, but that was when they were as common as winkles along the banks of the Thames and when they were a…
Maiden crew’s First Mate Rachel Burgess: ‘The girls showed how tough they were’
I got the call while sitting in a little cafe in Horta in the Azores. Say ‘hell, yes’ first, think about the logistics second. So that’s how I became First…
How different yacht types change sailing characteristics
Most of Britain’s yacht owners, both now and in the future, will be sailing boats built in the 1960s to 1980s, that are highly durable, structurally sound and capable of…
‘Being stuck in a lifeboat with a tiger is, to say the least, untypical’ – Libby Purves
I won’t be in theatres with a notebook as much as usual this month – time for some wider, wetter horizons – but may be musing, as I often do,…
How to rig a yacht’s mooring lines to avoid chafe
Jenny and Ted are cruising with their two teenage children on board their 10m yacht Oyster Catcher. Forecasters have been warning of wet and windy weather for the next few…
A beginners guide to easy yacht navigation
When you first start to learn about yacht navigation it can seem complex and pretty nuanced, but in reality what you are doing falls into two overarching styles. The first…