Practical Boat Owner Summer 2015

with the editor To receive the editor’s monthly email newsletter, sign up on our website: www.pbo.co.uk According to Ratty, in his famous quote in The Wind in the Willows, there’s nothing in life half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. I wouldn’t disagree, but sometimes the challenges set by sailing at sea lose you something of the dreamy, limpid tranquillity beloved of Kenneth Grahame’s Water Rat. I was reminded of this fundamental difference between river and canal boating and the coastal cruising undertaken by most PBO readers this weekend, when I attended Beale Park Boat Show. Set around a lake just off the River Thames in Berkshire, Beale Park is the embodiment of Ratty’s dream. On shore, the sun glistened from mirrorsmooth varnish perfectly applied to…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Laura Hodgetts at newspbo@timeinc.com, tel: 01202 440825 News and current affairs from the world of boating The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has written to Belgian marinas and clubs with visitor moorings to encourage them to lobby the current Belgian Minister for Finance to reinstate permission for visiting British yachts to use red diesel. In Belgium, the use of marked red diesel in a private pleasure craft is unlawful regardless of the country in which the diesel was purchased, and an infringement of Belgian law carries the risk of a fine. In January 2014, in response to falling numbers of visiting British yachts, the then Belgian Minister for Finance Koen Geens acknowledged that the Belgian Government ‘must adopt a pragmatic approach’ to the issue…

A teenager who suffered serious injuries when a speedboat crashed into a cardinal marker and capsized in Southampton Water is said to be making ‘positive progress’. Crew member Simon Dredge was on board the £1million VR40 prototype powerboat, on a scheduled test run with his father Peter Dredge and two other experienced powerboaters when the dramatic crash happened just outside the Hamble River, close to the Warsash Maritime Academy. UK Coastguard received multiple 999 calls from members of the public on 13 May, reporting the incident. The Search and Rescue helicopter from Lee-on-Solent and Calshot RNLI lifeboats attended. In addition to former RYA powerboat racing manager Peter Dredge and his 17-year-old son Simon, experienced powerboat racer Simon Wood-Power and engineer Lee Hurst were on board the VR40 prototype, which was…

An official report has been published almost a year after the fatal collision between a cruiser and a dredger off the coast of Felixstowe. On 8 June 2014, the dredger Shoreway and the sailing yacht Orca collided seven miles offshore, causing Orca to sink rapidly. The yacht’s skipper was rescued by Shoreway’s rescue boat but the skipper’s wife, Bernadine Ingram, could not be found. Her body was recovered from the yacht by divers the following day. A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) investigation has established that the vessels collided in good visibility as neither the chief officer, alone on the bridge of Shoreway, nor the skipper of Orca, who was below deck in the cabin, were maintaining a proper lookout. The report said: ‘Orca had generated a clear target that…

Despite the confusion on online forums and among many sailors, iPads with a 3G chip have their own GPS – but their cheaper cousins, the Wi-Fi-only range of iPads, don’t. It has always been possible to convert the cheaper Wi-Fi-only iPad, using a Bad Elf or similar plug-in third-party GPS. But the latest update to Apple’s operating system, iOS 8.3, has caused many third-party positioning devices to stop working with the iPad. So, if you’re heading out on the water and plan to use a Wi-Fi-only iPad as a chart plotter using a third-party GPS, it’s probably best to delay upgrading to iOS 8.3 until you’re safely back ashore: or, if you’ve already upgraded, to check the compatibility of your third-party GPS with your iPad navigation app before you need…

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) is to campaign for disabled sailing’s inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and has appointed VERO Communications to advise and support its campaign. The decision to press the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to add sailing to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games follows ISAF formally taking over the management of disabled sailing in November 2014, and the integration of the International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) into ISAF. ISAF president Carlo Croce said: ‘This is a new era for disabled sailing, with ISAF now able to fully utilise its technical, financial, promotional and strategic resources to bring significant benefits to disabled sailing. For example, we are now working hard to put in place a much enhanced, professional and aligned four-year competition programme for disabled sailing,…