Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2020 från Practical Boat Owner

There are calls for a ‘collaborative approach’ by governments, the marine industry, stakeholders and the public to tackle the problem of end-of-life boats. In a recent policy statement, the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA), a global trade association, has said the disposal of old boats is ‘not purely an owner problem’ and the failure to deal with abandoned vessels, especially glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) boats, has the ‘potential to damage’ the marine industry. According to figures from the European Boating Industry, which represents the European leisure marine industry, around 80,000 boats under 24m reach the end of their life each year in Europe. ICOMIA highlighted that there are commercially available solutions for recycling composite waste, and the marine industry should increase co-operation with industries which use composite materials, like…

HOW TO SET UP YOUR BOAT PART 7 Marine electronics have come a long way since the days when a log, depth sounder, VHF and GPS, or even Decca, were the norm for many boats. It’s now possible to spend the entire value of an older 25-30ft yacht on electronics and still not have a totally comprehensive system. So what are the best options for those who don’t want to splash large amounts of cash on gizmos? What’s the least that you need to stay safe? My boat in Greece, which I keep to a very basic specification (as much as anything to reduce unnecessary time spent on maintenance) has only fixed and handheld VHFs, plus an EPIRB as dedicated equipment. Both the depth sounder and speed/distance log that I…

Rebuilding a yacht from scratch, even a small one, requires at least 2,000 hours of work. That’s a lot. To put it in perspective, that’s a 40-hour week, for 50 weeks, or a whole year’s work for one person, give or take. The secret of a successful rebuild is to realise and accept how much work it is, and make the time or the money available, or some combination of both. We chose to work with a small yard, J-Star Marine Services, who have been truly great, with the aim of the them doing half the work and us the other half. With that in mind my partner, Alice, and I went to Essex for several weeks last summer. With help from visiting friends and family (a huge thank you…

Email your projects and tips to pbo@ti-media.com or write to us at the address at the top of page 5. We pay at least £30 for each one published Lorna Adam is an Aquastar Ocean Ranger 33. She is fitted with 2 x 60hp Nanni N4.60 diesels, a diesel generator and a Webasto diesel heater. Some time ago I decided to upgrade the fuel system. The filtration was 2 x Racor FG500 filters and on/off taps. The objectives of the upgrade were to: 1. Add an additional filter for the generator and heater. 2. To be able to change the engine filters quickly and easily in the case of a blocked filter. 3. Label the system to make it easy to understand and so as not to make the mistake…

We pay for your published cruising stories and harbour updates. Email pbo@ti-media.com or write to the address at the top of page 5 In the six years I’ve owned Nicola Deux I’ve sailed 77,650 miles in her. I just love Nicholson 32s. My father-in-law had one and to me it was the ultimate sea boat: strong and seaworthy. I searched every one that came on the market, and found Nicola Deux in Perpignan, in the South of France. I went down on my motorbike to take a look. She belonged to an English chap who felt he couldn’t sail her anymore. He was the second owner; the first had thrown a lot of money at her. Everything was right. She wasn’t too expensive – I just fell in love with…

The Disabled Sailors Association is looking for 1,000 wheelchair users to take part in its Trans-World Sailing Adventure. To mark its 25th anniversary, the association has launched a £4.5 million project to build a wheelchair accessible superyacht to allow wheelchair users to sail around the world in safety and comfort. The voyage, which will start in 2026, will be split into one- to six-week sections and heavily subsidised to make it affordable. The association’s founder, Mike Wood MBE, has already designed and built two wheelchair accessible boats – the monohull Verity L, which is based in Spain, and the catamaran Spirit of Scott Bader which is in Portsmouth. Both are regularly used by the association. “It all sounds a bit grand and ambitious but over the last 25 years we…

The Nicholson 32 was one of the first production-built GRP yachts of its size. It quickly gained a reputation for being an ultimate go anywhere cruiser that was also fitted out to a high standard. Some 370 were built over an 18-year period, following the launch of the prototype in 1963, and examples have ventured to all parts of the globe. Well known boats include Claire Francis’s Gulliver G, a 1966 model in which she completed her first solo Atlantic crossing in 1973. More recently, Tony Curphey briefly became the oldest person to complete a non-stop circumnavigation via the Southern Ocean on board Nicola Deux when he completed the Longue Route last year. At the same time, many Nic 32s have been used as excellent family cruisers. The boat was…

Due to family commitments I found myself having to move to Wolverhampton late last year from West Sussex. I’ve never lived far from the sea and the boat I have custody of, a 1936 gaff cutter Wendy May, was kept in the soft mud of Canvey Island. It quickly became apparent that commuting from Wolverhampton to Canvey was impractical: not only was the distance long but there was no real way to avoid the ring of death (aka the M25). However, my brother Alex had long been a member of Newport and Uskmouth sailing club, and myself and my family went to visit the place. I found it welcoming, friendly and very similar to Canvey Island yacht club but on the other side of the country in South Wales. It…

I often sail single-handed and after using a rode counter on another boat, I decided to fit one to my Nimbus 365. I already had markers on the chain at 6m intervals and controls for the windlass in the bow and at the helm, but being able to control the boat and know how much rode has gone out (or in) from the helm makes anchoring in strong winds easier and also reduces the likelihood of drifting into another boat when weighing anchor in crowded coves. As I already had windlass controls at the helm, I went for a simple standalone rode counter that displayed the amount of rode out, alarmed when the anchor was about to enter its stowage position and could cope with mixed rode (30m chain and…

My Beneteau Oceanis 381, Sacha, is nearly 20 years old. Her engine is a Volvo Penta MD22, which is an old fashioned 4-cylinder Perkins-derived diesel engine. It has done 3,250 hours running time and is still going strong, using only about a litre of oil per season of about 120 hours running. But last year I noticed it was vibrating a bit at low revs and blowing lots of grey/black smoke out of the exhaust under load and at high revs. I tested each injector in turn and concluded that two of them were functioning poorly, but decided to pull, check and service them all. After removing the injectors, I could see two injector nozzles were damp, indicating that the needle valve wasn’t seating properly and was leaking. One of…

I’ve been hooked on boats since before I could walk, and have spent over 30 years repairing and sailing them. My experience has taught me how to manage a yacht on a tight budget and how to prioritise projects in order to get the best out of the boat and maximum enjoyment. More recently I found a way to make my passion my profession when I started a brokerage and boat repair company. Our first project was a Leisure 20, which we refitted for a lady at the local sailing club. Soon after, I met a chap who’d bought his first boat – a Jaguar 22 that had been laying neglected on our moorings at Saltash on the river Tamar for some years, providing a home for several families of…

Back in March we could never have imagined that we would be in this situation of lockdown. We were very lucky and made what was to be a fantastic decision: to stay in Barbuda. It was a choice between relative freedom in Barbuda, or no freedom but being able to get supplies (gas, food, fuel) in Antigua. Because of our two pirates onboard, we chose freedom! Being forced to stay in one location for so long, we have become a very close-knit community with eight other boats here. Being isolated together for over a month now, we are confident there is no virus here and roam freely amongst ourselves. A total blessing for everyone. Being far from civilization the authorities have left us to our own devices. We are allowed…

The COVID-19 lockdown is already taking its toll on some UK marine businesses, while others have adapted to meet the challenges caused by the pandemic. Norfolk’s Windboats Marine, which built both the Gunfleet cruising yacht and Hardy motor yachts has entered into administration, affecting around 40 workers at its North Walsham base. The firm blamed a general downturn in orders and the ‘untimely impact’ of coronavirus for the move, and administrators are actively looking for a buyer. Other businesses have made redundancies. Sunseeker announced it would shed around 460 jobs – 20% of its workforce – ‘to weather the current challenges’. The Poole boatbuilder is preparing to start up full production after shutting down as a result of the pandemic. British Marine has said the full impact of COVID-19 on…

Over a career spent as a boatbuilder and latterly as a freelance journalist, I have noticed that some owners of sportier yachts tend to trade up to bigger or more modern models on a fairly regular basis. And this was great for business, of course, when I was building and selling sportier yachts. However, owners of heavier and older models – many termed as motor sailers – tend to stick with what they’ve got for a long time. Indeed, often for ever. Part of this phenomenon could be down to fashion. Each year volume-production performance cruisers get wider, sprout chines and skegless twin rudders, pack in more accommodation, have shorter chord keels and move towards flatter underwater shapes. On the other hand heavier yachts with longer keels, protected helm positions, moderate…

After two seasons cruising on Lake Ontario and among the Thousand Islands we were feeling the lure of the sea and keen to have saltwater under our keel once again. It had been a wonderful experience; freshwater sailing has definite advantages, not least that on winter lift-out the hull below the waterline emerges almost as clean as when it was launched; no barnacles or crustaceous growth to scrape off! The brightwork had remained clean, shiny and salt-free and the running rigging pliable and soft to the touch. However, it was time to move on and consider route options from the Lakes to the Atlantic. The obvious one was to return the way we’d come; mast-down through the Oswego and Erie Canals and down the Hudson River to New York. Alternatively,…

When we left Puerto Rico in early August we were worried about running into a tropical storm or, worse still, a hurricane. The thought of getting a crack in our hull and nearly losing our boat to a sinking didn’t cross our minds. The Atlantic hurricane season starts in June and to decrease your chances of being in the path of one of these powerful storms it’s best to be tucked into an island below the hurricane belt. There are only a handful of islands to pick from and we chose Grenada to be our hurricane hole for the season. We should have already been safely anchored there enjoying the local carnival with friends, but instead we were sitting in the south-west corner of Puerto Rico anxiously awaiting the arrival…

I sometimes wonder if the editor of Practical Boat Owner isn’t stalking me. Maybe it’s because Beowulf, my swing keel Jaguar 25, is a lady of a certain age, but when I have niggles or nightmares with her, it’s uncanny that I find the same issues mirrored in the editor’s choice of articles in the next PBO. I was really spooked when I turned to Dick Everitt’s Sketchbook page in the July 2019 edition ‘Overcoming Centreboard Problems’ because the last but one sketch echoed exactly what had happened to my boat. On her half tide mooring, over the winter, Beowulf had shed her keel. Now we had to work out how to find it, how to lift it from the bottom of the Thames, how to repair it and how…

Here’s just a selection of the latest questions from PBO readers. Email or write to the address on page 5 and our experts will answer your queries HYDRAULICS What’s wrong with my steering? Q I have a Frances 34 Pilothouse, with two steering positions and a below decks electronic autopilot. The internal steering and autopilot are hydraulic – the cockpit wheel is connected directly to the Whitlock system and does not use the hydraulics. It is a two-pipe unpressurised system. Starting from the internal helm, there is a Hydraflex hydraulic fluid reservoir behind the wheel. Nylon hydraulic lines run down the binnacle, under the wheelhouse floor to a Raymarine 0.5 pump. The hydraulic lines connect to the pump via brass T-connectors. Ahead of the pump is a solenoid valve from…