Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Practical Boat Owner

Metstrade in Amsterdam is where the latest sailing and boating technology is unveiled and this year there was, as usual, plenty to see. Rupert Holmes has rounded up his pick of the show (page 54), but as I wandered around the halls looking at some truly innovative marine electronics, engines and systems, I did reflect on whether the average boat owner would make full use of all of this feature-rich kit, There’s certainly an argument that the likes of augmented reality and integrated equipment can make boating more accessible and safer, but how easy is it to use? Rob Melotti certainly had this in mind when he contacted many of the major chartplotter manufacturers to compile their tips for helping you get the most out of this navigation tool (page…

Do you know an outstanding sailor who should be named Yachtsman of the Year or Young Sailor of the Year? The prestigious Yachting Journalists’ Association (YJA) awards recognise individuals who have significantly contributed to British yachting either through exceptional achievements in performance, seamanship, sportsmanship, or youth talent across the sailing and watersports sectors. The Yachtsman of the Year award was established in 1955, and past winners include Pete Goss, Samantha Davies, Sir Francis Chichester, Ian Walker and Nikki Henderson. Introduced in 1993, the Young Sailor of the Year celebrates rising stars under the age of 19 (as of 31 December 2025) with previous winners including Dame Ellen MacArthur, Hannah Stodel, Nick Thompson and Sir Ben Ainslie. Following the nomination period, the YJA Committee will shortlist three finalists in each category,…

The European Boating Industry (EBI) has hailed the latest European Commission’s Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP) as a groundbreaking moment for Europe’s boating industry. For the first time, recreational craft are explicitly included in the EU’s transport investment strategy, which means leisure boating is now part of the EU’s waterborne decarbonisation strategy – opening up funding and support. It comes after continued EBI engagement with the EU Commission on the importance of alternative fuel and infrastructure for the boating industry over the last year. The STIP states that ‘similarly to the maritime sector, a broad set of possible alternatives to fossil fuels is being considered’ for recreational craft. It adds that ‘recreational craft experience a low pace of penetration of new vessels’ and so with no mandatory targets in place,…

Plans to build a new Training and Innovation Centre for the British Sailing Team have been abandoned due to the rising construction costs of building a new facility. Instead, the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) will revamp its current facilities, next door to the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy. An RYA spokesman said: “By strengthening and modernising our current facilities, we are building on a proud legacy while creating a more sustainable, future-ready base for performance and athlete development. “Work on these exciting upgrades will begin in December, marking the start of a new chapter that will enhance our ability to support Olympic and performance sailors for generations to come.”…

Shortly after returning from a training session, Lyme Regis RNLI volunteers were tasked to assist a Contessa 32 in difficulty 10 miles south of West Bay on 2 November. The crew’s inshore lifeboat (ILB) launched at 1405. In strong westerly winds and 2.5m waves, it took the crew almost an hour to reach the sailor, who was well but without power or electrical systems, unable to reach a port before nightfall. Rather than attempt a tow into the prevailing weather to West Bay, the yacht proceeded to Weymouth and ILB helm Murray Saunders requested the assistance of Weymouth RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat to tow the yacht round Portland Bill into Weymouth Harbour. Murray said: “We’d have had a real struggle towing a 10m fin keel yacht back against wind and sea…

Storm Amy caused a fair bit of disruption up here. Not so much in damage – we’re used to winds like that, and everything gets well tied down when the forecast worsens. However, our lifeline Aberdeen ferries and freight boats didn’t sail for two days. This is pretty unusual; they do their best to go. There was panic over bread and milk at Tesco in Lerwick, and the Co-op was short of fruit and meat; luckily, our village shop’s always well supplied using local producers. No south papers or mail and a lot of people who’d meant to leave Shetland after coming up for Wool Week were stranded here. I was due to go south on the Sunday night when the ferries resumed travel, having booked my cabin four months…

Knowing how to throttle and trim a planing boat correctly is a key skill, especially for owners of smaller, faster craft like RIBs and sportsboats. The first thing to sort is your driving position. At speed, the relationship between the wheel and throttles becomes crucial, and it’s imperative, especially in smaller boats, to keep control of them even when being bounced about. Your seating position is vital too: you need to be stable but relaxed so that you don’t accidentally move the controls. Lastly, the single most important item is the kill cord; this needs to be attached as soon as the engine is running. When speeding up, the actions required are similar in any sea direction. What does differ is how you trim the engine and any trim tabs…

Every boater will be able to recognise this feeling – your craft, gliding along the water as the sun sets, inducing a wholesome sensation of peace, bubbles washing with satisfaction by the hull in line with how the boat’s designers foresaw. It’s a sense of coming home. That feels especially true this evening on Devon’s Exe estuary, where I’m one of four rowers being coxed by Richard Bentley. Carrying us downstream with panache is Shambler, a 17ft GRP recreation of the salmon fishing boats which, until fairly recently, cast seine nets in these very waters. She’s proudly owned by Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club (SFCC), itself established in the village in 1959. Most, if not all, the rowers live within a mile of the boat’s TetraDock pontoon berth. Shambler is…

Electronic charting has been a real game-changer, as we all know. Like many, I still choose to augment my electronic charting with paper-based navigation; old habits die hard. Given that paper chart production is under threat around the world, the situational awareness that traditional chart-based navigation provides is, to some extent, also on the wane. I meet many sailors who’ve never used a paper chart, and a friend reckoned I was a closet Luddite for continuing with them. After a fraught experience years ago off Cherbourg, entrapped in thick fog, I promised myself radar on any future boats. Likewise, after a couple of stress-inducing transits through places such as the Raz de Sein and Chenal du Four in Brittany, using a hand-bearing compass and paper charts, I can confirm it…

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Having read some time ago how Tim Nash stopped wave slapping on his boat’s hull, I thought readers might be interested to see how I solved the problem. I went to my local Decathlon store and bought a number of swimming pool noodles (other stores sell them too). The amount needed will depend on your boat size and shape– you can work it out by multiplying the width of your boat at the waterline with Pi divided by two. In my case 3m x 3.14159 = 9.43 divided by 2 = 4.7 so that’s 5m in round figures. I cut the noodles into 310mm lengths, then drilled a hole through the centre lengthwise. Next, I threaded an old topping lift rope through the individual pieces. I placed two plastic-ended bungees…

Canal guidance ◼ The Crinan Canal is usually open seven days a week, from early April to the end of October. ◼ Locks are operated from 0830 to 1700 each day with a half-hour break at lunch. ◼ The canal can be accessed from Loch Crinan in the west through the Crinan Basin, or from Loch Fyne in the east into Ardrishaig Basin. Neither of these is affected by the tide. ◼ The Scottish Canals Skipper’s Guide clearly highlights the excellent range of berthing options along the canal and it also indicates all the showers, toilets and water outlets. ◼ A couple of longer polyprop ropes are useful in the locks as they will get messy, from the slimy walls, as you descend the lock. Practice throwing them over a…

Celebrations have been held to mark 60 years of The Yacht Harbour Association (TYHA). Since the first meeting was held in London on 27 July 1965, the TYHA has grown into a globally recognised association supporting marina excellence, industry standards, and community across the marina world. On 12 November, the TYHA Council marked the occasion during its quarterly meeting, complete with a commemorative cake and reflections on six decades of progress.…

Three quarters of Britain’s 5,000-mile network of canals and navigable rivers face a ‘perfect storm’ of underinvestment and climate risk, the Inland Waterways Association has warned. Following the Climate Change Committee’s warning to government to prepare for 2°C warming by 2050, the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has published an innovative map revealing the likely impact. The national charity found that 75% of canals were ‘financially insecure’, while 99% are expected to experience increased winter rainfall, threatening infrastructure already hit by underinvestment. Canals in the Pennines and Midlands would be among those most impacted. IWA spokesman Charlie Norman said: “Without intervention the network, a cornerstone of the UK’s industrial heritage, providing leisure and tourism destinations for millions, as well as green corridors for wildlife, faces irreversible decline by 2050.” ■ pbo.co.uk/map…

The 60th anniversary of the first Contessa yacht ever built is marked in 2026 and preparations are under way for a raft of celebrations. Since Jeremy Rogers launched the first Contessa 26 in Lymington on 28 April 1966, more than 1,500 Contessas ranging from 26 to 43ft have been built, mostly from Jeremy’s various yards in Lymington as well as under licence. A development of the Swedish Folkboat and designed in partnership with David Sadler, the Contessa 26 was built with the then relatively new material of glass reinforced plastic (GRP). It appealed to the growing number of sailors wanting an affordable, capable seagoing yacht and has proved to be very successful for both racing and bluewater cruising. It is a testament to the design and build quality that Contessas…

SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Electric Fowey A battery-backed DC charger at Fowey Harbour is now enabling rapid electric boat charging in areas with limited grid connections. Said to be a world first in a marine setting, it was delivered as part of The Electric Seaway (TES) project to ‘unlock sustainable voyages’ along Cornwall’s coastline. Aqua superPower’s 60kW battery system, connected to the site’s single-phase power supply, trickle-charges from the local grid. This stored energy then powers a high-performance Aqua PKM150 charger, delivering up to 50kVA of reliable DC charge directly to electric leisure boats, work vessels, and ferries. “This is a game-changer for Fowey Harbour and Cornwall’s waterways,” said Paul Thomas, harbour master at Fowey Harbour. “Aqua superPower’s innovative battery-backed DC charger delivers on our TES commitment, enabling rapid…

Coming across competitive types for whom ‘racing is in the blood’ I’m always struck by how much Horlicks I seem to have in mine. I go sailing to slow down, not speed up, but now I think I’ve found the recipe for race-winning success, and it really is a piece of cake. A couple of months back I described the original 1961 Cowes-Torquay offshore power boat race and have since found the exact rules, which stipulated: an enclosed cabin with a fully upholstered bunk at least 6ft long and 2ft wide; a settee not less than 4ft long; galley equipment including a stove and sink; and a built-in WC. That explains not just the unique development path of British cruiser-racer powerboats, but a rather unfortunate incident in the very first…

The River Rother at my home port of Rye dries out on each ebb tide and the banks are very steep. If you’re relying totally on a single engine with a boat that can’t be sailed or rowed, then you have to hope that you don’t suffer engine failure, for if you dry out on the bank the chances of your boat turning over are high. I once had an old motor cruiser with a 1950s petrol engine and my share of good hope must have been running out. Just by chance when going to buy a pot of antifouling from Sea Cruisers chandlery, I noticed a neat little Orkney Coastliner boat in their shed. She was light, would be easy to launch, had oar crutches, was beamy with plenty…

When a sailor describes a boat as looking like a floating caravan, it’s not usually meant as a compliment. So bear with me when, as a sailor, I describe the SunCamper 31 as looking like a floating caravan. Actually it’s more like a floating motorhome, since it’s self-propelled, but that’s a detail. When sailors speak in such terms about a sailing yacht, they mean that it’s boxy, bloated and perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing they have ever seen. They’re also suggesting that it probably wouldn’t sail particularly well and is not a vessel in which they’d choose to venture far from land. In the case of motorboats, especially those designed for inland waters, perspectives have to be rather different. For cruising up and down the non-tidal Thames, for example,…

Whether it be a small outboard to drive our dinghy or a bigger one to drive our fast ‘toys’, we all have one. But before we look at how to troubleshoot and fix problems, some history wouldn’t go amiss. The first outboard motor was an electric one invented by Gustave Trouvé in 1881, however it was Ole Evinrude who developed the first commercially successful, petrol-powered outboard in 1907. While Trouvé’s electric model was a novelty, and American Motors Co produced some gasoline outboards in 1896, it was Evinrude’s simple, reliable, and relatively powerful 2-stroke design that revolutionised recreational boating and became the industry standard. The British Seagull was largely the forerunner outboard for us in the UK. A simple, robust and indestructible bit of kit, it ran on 16:1 (16…

Having not used my boat for a while, and given that I was planning a trip of around 300 miles, I decided to give the Seaward 29’s bottom and stern gear a quick clean before leaving. Although my mooring dries, there is a lot of mud so my neighbour, Dave, let me use his, which is less muddy. Once the boat was there and cleaned off, I could see multiple pits in the starboard propeller, while the port one had none. I decided to remove the prop and get it repaired. At low tide, we bent back the tab washer and removed the nut. The prop was reluctant to come off, despite being hit with a wood block and a hammer, even after heating. Realising we could do a lot…

The wind was coming on like my brother Alex had warned me it would, as I approached the north side of Carriacou island, one of the Windward Islands of the Caribbean, but the current was pushing us steadily south. I’d held onto the twin running sails for too long really, because they were comfortable, but when I wanted to broad reach across just using a reefed mizzen and well rolled up genoa I realised my mistake. Going around the south side would be quicker, but I would need to concentrate and actually steer the boat rather than leaving it all to the venerable and ancient Hydrovane. This was a problem because at the end of a 33-day single-handed passage from the Canaries I was a sleep deprived mess and liable…

A 60-tonne project boat that was sold by Brixham Marina to its new owners for a nominal fee was sunk by authorities after it drifted in a shipping lane. Former fishing vessel, the Faithful, which was carrying two tonnes of diesel, was sunk in a ‘controlled operation’. On 8 October, HM Coastguard coordinated the response to a report made at about 0105 of a vessel 17 miles south of Looe that had lost power and was taking on water. RNLI all-weather lifeboats from Plymouth and Falmouth were tasked. The two people on board the stricken vessel were transported ashore by the Plymouth lifeboat. HM Coastguard continued to monitor the drifting boat and issued navigational warnings, with a Trinity House vessel acting as guard ship for safety. ‘Due to the unseaworthy…

‘Engine power failure’ was the reason a cargo ship struck moored boats at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It happened at around 1900 on 4 November 2025, when the 75m Shetland Trader was transiting River Medina. Cowes Harbour Commission (CHC) said in a statement: “The Cowes Pilot on board the vessel instigated a well-established emergency procedure, deploying the ship’s anchor to slow down and control movement. However, movement continued for a short distance before making contact with a moored yacht and motorboat, subsequently coming to a complete stop. “During the incident, the yacht’s moorings were parted, and it became entangled with the cargo vessel’s structure.’ No one was on board the moored vessels and no crew were injured With the assistance of local boat owners, the yacht was removed…

Lifejacket check Most people who buy a new lifejacket don’t unzip it and test it. We naturally assume they are correctly packed and in working order because it’s safety kit, right? When you buy a new fire extinguisher or fire blanket you don’t test it. And if you do start unzipping new lifejackets, you could break something, or fail to fit everything back in the way it’s supposed to. You would have the embarrassment of having to ask someone to fix it. Similarly, with your VHF distress button and emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB), you can test the batteries but not if the signal will actually work. As a motorboater, I had a simple red lifejacket but I can’t remember wearing it. A couple of years later, I bought a…

Obviously all sensible boat people want to get the children off the screens and on to the water. This is a hard task when it seems there is a tendency for some children not to like sailing. This may be in case they get their phones wet; or perhaps because the authorities have managed to separate the idea of sailing from the idea of fun. It is true that learning to sail is often associated with excess moisture, some of it unwarm. Sailing is also associated with big money. The excess moisture can be fixed with a decent wetsuit and a sensible choice of weather. As for money, highly acceptable sailing can be done in a Topper or a Mirror dinghy, available on ebay for sums not unadjacent to three…

“The strops on the crane broke and Big C was dropped onto the concrete; it was smashed, causing irreparable damage. I was a bumbling mess, and everything came out: the grief about my father, who had died two days before I had set out. But then I decided that enough was enough; I had to redo it, create a version 2. That night, sitting down in a restaurant, probably not sure whether to use the serviette for tears or for drawing, I drew up a new boat, and 70% of that design is in the boat today.” Microyacht adventurer Andrew Bedwell is no quitter. Even when his dream of crossing the Atlantic lay shattered on the harbour wall in Newfoundland, he dusted himself down and got back up again, with…

Berthing is a demanding time for the short-handed sailor. At first, a gale may appear more challenging, but during heavy weather it’s nearly always possible to stop and think before you act. You control the pace at which proceedings happen. In berthing, once an action is begun, you must keep up with events. Harbours and marinas are busy, crowded places. Distances are short, often measured in boat lengths. Manoeuvring space is limited, and margins of error are small. There is rarely sufficient time to recover from an unexpected miscalculation before colliding with some other boat or the pontoon. Having a crew, even a crew of one, makes everything much easier. They can fend off other boats, keep a lookout, stand midships and step ashore with the lines as you come…

The Caribbean island chain stretches from Trinidad & Tobago in the south-east, all the way to The Bahamas in the north-west. Along the way, it takes in 13 independent countries and the same number of overseas territories. Outside the hurricane season, the trade winds blow steadily, the turquoise seas are warm, and there’s a huge variety of beautiful cruising destinations to explore. In the north of the chain, the British and US Virgin Islands sit on their own shallow shelf, extending underwater from Puerto Rico. The islands and reefs on this bank offer protection from the swell, meaning yachts can cruise in shelter among the 90 or so islets and cays. Visiting the larger islands in the south means sailing in the true ocean. Most passages are possible in daylight,…

Although new 2-stroke engines are no longer available for recreational boating, they remain popular on the second-hand market. In fact they sell now for more than they cost when new because they’re light, robust and easy to maintain and repair. It’s important to service an outboard for several reasons. Number one on a 2-stroke is that the spark plug can get dirty – the oil for the engine is actually in the fuel and it can be a dirty mix, oiling up the spark plug over time. The oil in the gearbox needs changing every couple of years too, or checked every year and then changed if necessary. The seals do go, and water can get into the oil so we need to deal with that. And, of course today’s…

DEZINCIFICATION Is electrically bonding seacocks a good idea? Q I read with interest the articles on seacocks in the Summer 2025 issue of PBO. I know a surveyor who has seen galvanic corrosion on some Blakes seacocks when owners fit them with stainless steel bolts or electrically bond them. I understand why this might happen with stainless steel bolts, but does electrically bonding them also do the same? I have also been advised to check for pinking on dezincification-resistant (DZR) brass ball valve seacocks, as it is a sure sign of corrosion. I always understood that DZR was designed to resist this. Can you explain why this might happen?  June Young Vyv Cox replies: Electrically bonding metallic items inside the hull with heavy copper cable is a classic example of…

Around 15 years ago my husband, John, and I took our first boat, a Westerly 25, through the Great Glen’s Caledonian Canal (PBO, Summer 2011). It was an experience which gave me, a non-sailor, some much needed confidence for the years ahead. For the last eight years, we’ve owned a Mirage 26, Calypso, based in Portavadie Marina, Loch Fyne. If truth be told, my confidence at sailing in open waters has ebbed and flowed over these years. We have anchored in Loch Spelve, Isle of Mull then in sheltered Loch Gair, sailed through the Kyles of Bute many times, to anchor in the disturbingly named Wreck Bay, then tested my comfort on board when a big swell continued all night, as we moored in Lochranza Bay at the north of…