Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i Practical Boat Owner

The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) is to modernise its communications system. Windsor Telecom has been chosen to manage and upgrade connectivity and communications to 57 stations around the UK, and to support innovations such as wireless monitoring and rescue cameras in remote locations to better support the NCI’s 2,500 volunteers. Work will include site-by-site upgrades to the best available internet connections, using a mix of fibre broadband, and 4G or 5G mobile connectivity; replacement of legacy PSTN voice services with cloud telephony and DECT handsets; enhanced security through business-grade firewalls; and a guided volunteer-led install and rollout programme. For more than 25 years, NCI has worked alongside HM Coastguard and the RNLI. During 2021, NCI volunteers participated in 700-plus search and rescue incidents, but for too long the Coastwatch stations…

The company that runs the Port of Southampton has been accused of ‘pricing people out of the water’ by more than tripling charges for some recreational sailors. Associated British Ports (ABP) is introducing the price hikes ‘without consultation’. Invoices seen by the Daily Echo show a private owner with a boat from 8.1m to 12m in length faces a rise in their mooring licence from £225 last year to £675 in 2022. Above 15m, the rise is from £517 to £1,551. Sailing clubs were invoiced for rises of 12% on top of inflation earlier this year. The rise has been delayed pending meetings in May, but some expect charges to rise in line with those for private owners within two to three years. John Bigg, who has a 27ft trimaran…

SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Marine academy opens Send us your local news stories. Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467 The new South Devon College Marine Academy has opened within Premier Marina’s £75million redevelopment of a former shipbuilding yard on the banks of the River Dart. Ten years in the planning, this state-of-the-art facility at Noss on Dart offers training in new and emerging technologies such as autonomous vessels, electric or hybrid propulsion, courses in marine engineering, apprenticeships in boatbuilding, warehousing and composites, plus degree level qualifications in marine technologies and coastal engineering. Facilities include a marine engineering workshop, research and design facility, innovation hub, navigation suite and a bridge simulator, open plan classrooms and breakout rooms. The aim is to close the skills…

Channel hopping Essential monthly highlights from the world of online sailing channels with Kass Schmitt Last year Sailing La Vagabonde highlighted the humanitarian issue of migrant vessels in distress when Riley volunteered with a charity which charters yachts out of the Canaries to search for migrant boats in danger of drifting past the islands and to alert the rescue services. A recent well-researched article by Elaine Bunting in PBO’s sister title Yachting Monthly explored the topic of encounters between cruising sailors and migrants at sea. These are sadly becoming increasingly frequent, particularly between West Africa and the Canary Islands. Ryan (American) and Sophie (French) are a couple in their 30s who met in Stockholm. Inspired, in part, by the example of long-time sailing YouTubers MJSailing they acquired their Beneteau Oceanis…

Our big pier is the lifeboat pier, Britain’s most northerly, and she’s had several ‘shouts’ this year. I was just sailing back into the marina when I heard the roar of the lifeboat engine starting, and saw yellow oilskinned men running down the pier. It’s always a worrying moment, knowing that some poor soul is in difficulties. Not this time, though. Naturally my berth neighbour knew all about it: an empty boat spotted floating near Burra, which is only 25 miles by road, but more like 100 by sea, right around the west side of Shetland. When they got there, one of the crew recognised the boat, so they phoned the owner straight away, and found him safely at home – their preferred outcome. Then there’s truck activity. There are…

Gas cookers used to be the standard on almost every boat, but there are good reasons why they are not necessarily the best choice. The dangers of fire or explosion are well documented, yet there are still plenty of older vessels without gas lockers that drain safely overboard. Equally, most sources recommend changing flexible hoses every five years and regulators once a decade, but I suspect most are not. Today there’s a wide choice of cooking appliances for use on a boat, some of which are more economical than gas to run and easier to install. Many other devices, from solar cookers to JetBoils, can aid preparing great food on board. Alcohol stoves Like Marmite, lots of people love them, but there are also plenty of detractors. A key drawback…

Being able to easily trail your little boat to new cruising grounds is a great feeling. Many owners of cruising yachts simply don’t get the time to go far from their moorings and their boats become day sailers from the one location. But the trailer-sailer can be taken to new haunts around the coast and to inland lakes and waters that are not accessible to cruising yachts. I like to book into a good hotel or boarding house and day sail. My wife certainly prefers this to being stuck at an angle on a damp mooring up a muddy creek. Since trailer sailing I have got to know many ports and inland waters. For a working man with just a few weeks holiday each year a fin keel cruising yacht…

With seacocks previously installed in the Maxi 84, it was time to connect the hoses. The first thing to decide was what sort of installation. As Ali explains on preceding pages, there’s more than one way to do this. All options require the sea water inlet. The simplest option has the waste going straight out to sea, but this setup can’t be used in harbour for obvious reasons, and preferably should only be used at least three miles out to sea. The ideal option is to fit a holding tank, but this is considerably more expensive and wasn’t available to us at the time. More expensive still would have been to fit an electric loo with a holding tank above the waterline for easy emptying in dock or at sea.…

Give our diesel engines clean fuel to drink, plenty of fresh air to breathe, plus a regular jump-start of amps, and they’ll happily run pretty well forever, given a little routine maintenance of course. However, guaranteeing that crucial supply of clean fuel is becoming something of a headache for many sailors and it’s certainly challenged us aboard Maunie for the past few years. In 2012 my wife, Dianne, and I set off on a voyage that we’d long been dreaming of and was now, suddenly, a reality. With our careers firmly paused, our house rented out, the car sold and our furniture in secure storage, we’d moved aboard our 1997 Vancouver 38 Pilot, Maunie of Ardwall, for an adventure that would take us from our home port of Dartmouth down…

Here’s just a selection of the latest questions from PBO readers. For more expert advice, visit pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-answers ELECTRONICS Charging mobile devices on board How can I recharge my Q Pixelbook and mobile phone from my boat’s 12V electrical system? Maurice Williams Longtime subscriber ANDY HAINES REPLIES: If the boat has a cigar lighter socket (most do), the easiest solution is to purchase a ‘cigar lighter socket to a USB socket adaptor’. This effectively converts the existing cigar lighter socket to a USB charger. A better solution, however, is to wire in a separate USB charge socket as this takes out the vulnerability of the connection of the USB adaptor coming loose in the cigar lighter socket. If installing one yourself, care must be taken to get the positive/negative power connections…

I have a Westerly Spirit Q fitted with a Volvo Penta 10hp and saildrive. I moor the boat on a swinging mooring in the Dee Estuary which has a very soft sand/clay/mud bed on which my boat sits when the tide goes out. Occasionally the saildrive will dig into the sea bed but never deep enough to cover the upper vents. They are, however, prone to being blocked with barnacles which I clear once a month. I recently stripped down the saildrive to replace the main seal and clean it out after a bad season of overheating last year. I replaced the thermostat and impeller, and thoroughly cleaned all the ports on the engine and saildrive. On my second trip out this year after lockdown the heating alarm was triggered once…

Rowing can be fun and is a good way to keep fit. Here’s Dick Everitt’s basic guide…

Eight sailing clubs and the RYA’s OnBoard programme received a combined boost of £185,000 as part of the John Merricks Sailing Trust’s Legacy Awards. The grants will fund 44 boats to help young sailors develop in the sport at Burghfield SC, Delph SC Bolton, Queen Mary SC, Restronguet SC, Rickmansworth SC, Rutland SC and Starcross Yacht Club. The awards will help Felpham Sailing Club to set up a legacy fund for young International Laser Class Association (ILCA) sailors. The legacy awards mark the winding up of the trust.…

Animal rescues carried out by volunteer lifeboat crew around the UK and Ireland are the topic of a new book. Saved from the Waves shines a light on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) work, and the necessity of these rescues, not only to save animals at risk of drowning, but to prevent people putting themselves in danger attempting to save a pet, wildlife or livestock. Rescuees range from seabirds to deer, a humpback whale, walrus and a stranded cat, to a seal pup. Each book sale will help to raise the funds that equip and train the lifesavers, ready for the next rescue. ■ Priced at £15. shop.rnli.org…

The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has announced that it is the provider of S-100 navigation data for the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) project – marking the first time S-100 data has been tested aboard an unmanned or autonomous marine vessel. Sea trials in Plymouth Sound have been testing the ship’s ability to read, integrate, and use S-100 data – high resolution information readable by machine – in a range of conditions, with a human operator always on the loop from the remote operations centre and a local safety boat in proximity to the MAS, in preparation for a transatlantic trip to a US coast. Head of research, design & innovation at the UK Hydrographic Office, Mark Casey, said this project “will highlight the importance of S-100 as an enabler of…

One of the few remaining sailing vessels to take part in the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II is to return to her home port of Littlehampton. Windsong, a 1931 Hillyard auxiliary ketch, has been donated to Wellness Over Waves (WOW) by her owner Michael Duddridge. She’ll be restored over the five years and used as the charitable foundation’s flagship, to provide sail training for disadvantaged young people. WOW founder Fiona Nicholas said: “Windsong is currently undergoing an extensive refit in Cyprus. It seems the more we remove to repair the more we find needs to be repaired which is the main reason we have had to launch a massive fundraising appeal. We have a very tight window and time and tide wait for no man, woman or little wooden…

Ever since Noah failed his Day Skipper Practical by running his ark aground 5,000m up on the peak of Mount Ararat, the quest for the perfect anchor has exercised some of the greatest nautical minds in the world. And I’ve been thinking about it too; as a result I can reveal in a PBO world exclusive that this quest is now over. As with varnish, we’d caution against using anchors near any kind of marine environment, such as water for example. True, a phalanx of barnacle-encrusted, rusty anchors protruding menacingly from the bow and stern of a yacht does lend a measure of blue-water been-there done-it salty sea dog swagger and makes a considerable impression on entering a marina – usually a moment before making a rather larger impression on…

You might think £30,000 sounds like a lot of money for a ‘starter boat’. But tracking down a comfortable and seaworthy yacht that’s over 30ft long, less than around 40 years old and capable of taking a crew on coastal cruising trips costing less than £30,000 on the second-hand market can be a challenging project. It’s stating the obvious, but sailors who are happy with smaller yachts have far more to choose from. In the days before the ‘smallest’ new starter boat became a costly 30-plus footer, many builders used to offer popular ranges stretching from 20ft to 32ft. But if you are looking for something above the 30ft mark within a £30,000 budget, you will have to start delving into the realms of older yachts. Groundbreaking cruiser Those looking for…

‘When angels fell, some fell on the land, some on the sea. The former are the faeries and the latter were often said to be the seals.’ While this old Orcadian view of seal origins is more poetic, modern science suggests they evolved from land-dwelling carnivores and are more closely related to bears than angels. Seals are so ubiquitous around our coasts that it’s easy to take them for granted. Most people probably don’t realise that Britain is the best place in Europe to see seals. We may only have two species but the UK is home to more than a third of the common seals and almost all the grey seals in Europe. Indeed our 120,000 grey seals represent 40% of the world population. There are a few ringed…

Most of us will know someone – and may have been that someone ourselves – with a rusty, rattly, oily or smoking marine diesel engine. The sort of engine that no longer fills us with complete confidence in its reliability. Many have also been in the position of thinking of buying a second-hand boat with concerns that the engine may be suspect or isn’t performing quite as it should. First questions The first thing to do is set a base line so any decisions or spending of money are based on cold, hard facts. This entails putting the wallet firmly to one side and rapidly getting an answer to the frank question: ‘is my engine actually shot?’ If that’s the conclusion, the immediate follow-up question is always ‘do I need…

May 2016 and the forecast for the west coast of Scotland was wall-to-wall sunshine for at least a week. I couldn’t believe it. This was a fantastic opportunity to sail north to the Small Isles of Canna, Rum (Rhum), Eigg and Muck and hopefully even as far north as Loch Scavaig on Skye. As none of my sailing friends were available to join me, I made the decision to sail solo for the first time. My wife, obviously anxious, made me promise to phone her as often as possible, which I agreed to, at the same time knowing that most of the places I intended to visit had no mobile phone signal. I packed my bags and headed off to Barcaldine on Loch Creran, where my boat Wavelength was moored.…

While I was skippering Dare to Lead in the 2019-20 edition of the Clipper Round the World Race, we were diverted during Leg 5 from Airlie Beach, Australia to the Philippines, just as the opening chapters of the Covid-19 story were being written. It was while being held in quarantine on the pontoon, in early 2020, that I agreed to buy Sagarmatha, the Tradewind 35 that had been Kevin Farebrother’s entry in the 2018 Golden Globe Race. Soon after, with the Clipper Race postponed, and having made a hasty return to the UK, I began to plan the return of Sagarmatha from Panama to her new home in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. No sooner had the plan begun to unfold than Panama closed its borders. Fast-forward to 12 October 2020, the…

I base my Achilles 9m Q Lotna in Faro, Portugal, and suffered a blown head gasket on its Perkins Perama M30 engine just before the Coronavirus pandemic. I’ve been in lockdown in South Wales ever since but plan to go out to tackle the job as soon as I can safely. I’ve never taken on such a large job before, but was inspired by Geoff Higginbottom’s excellent step by step guide for the same engine in PBO July and Summer 2020. However, in the reassembly section there’s no mention of how to adjust the valve clearances, ie how to get the valves in position for measuring with the feeler gauge/and what sequence. This was one of the procedures that was concerning me and is not clear in the workshop manual. I…

A full inshore entertainment programme is back for this year’s Round The Island Race. A Race Village will be held at the Cowes Yacht Haven during this year’s ‘race for all’, welcoming competitors, supporters and spectators from midday on Friday 24 June and throughout the race weekend. It follows a hiatus in shoreside attractions last year due to the Covid pandemic, and will include a pop-up food hall, bar area and terrace, activities and stands from sponsors and event charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. The Island Sailing Club (ISC) organises the Round the Island Race, held this year on 25 June, and welcomes sailors from all over the world, from professional racers to amateur crews and families, competing in boats of all sizes on a 58-mile racecourse around the…

The not-for-profit company behind the Cleaner Marina initiative has launched a new platform called ReSail to give new life and purpose to old sails, bags, sheets and other materials. Clean Sailors held a successful pilot of the scheme in the South West in 2021, allowing sailors to search for and find local drop-off points for gear that could be ‘upcycled’. While most materials used for sailing are built to withstand UV light, saltwater and wind, they still don’t last forever, and all have a time limit on their initial use. As an example, currently 97% of all sails end up in landfill. The ReSail scheme will also be working with sailmakers to find out more about the materials used in construction, so that other industries outside of sailing can explore,…

Email pbo@futurenet.com Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. Disco-inspired safety check I have just read about the danger of cheap exhausts bought online and fitted to marine diesel heaters (PBO May 2022). It isn’t just cheap exhausts that cause a problem – time, and a marine application can corrode even the most respected models. We own a 20-year-old Fairline Phantom 43 fitted originally with a high-quality diesel heater. I replaced the whole system two years ago. Before replacing it I smoke-tested the old system using a disco smoke machine (apple flavoured smoke – not essential!) To my horror the stainless steel insulated exhaust leaked like a sieve. When I removed the old exhaust and insulation there were hundreds of pin holes in the section from the top of the…

Poring over the 1871 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica the other day, we came to the entries that describe the close-quarters handling of large sailing ships. There is nothing like a description of weighing anchor in an engineless four-master off a lee shore to fill the soul with admiration for the ancestors. Tough as old boots, brave as lions, and skilful in a way that has become extinct. Or has it? The Britannica stuff reminded us that we have not recently had a go at All Sail Week. I may have mentioned this before. It is a week of the summer, randomly chosen and characterised, with luck, by small breezes from suitable directions, during which nobody is allowed to turn on the engine. All other means of propulsion – rowing,…

Seeking to make life on board more like that at home, by maximising comfort and convenience is understandable – as humans we’ve been doing that ever since we started creating makeshift mattresses by stuffing animal skins with grasses and leaves more than 10,000 years ago. However, sometimes seeking to replicate how we do things at home when on board can lead to wistful solutions that are expensive and barely feasible for the average boat. Several of the larger yachts I’ve tested yachts for one of PBO’s sister titles have 300-400lt of refrigeration and freezer capacity – three times larger than my unit at home. Yet 40 years ago a yacht of the same size would have had no more than one third of that capacity and some of the 55-60ft…

Optima Blue Top 4.2 Battery After reading the excellent article ‘Which Battery is Best for my Boat’ (PBO March 2022) I noticed that one type of battery was missing from the choices – the Optima Blue Top AGM battery with SpiralCell technology. This battery is great for many marine applications. I had two fitted on my 200hp RIB, and moved them on to a new 300hp RIB. They lasted 19 years and tens of thousands of miles. I also have one as a starter battery on my yacht, which has lasted eight years. I’ve been using this type of battery since 2000 and have found it to be excellent for my purposes. In 1989 I bought a used 6.1m Flatacraft Force Six RIB with twin 60hp Yamahas (later to be…

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Sailing in the Mediterranean we needed a stern anchor for our 10m (33ft) Moody Eclipse, Aderyn Glas, so before we left Port Napoleon in southern France we fabricated this bracket. The construction is based on a commercial anchor tray, some stainless steel tubing and a couple of homemade brackets to attach it to the transom bulwark. So, where to put it? The obvious position was the corner of the pushpit which gave me a solid railing to bolt to and a secure area of transom for the base of the uprights. The only issue was to keep it clear of the davit on the port side, but luckily that was simple enough. Ironically, most of the harbours and marinas we visit in our chosen sailing area in Greece have ‘lazy…

Like many, my boat Q Isola was left unused for a considerable time during the Covid pandemic with around half a 200lt tank of fuel. When I did eventually get to use her again I found the Mercury outboard was not performing well. Starting was much more problematic than in the past, and under way the motor was ‘missing’, coughing and choking almost as if being starved of fuel until it warmed up. Everything was fine when used regularly before lockdown. Could there be a blockage of the carburettor starving the engine, or does the problem lie elsewhere? Gary Slack STU REPLIES: Your symptoms are typical of using ‘old’ fuel. Unfortunately E5 and now E10 fuels become ‘stale’ much more quickly than petrol in the days before biofuel additives. Petrol…

This is a tribute to the life of Robin Brooks who recently died at the age of 83 in his self-built residence on the remote Woodhill Mountain, New South Wales. His achievements and contribution to the community are such that I’m compelled to tell part of his life’s story. Robin was born in the UK in Bournemouth. He and his family emigrated to Australia in 1950 when he was aged 11. He grew up in the idyllic coastal town of Kiama, NSW, where he was schooled and went on to do a carpentry apprenticeship. He did many things before and after his period of sailing including creating a magnificent garden of many acres, motor racing and, at one stage, built his own racing car. Even towards the end of his…