Innehållsförteckning för August 2023 från Practical Boat Owner

Small but built for adventure When I told friends I was going to sail and live aboard a 34ft boat, their first words were “But it’s too small!” “Not so,” I replied, before highlighting the likes of Frank and Margaret Dye, John Guzzell, Ann Davison and Robert Manry; all have provided plenty of inspiring evidence that dinghies and small boats are perfectly seaworthy and capable of long passages. This month marks 60 years since Frank Dye and Russell Brockbank left Kinlochbervie in Scotland aboard the 16ft Wayfarer open dinghy, Wanderer. They made port at the Icelandic island of Heimay, 11 days and four gales later. Roger Barnes looks back at the legacy of Frank and Margaret Dye (page 53), and Frank’s later trip to Norway in Wanderer with Bill Brickbank;…

Sprinkling sand around the rudder is now a recommended deterrence for orca – which have damaged more than 250 yachts and sunk three in the Strait of Gibraltar since 2020. Cruisers are being advised to stow bags of sand to protect themselves when sailing off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Fifteen orcas of the region’s 35-strong population are thought to be responsible for rudder damage, and while the cause of this learned behaviour is still not known, ‘sprinkling sand into the water around the rudder confuses the orcas’ sonar’ during interactions, says the Cruising Association (CA). “The orcas are coming in on sonar, not sight,” said John Burbeck, the Orca Project team leader at the Cruising Association, “And a few kilogrammes of sand around the rudder confuses that sonar…

A dinghy sailor has completed his quest to circumnavigate all 262 islands around England and Wales. Ken Fowler, from Dorset, made his final – and longest – voyage around the Isle of Wight and was greeted by a crowd of well-wishers as he returned to Mudeford Quay about 1900 on 7 June. The almost 13 hour sail aboard his 4m (13ft) RS Aero marked the culmination of a four-year challenge. Mr Fowler, 55, has raised more than £66,000 for Cancer Research UK and Oakhaven Hospice. Ken told PBO: “I’m probably most proud of the amount of money we have raised for the charities – almost £70,000. I think the sailing achievement will sink in as time passes, but raising money was the instigator of this challenge and always my focus.…

Growing up on Delavan Lake, Wisconsin, Harry Clemons ‘Buddy’ Melges Jr honed his skills sailing the boats crafted by his father Harry Melges Sr at Melges Boat Works. From its origins as a wooden rowboat builder, the family business evolved into providing performance hulls and sails. Buddy achieved Olympic glory with Soling class gold in 1972 and Flying Dutchman class bronze in 1964. He also won the Flying Dutchman Class at the 1967 Pan American Games, was two-time Star world champion and three-time 5.5 Meter world champion. Buddy claimed victory at the E-Scow national championship five times, the North American Men’s Sailing Championships and Clifford D. Mallory Trophy three times. He was also skeeter ice boat world champion seven times. In 1992, Buddy successfully defended the America’s Cup when he…

Got a news story that would interest a fellow PBO reader? We want to hear from you! Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com SCOTLAND Water level worry Concerns were raised over water levels on the River Ness and Loch Ness in the Highlands – the greatest volume of freshwater in the British Isles. The loch dropped to its lowest level in 32 years in May amid dry conditions, putting it at ‘moderate’ scarcity status, along with Esk, Dumfriesshire, according to Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) figures. At the time of going to press, water scarcity risk in the Loch Maree area had been raised to ‘significant’. Nathan Critchlow-Watton, SEPA spokesman, said: “For the risk of water scarcity to have reached significant this early in the summer is extremely…

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. Sea stories, I mean. There’s nothing like a lamp-lit cabin after a long day’s sail to a new anchorage for bringing out tales of interesting things you’ve seen at sea. Friends around you, a good meal inside you, a glass in hand and a bottle on the table, what could be more inspiring? There are several good sea-monster stories from Shetland. The most detailed is from 1881, re-told in C J Williamson’s Selected Shetland Stories. The Bertie, a 45-footer, was line-fishing out of Lerwick with a crew of six. She’d been at sea for two days, and had a hold filled with…

Back when Captain Cook ‘discovered’ the South Pacific, local people were using what, to Western eyes, were unusual sailing boats. These had twin hulls but with one hull shorter than the other. They couldn’t be sailed into the wind and would not tack through the wind. Instead, the asymmetrical main hull could be sailed in either direction in a move known as shunting. The attachment of the single crab-claw sail (the tack) to the hull could be moved from one end to the other. This boat, known as a proa, is sailed so that one of the outriggers is always to windward. Originally developed from a single-hull dugout canoe, the proa was changed to a fast, stable sailing platform with the addition of a single counterbalancing outrigger known as an…

Thomas Thor Tangvald was born at sea on his father’s boat, L’Artemis de Pytheas. It was 1976, by which time Thomas’s father Peter Tangvald was already a seasoned, competent sailor, having completed a five-year round-the-world voyage on an earlier boat, Dorothea, a 32ft cutter, with no motor, electricity or transmitter. For Thomas, his life on the ocean, and less so on land, was a dichotomy of restrictions and freedoms. Sometimes gruelling, sometimes exhilarating and often brutal. By the age of 15, Thomas had witnessed the deaths of his mother, his stepmother and his father and half-sister. My path collided with Thomas’s when we arrived at Leeds University in September 1994. Both aged 18, we seemingly had much in common. We had a love of languages, a love of sailing, and…

CasusGrill disposable barbecue As a big fan of all things new and innovative, I just had to take a look at the CasusGrill, which at first appears to be the eyebrow raising concept of a ‘cardboard barbecue’, writes Jake Frith. The big sell on these is their environmental credentials. It’s all biodegradable, apart from the lava stone base part – but that’s apparently easy to break up and lose down the garden for ‘soil improvement’. The briquettes and grill dowels are bamboo. Importantly for me is that the CasusGrill is vacuum sealed and completely waterproof when still in its packaging, so is perfect for a small boat mission to the beach where everything remaining dry cannot be guaranteed. It needs building and fixing to its stand, and comes with pictorial…

Chances are, if you own a GRP boat at some point you’re going to have a ding, resulting in scuffs, scrapes and dents. Or in the case of Maximus, our PBO Project Boat, you might inflict gouges yourself with some over-eager paint scraping! Don’t panic, the beauty of composite hulls is they’re easy to repair – although getting a smooth finish and the correct colour does require precision. Before starting a gelcoat repair it’s worth understanding how GRP boats are made, and why gelcoat is so important. Hull construction Composite hulls are made from two or more materials with different chemical properties which, when combined, create new characteristics. This may be resin combined with glass fibres (GRP) but there are other types too, such as carbon fibre and ferrocement, or…

While in Malaysia back in 2013 we replaced the old Yanmar engine on our 1980’s IOR ¾ ton cruiser-racer Zen Again, fitting in its place a new Craftsman (Mitsubishi) CM3.27 engine. The new engine needed low-profile mounts to align with the propeller shaft. Two of the four low-profile mounts ended up at the bottom of their travel. Eventually, that came back to bite us. Fast forward to December 2022. Zen Again was cruising the San Blas islands of Panama. We’dsailedabout30,000miles and the engine had 1,700 hours on the clock. During a routine engine check, we found three of four of the mount’s polymer inserts were disintegrating. The polymer inserts provide the shock absorbing ‘elastic’ in the mounts. Thankfully the weather improved and we were able to cruise the San Blas…

England’s first national Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code has been launched to offer friendly advice on how not to disturb seabirds, seals, dolphins, sharks and turtles, plus details on how to report injured, distressed or dead animals. Home to around 95% of Europe’s grey seal population and around 25% of Europe’s breeding seabirds, the British coastline supports many iconic species and habitats. Disturbance from people is one of the greatest threats to Britain’s breeding seabirds. And seal pups can use up vital energy if startled. In a bad year, only 25% may reach 18 months old. The government-launched code was developed in collaboration with conservation groups. ■ Search for Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code at gov.uk…

Old liferafts, fire hoses and other life-saving kit are being converted into fashion accessories – handbags, sports bags, wallets – to raise money for the Royal Navy charity. The project, inspired by the RNLI turning old kit into merchandise to raise money, has been driven by former warrant officer Bob Field who works for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity (RNRMC) in Portsmouth. Beyond helping the families of Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel, the upcycling project reduces landfill waste and gives design and manufacturing skills to young people through Gosport charity-Oarsome Chance, which ‘upcycles’ the rafts and hoses into unique items such as passport holders (£20), wallets (£35), laptop cases and bags (£40), and rolltop backpacks (£150). “Through this project, we’ve managed to take difficult or impossible to…

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 Much like land, container ships and icebergs, communication is best avoided at sea. This is why, to avoid the misunderstandings that so often arise from people attempting to communicate with me, I mostly sail alone. Even then it’s not plain sailing as I have at least three niggling, undermining little inner voices that all contradict one another: leave now, wait for the ebb, stay put and slap another coat of antifouling on. They are, however, unanimous in one thing: that I’m an idiot and any decision I make will result in calamity, embarrassment and shame or, better yet, death, which by…

Clive Marsh discovered small boats while working for Canadian Pacific Steamships and is a past Commodore of the Merchant Navy Association Boat Club. In this series he shares tales from his 50 years of boat ownership. Even when living in a flat or townhouse with poor access to a drive or garden for a trailer-sailer you can keep your boat on a mooring or charter one when needed and that is just what I used to do. But I also liked the idea of keeping a boat at home so that I could take her to different locations at the drop of a hat. None of us in the UK are far from a stretch of water. Eventually, I found a boat that I could carry on its side under my…

New Zealand boat designer Rob Denney is a proa enthusiast. He built his first catamaran aged 14 and, after skipping his accountancy exams to do the Sydney-Hobart race, never looked back. He’s spent his career racing, delivering and designing yachts, among them a catamaran he capsized in a ‘gung-ho’ two-handed round-Britain attempt (the boat, considered a shipping hazard, was destroyed by the Irish Navy) and a 30ft Iroquois catamaran propelled by a three-bladed windmill. “That taught me a lot about engineering,” says Rob. “We sailed at 6 knots into 20 knots of wind, which I considered a success. It was fun!” Rob returned to Australia and launched a business selling cedar-strip kit boats, before building his first proa in 1995 using stitch and glue ply, an alloy mast and a…

Taking on any insurance write-off is not for the faint hearted; over the years I’ve seen a good mixture of fire damaged craft from basic galley fires to inverters, batteries and gas bottles going bang! Insurance companies regularly write off boats for a mixture of reasons that are predominantly down to the cost of rebuilding and repairing. Sometimes it’s obvious that no matter how much is spent on repairs, the vessel won’t be safe; that’s an important point to remember. Generally, the worst write-offs are due to grounding damage and fire damage; careful assessment is essential. Eyes wide open First, TAKE OFF THE ROSE TINTED SPECTACLES and then find out all you can about the boat’s background and the circumstances surrounding the damage. A surveyor may have inspected the vessel…

The province of Ontario in Canada provides a huge range of boating opportunities, from historic man-made canals to more than 250,000 inland lakes, the 30,000 islands archipelago of Georgian Bay, to near-oceanic conditions on the vast Great Lakes. Naturally, no single vessel can be ideally suited for all these waters: sailboats, large powerboats and cruisers are at home on the Great Lakes; houseboats and smaller cruisers on the canal; and canoes, small powerboats, sailboats, and pontoon boats can best find their way around the archipelagos and inland lakes. Nevertheless, when making the leap from canoeing to the acquisition of a powered vessel, I wanted an easily trailerable craft that would enable as broad a spectrum of family boating as possible. In addition, coming from the silence and eco-friendliness of a…

Fairey Atalanta A142 Sugar Plum, being a mature lady, needs a lot of maintenance. Living in the north of Scotland, she’s stored over winter in a building for her protection from adverse weather and to allow maintenance appropriate to the temperature. Her summer mooring is at Arisaig, a six hour drive from home, and so it’s essential that everything needed for her launch and commissioning is carefully checked and loaded before leaving home. I have an orange tidy tray for the small and unique items and a written checklist of both its contents as well as everything else needed. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Greg Manning After many years of military service and being a North Sea helicopter pilot, Greg Manning retired as a major and bought a Fairey Atalanta, which he has…

Your cruising destinations, near and far For more adventures visit www.pbo.co.uk/cruising They say no plan survives encounter with the real world, and the Tudor Rose’s nostalgic visit to Aberdaugleddau illustrates the case. It’s Milford Haven to the un-Welsh. Pronounced ‘Abba-dye-gleth-eye’, with a hard ‘th’. Aber – the river mouth or estuary; dau – two; gleddau – the river concerned; the estuary of the River Cleddau has two arms in its upper reaches. The Tudor Rose let go her moorings at Beaumaris on Anglesey in early July to visit the Milford Haven waterway, for my father was from the adjacent Hakin, and I’d long promised myself this trip in his memory. The Welsh word hiraeth – meaning a longing for place or belonging – stands as a theme for this cruise.…

The community rebuild of the Tall Ship Tectona has won a substantial funding boost from the National Lottery Community Fund. Sailing Tectona is a not-for-profit organisation based at Southdown Marina, in Millbrook, Torpoint, a quarter of a mile from Plymouth Sound, and specialises in Youth and Recovery voyages. The project is involving people of all ages and backgrounds, including those in recovery from mental health issues and addiction, and aims to boost their confidence with new skills, support and friendship. Now, following a public vote, The People’s Projects has awarded a grant of £70,000, which will help to get even more people involved with the restoration of Tectona, and has doubled this year’s voyage programme for Olga, a refitted Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter. Work is underway to build large galley…

Fifty years ago the first solo circumnavigation by an Ireland-based sailor and the first circumnavigation of a junk rigged yacht were achieved. The late Bill King claimed the records on 23 May 1973, after many setbacks aboard Galway Blazer II, a yacht with sails and rigging based on the traditional far eastern rigs. He first attempted a circumnavigation during the 1968 Golden Globe Race. King had to abandon the race after Galway Blazer II capsized and was dismasted in the Indian Ocean; he was towed to Cape Town, South Africa, and Galway Blazer II was repaired. After further attempts, which included a collision with a whale or shark that forced him back to Fremantle, Western Australia for repairs, he completed the circuit. To mark the anniversary year, the Junk Rig…

Sail training ship Lord Nelson is to be sold by online auction – with an opening bid requirement of £150,000. At the time of going to press, Gordon Brothers, the global advisory and investment firm, was auctioning off the tall ship on behalf of Richard Lewis and Sarah O’Toole, the Joint Administrators of Jubilee Sailing Trust Limited – with bidding due to end on 30 June. Lord Nelson was built in 1985 and is the first tall ship in the world designed to accommodate personnel of all physical abilities to sail alongside the ship’s crew. The 55m-long vessel has 36 berths, accessible toilets, a speaking compass, braille and power-assisted bridge. For the avoidance of doubt, the Jubilee Sailing Trust charity, which operates the accessible tall ship Tenacious, is not in…

Email pbo@futurenet.comor write to us at the address on page 5. Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. Sharing your boating thoughts and opinions A bittern on the Broads My sister and I took a short break on the Norfolk Broads recently. After an absence of more than 10 years, it was a delight to revisit this wonderful waterland. Our boat was one of those all-on-one-level forward drive types which are notoriously difficult to moor stern-to because the helmsman cannot see astern, but we managed and I have to say that the general standard of boathandling I saw was pretty good, bearing in mind that many hirers are first timers or, like us, returning after long years absence. But to the point: We spent the evening of 10 May at the…

Flotsam and jetsam Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers, edits The Marine Quarterly, and is perpetually patching up a 30ft ketch: samllewellyn.com The mooring pennant splashes into the kyle, the mainsail draws and the bristle of masts in the yard slides astern: not many of them now, as most boats are in the water. The ones that will launch this year, that is. Some, the dreams, will not. There was the enormous object, 60ft long, 8ft beam, carvel built, mighty bulb on the bottom of the keel, built for a long-forgotten Round Somewhere race – obviously fast, but equally obviously soaking wet (the windscreen was a giveaway) and totally uncontrollable. It sat in a corner, tinkered with for the first few years, then visited occasionally and reluctantly, like a mad old…

The search for the ideal family cruiser can be a complicated business at the best of times, especially if you’re looking for a new yacht less than 30ft long. Gone are the days when Jaguar 27s, Maxi 84s and Mirage 28s were widely used by charter companies and private buyers alike. These days, sailors hunting for smaller cruisers have little choice but to browse classified ads and brokerage lists. Many conflicting factors are needed to achieve that most elusive of goals – the best compromise between seagoing performance in a full range of weather conditions and maximum living space when in port. I say ‘in port’ because maximum accommodation space when at sea is less relevant. If you are not in the cockpit and sailing, you could be down below…

Making a one-off fridge is well within the skill set of most DIYers. It is not expensive either as the materials for the ‘plug’ are pretty cheap, and since you will want the smooth side inside you won’t need a mould! Aboard my 31ft Macwester Wight the most suitable space for a ‘bespoke chiller’ was an under-seat locker so I started by stepping the interior to cope with the turn of the bilge. The most important features of a fridge on a boat are: a well-fitting lid, very good insulation and a bonus is ‘top opening’. It also helps if you plan the height with the lid closed to accommodate a bottle of wine (or champagne which is taller). The lid depth was 40mm in my case. Heat rises and…

Nothing quite matches the tranquillity offered by a kayak or canoe to explore shallow or winding creeks, even though I love my yacht tender and use it a lot. One of the things I love about inflatable kayaks and canoes is that they’re stable enough for a novice to just get in and start paddling. They can be stowed in a cupboard under the stairs or in a shed. You can carry them easily in or on your car or boat too. Some kayaks are lightweight, but some of the larger canoes can start to get a bit weighty for one person to carry. The models I recommend in this guide to recreational kayaks and canoes vary from 9kg to 32kg. Inflatable kayak or canoe? Let’s address practicalities first: with…

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Connections are the heart of the electrical system and if we’re not meticulous in making them, they can be its downfall. ■ They must be secure.■ They must be supported so that the wiring is not taking any load which might make it liable to being pulled out.■ They must be protected from corrosion.■ They must be accessible.■ They should be identifiable. Corrosion is the enemy of all cable joints on a boat. Any exposed cable joint should be protected using silicone grease. The connection may be a joint between just two wires or a joint between multiple wires. There are a number of different ways to make the joints and you need to consider if the joint is to be permanent or if it needs to be undone from…

Got a question? Email pbo@futurenet.com For more expert advice, visit pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-answers ENGINES & FUEL Should there be special fuel to beat the bug? Q If I have understood the issue correctly, the addition by the oil industry of biodiesel to our boat fuel is the main reason that ‘diesel bug’ is now such an annoyingly common problem for boat owners. Fortunately, numerous additives are now on sale that enable us to render the fuel suitable for use. All we have to do is measure out the recommended dosage and add it to the fuel whenever we top up the tank. In order to ensure it mixes properly, it’s probably best to do this before adding the fuel to our tank, so we need to know exactly how much our tank…

The Milford Haven waterway is well worth a visit. The upper reaches are like a butch version of the Broads with more significant tides, while there are bays aplenty where you can lie in calm, clear water to sunbathe, swim or have lunch. All desirable facilities are available and for boats with a modest air draught there are safe passes under the oil and gas jetties to save a long trog round the end. Monitor VHF Ch14 for tanker movements etc, and do look over your shoulder for the Ireland ferry. Where to moor and anchor: There are good anchorages according to wind and weather at Dale (deep and shallow areas, landing stage, village pub and shops), Cunjic (but subject to wash from the pilot boat), near Angle village in the…