Innehållsförteckning för March 2021 från Practical Boat Owner

A man who crossed the Irish Sea from Scotland to the Isle of Man on a jet ski to see his girlfriend, was jailed for four weeks after breaking the island’s COVID-19 regulations. Dale McLaughlan, 28, from Warrix Avenue in Irvine left from the Isle of Whithorn, taking four and a half hours to complete the 25 mile crossing to Ramsey on 11 December 2020. He then abandoned the jet ski and walked 15 miles to his girlfriend’s house in Douglas. She thought he was on the island lawfully for work purposes, as he had been earlier in 2020. He was later apprehended following identification checks after he gave her address to a police officer. In court, McLaughlan admitted arriving unlawfully on the Isle of Man. Under the island’s current…

UK marine workers, such as self-employed instructors, who received little or no COVID-19 financial support during the pandemic are being asked to give evidence to the Gaps in Support All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). It has set up an inquiry into how businesses have been affected by the Government’s financial support during the pandemic, particularly those who have not been eligible for help. The RYA is encouraging members from across the boating community as well as clubs and recognised training centres to respond. The Gaps in Support APPG is requesting evidence from a range of workers including those who started a new job after the furlough scheme cut-off date, newly selfemployed people, small limited company directors and PAYE freelancers. gapsinsupportappg.org…

RAIL STOP AT LARGS MARINA The Scottish Parliament is considering plans to build a multi million pound railway station at Largs Yacht Haven on the Clyde. The idea was first suggested in the early 1980s but was dismissed at the time as too expensive. The £15 million plan is now being examined again as part of the Scottish Government’s second Strategic Transport Projects Review to identify future transport investment. It is hoped the additional halt on the Largs to Glasgow line would ease the congestion and parking problems in Largs town centre, although some local businesses have dismissed the idea as a waste of money. Largs Yacht Haven director, Carolyn Elder, said the proposal would benefit boat owners, charterers and staff. VINTAGE FEADSHIP UNDER HAMMER A 25m/85ft vintage Feadship is…

Mad about the boat Dave Selby is the proud owner of a 5.48m (18ft) Sailfish, which he keeps on a swinging mooring on the picturesque Blackwater estuary in Essex Sailors have long had a troubled relationship with water – ever since biblical times when Noah failed his Day Skipper practical on tidal heights and got extremely neaped on top of Mt Ararat, only to be abandoned there by the rest of the crew. Frankly, they behaved like animals, which is not that unusual on a flotilla holiday. And as for Moses, the so-called miracle of parting the Red Sea did earn him a pass as it demonstrated a better understanding of tidal calculations, but suspicions remains to this day about whether the work was really his own. Remember, he’d just…

Price £45,000-£90,000 On both sides of the Channel raceboat design has long informed that of cruising yachts. However, Henri Amel stood apart, with firm ideas of the features essential in a proper, serious cruiser. These included a sheltered steering position in a deep centre cockpit, plus tall bulwarks and a solid stainless steel rail for security when working on deck. External woodwork was eschewed in favour of a teak effect pattern in the deck moulding. This may not have looked quite as good when the boats were new, but it has saved subsequent owners a fortune in maintenance. However, there’s nothing economic about the standard of fit out by this La Rochelle yard – it was among the best there is, with much attention paid to ergonomics and to maximising…

Price: £45,000-£60,000 The late 1990s were another time of rapid change in cruising yacht design, with transoms becoming wider, giving more spacious accommodation. At the same time, keels were returning to bulb forms that had been largely absent for most of the 1970s and 1980s thanks to the old IOR rating rule for racing. Conventional wisdom held that wider stern boats would become unbalanced at high angles of heel, making them impossible to steer. Yet when I tested this model at its launch, in the Needles Channel on a mid-winter day, what was more apparent is how well it stood up to its canvas. A combination of the form stability gained through carrying the wide beam well aft, plus the deep bulb keel, result in a boat that’s far stiffer…

To understand the forecasts provided by different weather apps and websites we first need to have a basic appreciation of the data they present. Obviously they can only be as good as their data inputs, but where does that come from? The answer lies in the raw data output of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. We therefore also need to understand the inherent strengths and weaknesses of these forecasts. As there aren’t that many different models that provide free or relatively low-cost data, often different apps or websites are simply presenting the same data in different ways. Understanding numerical weather prediction The key premise behind weather modelling is that the mathematical equations governing motion, fluid dynamics and thermodynamics can be used to predict the future state of the atmosphere. Key…

The phrase ‘never trust the brochure’ seems incredibly appropriate for our crewmember Mike, who has just stepped off Alisara, our Moody 47, after a 1,600-mile passage from Virginia to Antigua. I had back surgery a few months ago so my husband, Douglas, and I decided to recruit an additional crewmember for the voyage with our children Alice (7) and Arthur (9). This proved to be a wonderful decision. Participating in the Salty Dawg rally was another good idea. To get back to the Caribbean this year has required a great deal of planning and paperwork. This volunteer-run organisation compiled the ever-changing information and offered us support to ensure smooth entry into Antigua. Looking at their crew list was overwhelming, but Mike Draper caught our eye and after one FaceTime call…

Those who sail regularly develop a strong affection for their vessel. They might moan about her quirks and shortcomings but should anyone agree they’ll stoutly claim she’s the most well-built, dependable craft one could ever wish for! So when the scrap heap beckons, it’s easy to understand the desire to restore the boat to her former glory. But this is also the time when the head and heart spin off in opposite directions. In the 1990s, after my involvement in several successful restoration projects, I was undeservedly dubbed a champion of maritime heritage. Frequently, I was approached by owners seeking advice about their vessel, invariably described as ‘unique’, or ‘the last surviving aft-mizzen yawl (or whatever)’ or ‘a trip boat that’s given pleasure to thousands’. Instead of offering an apologetic…

It’s been 30 years since I last owned a boat, then last year, with retirement looming and my family having flown the nest, I decided to get a wee boat for the Broads and to go up and down the coast between London and, say, Kings Lynn… Maybe over to Holland. So my wife, Karen, and I bought a Jersey 36 in beautiful condition and are slowly getting her the way we want her ready for fun times during retirement. The single engine with bow and stern thrusters makes Jersey Lass extremely easy to manoeuvre on rivers and at slow speed while the 250hp Vetus gives us the power to take her to sea. It is cheap to run and the configuration – just engine to shaft to prop –…

It was late evening in mid September 2020 when we arrived at Dream Yacht Charter’s base at the Gouvia Marina in Corfu and stepped aboard our home for the next two weeks – a 38ft Dufour sloop. The previous six months had been a real roller-coaster ride for my wife, Ann, and me and for our two friends Barbara and Mike who were joining us. A previous charter out of Greece had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, and for the following months this replacement charter to Corfu had been teetering between off and on due to the changing travel restrictions. Then two weeks before we left for Corfu both Ann and I had to undergo urgent medical treatment, and the night before we were all due to…

PBO Digital is the best way to get the full magazine experience if you’re unable to buy your regular copy at the newsagent or supermarket. But it’s not quite as straightforward as simply browsing the shelves! 1. What device should I use? You can get a digital, or electronic, version of PBO magazine on a computer (desktop or laptop, Mac or PC), a phone, tablet or an eReader device. The options for desktop/laptop are limited in comparison to phones and tablets, but the bigger screen area and resolution may be an attraction. See the table below for options. 2. Which magazine platform should I buy from? For PBO Digital there are nine different digital magazine platforms available. Some platforms are like supermarkets, while others are like local newsagents with a…

Got a question? Email pbo@futurenet.com 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 Q Is it possible to operate an Eberspächer heater using mains power? My Colvic Watson Motorsailer, Tanera Mor, is fitted with an Airtronic D1LC, which works fine when the engine is running. Even when the 12V domestic battery (deep cycling) was new, the heater would not start. It seems to need about 20A to get going. If there was any way to disable the low voltage cut out, this would be OK because I have a second battery to start the engine anyway. Ideally, I’d like to be able to install a transformer so that, when we are…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Katy Stickland at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6738 Boat owners are being advised by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to carry evidence of VAT status on board their vessels “at all times” in case of checks by customs officials. The details have been published in HMRC Notice 8: sailing your pleasure craft to and from the UK, following the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020. HMRC has already announced that owners of boats which have been in the UK under present ownership and were in the EU at the end of the transition period, can avoid paying a second VAT payment if the vessel returns to the UK before 31 December 2021. This applies regardless of when the…

Natasha Lambert has crossed the Atlantic to become the first and youngest quadriplegic sailor to sail the ocean using sip and puff technology. The 23-year-old made the passage from Gran Canaria to St Lucia in 18 days 21 hours and 39 minutes aboard her Nautitech 46 Open, Blown Away. Natasha was accompanied by crew and was taking part in the 2020 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC). Blown Away was converted to use sip and puff technology by Natasha’s father, Gary, who designed the specially adapted system, which allows Natasha to control the boat using a single straw. The Cowes sailor has also raised over £9,500 during the challenge for three charities: the RNLI, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Natasha’s own charity, the MissIsle School of Sip-Puff Sailing, which offers…

Send us your local news stories. Email PBO news editor Katy Stickland at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467, or write to the address on page 5 PROSECUTION FOR DANGEROUS USE OF MOTOR BOAT A 30-year-old Hertfordshire man has been banned from using a marine vessel in Dorset’s waters until he has completed an RYA-approved boat handling course. The ban is part of a community resolution notice issued to the man after he admitted the dangerous use of the motor vessel Sonic. He was prosecuted under the Merchant Shipping (Safety of Navigation) Regulations 2020. The man, who was investigated by Dorset Marine Policing Team and Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC), was caught after speeding and causing a danger to other water users in the Wareham and Poole Harbour area on 29 August…

SUNDERLAND JET SKI BAN Jet skiers have been banned from Sunderland beachfront following several near misses. The action has been taken by the Port of Sunderland harbour master, Cap. Kevin Ullah, who said “swimmers, nonmotorised craft, pleasure boats and even shipping” had all been “potentially endangered by the irresponsible use of jet skis.” Since 2012, the port has had water patrols, but Capt Ullah said this hadn’t deterred irresponsible jet skiers. Jet skis are now banned from approaching within 200m of the prevailing tide line between Souter Point and Ryhope Dene. The craft can only be launched at Hylton and Potato Garth slipways. A blanket 6-knot speed limit remains in force on the River Wear up to the outer pier ends. The port is also working with the Northumbria Police…

Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers and edits The Marine Quarterly. He is currently patching up a 30ft ketch Very, very early in the year and there we were, anchored in the creek, the ebb sliding by black as ink under the great arch of the Milky Way. On the saloon table were bottles of wine both full and empty, the remains of a Christmas pudding and assorted fragments of pies. The Coleman lamp was dispensing a golden light and a grateful warmth. And someone said, ‘I had better go and check the anchor.’ Silence fell. After a while, someone else said, ‘I don’t think you could go and check the anchor even if you wanted to, which you don’t.’ We knew what he was saying. He was…

I read a fascinating article recently about relationships. It was a distillation of the guidance offered by over a thousand people who had been with their spouses or partners for more than 10 years, and one point in particular recurred time and time again: be together for the right reasons. A partnership formed for the wrong reasons (and there are a lot of very common wrong reasons) is almost certainly destined to fail – or, at the very least, not to thrive as it might. And it’s the same with the relationship between an owner and his or her boat. You need to buy a boat for the right reasons; for the sort of sailing you’re going to be doing. That means actually doing. There’s nothing wrong with a little…

Price £10,000-£22,000 By no means all French yards turned to French designers – Rob Humphreys, for instance, was responsible for the Gib’Sea 312 and 414. And back in 1968 Henri Wauquiez turned to British design office Holman and Pye for a new 32ft fast cruiser racer. Holman had already designed the Elizabethan 29, with which Wauquiez had established his yard in 1965, five years after Peter Webster started building them in the UK. Although it pre-dates the Contessa 32, the Centurion 32 was arguably a better boat, with a little more freeboard and slightly greater beam combining to make larger accommodation and a drier ride. Yet it also has the key qualities that helped make the Contessa so successful. Indeed, the French boat has a deeper 1.78m (5ft 10in) draught,…

£7,000-£11,000 In 1985 this ground-breaking 21-footer by Philippe Harlé was widely seen as an update of the Muscadet concept. At the same time it’s clearly a forerunner of today’s twin-rudder Mini 650 designs. The boat featured a wide 2.7m beam, long waterline and very light displacement of less than 1,200kg. At the same time sail area was significantly greater than for older, narrow beam designs, creating a fast boat across a range of conditions. More than 100 were produced by Archambault and 18 competed in the 1987 Mini Transat race, with Laurent Bougnon winning the series division and reporting long surfs at speeds of 12 knots or more. Although conceived as a raceboat, the Coco also offers decent accommodation, with the broad beam helping create markedly more volume below deck…

Price: £6,000-£18,000 This distinctive small boat, originally launched in the early 1990s, has won legions of enthusiasts who value its simplicity, sensible accommodation and excellent sailing qualities. It was conceived as a robust and practical miniature cruiser racer that would appeal to those looking for a fast, well-mannered round the cans racer or weekend cruiser. Although the accent is on performance this is a boat that’s easy to handle and has potential to sleep four adults. That it remained in production for 29 years, until Beneteau’s acquisition of Seascape, is also testament to the original Finot design. Well over 2,000 were built, many of which were sold in the UK. Over time there were name changes and small improvements in equipment and styling. The original symmetric spinnaker, for instance, was…

I hadn’t been in control of a boat since I was 16 years old. Sure, that’s not really true. We hired a tinny on the Sunshine Coast with the view to catching a fish. Fortunately, no fish were harmed in the practicality of that adventure. We also bought a second-hand kayak and put it on our jetty. “Have a look at our new boat,” I would say to anybody who dropped by. “It’s the green one”. They were always disappointed. I traded the kayak about a year later for a mountain bike. That remains largely unused too. But one day it occurred to me that the thing that I had been looking for was sailing. I remember waking up one morning and just knew. I considered buying a boat but…

Q I have recently noticed that the varnish is starting to peel in various places on my 1958 Merlin Rocket. Also at the stern of my boat the plywood looks like it is coming apart. How might I fix these issues? I was given this boat for my 13th birthday earlier this year and I have access to some power tools (bandsaw, drill, jigsaw etc) Noah Champion, via email RICHARD HARE RESPONDS: Just like you, in my teens I also tackled major repairs to the deck of my own Merlin Rocket, a re-decking of the boat as it turned out. In your case the varnish is, not to put too fine a point on it, knackered. Wood has already weathered grey at the ruptures. So assuming the plywood is sound,…

Readers’ cruising destinations, near and far We pay for your published cruising stories and harbour updates. Email pbo@futurenet.com or write to the address at the top of page 5 It would take a full book to describe the whole area north and west of Ardnamurchan, but by focussing on the relatively compact area where I have lived and worked for the last 21 years, you can have a taste of what the whole area has to offer. The Sound of Sleat (pronounced ‘slate’ not ‘sleet’) is the body of water between the Scottish mainland and the south-west shore of the Isle of Skye. It is the preferred passage north from Ardnamurchan especially if shelter is required. Passage north is constrained by Kylerhea at the head of the sound where the…

Groupe Beneteau has said its Beneteau and Jeanneau brands are unlikely to feature at this year’s boot Düsseldorf after organisers postponed Europe’s biggest boat show from January to April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mirna Cieniewicz from Groupe Beneteau told PBO that both Beneteau and Jeanneau would “most probably not” be at the show, which is scheduled for 17-25 April. She said both brands were lacking new models to be presented at the show in April, with boats heading to dealers for regional and local events or delivered to their new owners. ”We don’t have that many unsold and new models that can be used for exhibition,” she explained. Groupe Beneteau’s multihull brands, including Lagoon, have already committed to the International Multihull Boat Show, which is being held in La…

An investigation into the death of a disabled sailor on Lake Windermere has led to a warning to secure retractable keels and centreboards. Stephen Hague, 57, was sailing with a Blackwell Sailing instructor on 12 June 2019 when their RS Venture Connect (VC) capsized after being knocked down in gusty winds. The boat’s liftable keel retracted back into the hull, causing the boat to invert completely, trapping Hague. The instructor swam clear but was unable to right the boat without the help of the safety boat crew. A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report has revealed that the boat’s weighted keel had not been secured with the Velcro keel restraining strap, and that Blackwell Sailing instructors involved in the rigging or use of the boat weren’t aware of the strap’s…

INDEPENDENCE FROM GPS Cumbrian firm Createc has been awarded £80,222 to develop a more secure, reliable and independent alternative to satellite-based navigation systems, such as GPS. The firm, which produces imaging, sensors and robotics solutions for various sectors, is developing Live Maps: Sea, a standalone, infrastructure-free system which needs no land-based transmitters. It integrates live radar data with coastline reference mapping and uses the hardware systems already on ships so it can be retrofitted. Funding is from the Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) initiative supported by the Department for Transport. PADDLE SPORTS AT LOWER LLEIDI Paths and a pontoon are to be installed at Lower Lleidi reservoir in Carmarthenshire to improve access to the water for paddle sport enthusiasts. A boat wash for biosecurity will also be installed and…

Email pbo@futurenet.com or write to us at the address on page 5. Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. Lightning strikes thrice I read the article by Alex Blackwell (PBO February 2021) with great interest. My boat Lisa is a Langdrag 35 steel cruising yacht, which spends her summer on a mooring in the Harbour at Holyhead with all the numerous other boats in the Holyhead Sailing Club/Clwb Hwylio Caergybi. I’ve often wondered if we need to consider lightning strikes in a steel boat. I assume the whole boat acts as a Faraday Cage. Am I right in my smugness? I’d have thought that in a thunderstorm all we have to do is stay below, turn off the chart plotter and take our wireless instruments below. I’m assuming we aren’t…

Living with the sea Marsali Taylor sails an Offshore 8M, Karima S. She’s a dinghy instructor and author of The Shetland Sailing Mysteries starring liveaboard sleuth, Cass Lynch. Some hazards around my Shetland haunts have been considerately covered up by mussel floats. There’s a couple of isolated rocks on the south side as you go round into the Røna, for example, which are now behind two lines of buoys. Similarly, the Groin Baa is neatly under the mussels on the far side of Linga, which is the best place for it. But others crop up unexpectedly and It was a minor scare at what’s now known, aboard Karima, as Doig’s Point that made me feel I needed to check out underwater profiles of headlands. The Doig in question was Christopher…

Today France is by far the most successful boatbuilding nation. While we’ve all heard of the big names there are also plenty of smaller or older excellent French designs that are generally not well known to Englishspeaking boat owners. The 1968 Philippe Harlé designed 26ft Jeanneau Sangria, for instance, outsold the Westerly Centaur, with some 3,000 boats launched. It’s replacement, the Fantasia, was a trend-setting design with quarter cabin and aft heads that proved far more popular than Westerly’s Griffon, with 1,500 boats sold. In the performance world French designs also outsold many of their British counterparts. Around 1,500 Archambault Surprises, for instance, were built from the launch of this sporty 25-footer in 1977 until the yard’s demise in 2015. While many of the boats we’ll feature were sold in…

Price £15,000-£40,000 Like many designers of his era, Jean-Marie Finot – another graduate of Les Glenans and a protégé of Philippe Harlé – initially made his mark in the racing scene. His first design, the Ecume de Mer, is a thoroughly capable 26ft Quarter Tonner from 1969. The prototype was built in Holland of aluminium, though it was soon translated for fiberglass construction and well over 1,000 were built. The design won the Quarter Ton Cup in 1970 and was used for the first Tour de France à la Voile. In 1985 Pascal Conq joined the firm, which has subsequently been renamed Finot-Conq. The partnership has continued to be associated with the top end of the racing scene, including at least 18 IMOCA 60 designs, three of which are racing…

Price £20,000-£33,000 This 35-footer has been a favourite of mine since I first sailed one on my Yachtmaster Instructor training/assessment course almost 30 years ago. Whether slipping along gracefully in a zephyr of a breeze, or beating across Poole Bay on a winter’s day in a Force 6 with wind against tide, the boat was a joy to sail. It’s beautifully balanced on the helm, very fast by the standards of the day and largely dry on deck. Yet this is also a boat with three double cabins and a spacious, bright saloon that set new standards when it was launched in 1985. It’s therefore hardly surprisingly that it was a popular model with the then burgeoning Mediterranean charter business. An owners version was also offered, with a more spacious…

Price £45,000-£60,000 When we think of French designs it’s easy to focus on the high volume models that have enjoyed considerable success with private owners and charter companies. However there are many other designs from smaller boatbuilders that cater for a growing demand for very fast cruising yachts. Well known brands include Pogo and RM, and one of my favourites, the Bongo 960. Designer Pierre Rolland had previously drawn the Mini 650 Amnesty International, which won the 1993 Mini Transat race skippered by Theirry Dubois. That boat spawned the Pogo 650, then by far the most successful series Mini 650s. Roland also designed the IMOCA 60 Superbigou for Bernard Stamm, which is now Pip Hare’s Vendée Globe steed Medallia. The Bongo 960 followed three years after Superbigou, in 2002. It…

How many people are on board when you go sailing? A good guess is that you’re only two, and often the extra crew is your spouse. As people have less time on their hands, and schedules are tight, the average crew size has decreased over the years. But with furling sails, electrical winches, bow thrusters and navigation software, boat handling has become much easier. That said, harbour manoeuvres can still be tricky. Success in short-handed sailing is a lot about preparation and planning – thinking scenarios through beforehand, over and over – and practice. Failures are inevitable, but any manoeuvre can be practised with crew on board. Let your crew gradually step back and allow you to take over more and more tasks – ideally one task at a time.…

In 1972 my sister, Sue, three of her girlfriends and Richard, a mutual friend, went on a holiday on the River Thames, all of us aged between 19 and 22. What could possibly go wrong? We picked up the cruiser just below Windsor Old Lock and after brief training set off west with the aim of reaching Lechlade, the farthest navigable part of the river, and returning one week later, which the marina owner said wasn’t usually achievable. Now there was a challenge! Just before the entrance to Windsor Old Lock there was a weir stream joining the river and creating interesting currents that seemed to move the boats around in unpredictable directions. Just below the weir stream is a narrow bridge with only room for a single boat to…

Since the arrival of GPS, I’ve not found much use for the chart table on my schooner Britannia. Most of our passage-making navigation is done on the Raymarine multifunction display, on the helm pod, then transferred to a paper chart on the saloon table roughly every hour. The chart table was only used to store things which didn’t have a permanent home, and as a desk for my laptop when in port. The layout was not a very efficient use of space and left a lot to be desired. The space between the table and companionway ladder was a narrow 10in, and squeezing into the seat frequently resulted in accidentally tripping contact breakers on the electrical distribution panel at the side of the table. The high bulkhead also obstructed getting…

The newest boat in our little fleet is an inland cruiser called Osprey. She came with a very nice spoked steering wheel which looked great, but was somewhat difficult to use. Standing on the platform to see over the bow meant we were steering with just the tips of our fingers touching the ends of the spokes. We came away after our first short foray into the canal determined to add a whell rim. At first we considered buying a replacement – until I saw the cost! Having two boats – our Moody Eclipse 33 is COVID-bound in Greece – means scarce resources are more stretched than usual. December’s PBO arrived and I read with interest the article by Chris Mardon who made a classic wooden wheel for a lockdown…

Yann Quenet is a genius from Brittany I would love to meet. He is an inventor, designer, and builder of boats, mostly of marine plywood/epoxy, a material I have a great affinity with, having lived through the golden age of the Mirror, GP14 and other similar dinghies. At that time – in the 1970s – the sailing school where I worked in Brittany had 350 plywood keelboats, and dinghies, all designed and built for teaching sailing. I have circumnavigated in a home-built 10m ply/epoxy Wharram catamaran, and lived to write the book, Sea, Sun & Taraipo. Yann is an experienced sailor. Currently he is halfway across the Pacific Ocean aboard a cheap and easy-to-build 12ft plywood keelboat named Baluchon. She is his second attempt at producing a minimalist ocean-going keelboat.…

A common problem for small boats is stowage, particularly for galley implements like saucepans. I have a three-tier pan with a base, steamer and bain marie that works brilliantly, but I still need another saucepan from time to time. I had a milk pan, but the handle kept getting in the way on the small cooker and when stowing it in a drawer. I searched high and low on the internet, but I couldn’t find a small pan with a pair of small side handles. I did, however, find replacement handles! So why not drill out the rivets of the offending handle and bolt these on instead? I decided to go for a twin bolt fixing so the handle couldn’t spin around risking spilling the contents. Careful measurement of the…

Sailing school theory classes teach how to calculate the approximate depth of water at any given place and time – but you will still need to be able to measure it to avoid going aground. A. Small boats can ‘feel’ the bottom with the centreboard, or just poke a boat hook over the side. B. Echo sounders measure the depth with an electronic pulse but do need to be checked occasionally with a lead line. Leadsmen of old could sound the depths while under way by swinging the lead well forward to allow for the speed of the vessel. C. A series of leadsmen, each releasing a coil in turn, could find depths of 100 fathoms (200m). This often enabled them to find the continental shelf after an ocean crossing…