Innehållsförteckning för March 2024 från Practical Boat Owner

Many thanks to all of you who took the time to take part in our recent reader survey. We’re still digesting the results but the headline responses reveal that the PBO community would like to read more boat and gear reviews, practical, DIY step-by-step and seamanship articles. I’m so happy to hear this, as this is already the backbone of PBO and what makes it so special. The survey has also helped us learn more about you, the reader. Most of the survey respondents have been involved in sailing for over 20 years, sail solo or double-handed, own their boat, which they brought second-hand, and carry out boat maintenance themselves. As we move forward throughout the year, we’ll endeavour to deliver more of what you’ve told us you want to…

Princess Yachts has been fined £600,000 after one of its workers suffered life-changing injuries from an incident at its Plymouth shipyard. Mark Gillen sustained bleeds on the brain, 12 broken ribs and a severed right arm, when a one tonne staging platform fell on top of him. The 54-year-old, who had worked for the company for 26 years, was airlifted to hospital where he remained for several months. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the platform fell due to one of the front wheels hitting a divot in a concrete surface. Mr Gillen had been working on a 72ft vessel as finished mouldings were being moved from the firm’s Southyard site to its Newport Street site for fit-out on 9 November 2021. HSE inspector Paul Mannell said: “Mark…

The Save Windermere campaign has featured in a Panorama investigative documentary. The Water Pollution Cover-Up aired on BBC1 in December and is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer. The documentary investigates United Utilities’ actions across the North West and the Save Windermere campaign provided evidence regarding a potential pollution cover-up in the Windermere catchment, which saw the death of over 1,000 fish on Cunsey Beck in the summer of 2022. A United Utilities spokesperson said: “Panorama has made a series of allegations about United Utilities, which we strongly reject. Pollution incidents are investigated and action taken where necessary. The Environment Agency, as the regulator, determines both the initial and final categorisation of pollution incidents. We care passionately about the environment and the communities we serve and have just proposed…

A conservation project has received £186,000 to fund 57 more eco-moorings for boats at the popular Dorset beauty spot of Studland Bay – adding to the 31 already installed. The eco-moorings use a screw anchor with an elasticated rode that stretches and retracts with the tide so does not touch the seabed and is far less damaging than traditional boat anchors or moorings where the chain moves with the tide around a fixed block, scouring the seabed. The Marine Management Organisation Fisheries and Seafood Scheme funding to Studland Bay Marine Partnership (SBMP) was secured following a bid with Dorset Council, and will contribute to a larger £248,000 conservation project to support this special site. SBMP was formed in 2021, and 10 eco-moorings initially placed when a voluntary no-anchor zone was…

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 All plastic boat owners, including owners of Sailfish 18s such as myself, are callous, soulless heathens who enjoy nothing more than watching wooden boats sink. As I’m also a wooden boat owner, with soul, depth, character and taste, I find it unamusing, and must point out that the technical terminology for what you Tupperware types call ‘sinking’ is in fact ‘launching’. Snipe of Maldon, my 3½-ton Blackwater Sloop, had been out of the water, being varnished and painted in the very boat shed where she was built back in 1953. How romantic is that – not that you plastic plebs would get that! The whole…

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. Taking a short break at the Mill Stream Hotel in Bosham with the family, I was mainly walking and exploring the delights of the wonderful Chichester Harbour. A good breakfast, a nice walk followed by afternoon tea and cakes at the old hotel, perfect. Just by chance, we wandered through the car park at Bosham and there was Ella, a nice fin keel Westerly Super Cirrus, all chocked up and looking for a new owner. I can be a bit impulsive when it comes to boats and decided to buy her there and then.…

Nightmare. Your boat has been lifted out and washed off and you spot blisters developing under the antifouling below the waterline. That can frequently be the early warnings of elevated moisture developing within the GRP laminate. But, as marine surveyor Ben Sutcliffe-Davies is keen to point out, there’s no need to panic… just yet. “Nine times out of 10, the blisters on a modern boat are not osmosis; they are often just water blisters that have developed between the hull and coatings. This is often caused by a number of potential issues that include the coatings not being applied properly, that the boat has been epoxied when the vessel wasn’t dry enough, allowing the moisture to permeate from the inside out, or more frequently the internals are not kept dry…

September 2021: while most of the population was concerned with breaking their way out of a global pandemic, the UK quietly switched to E10 petrol as its default garage forecourt blend. Most motorists, or at least most of those with cars built after the turn of the millennium didn’t notice the change, but sporadic users of small engines – be they lawnmowers, chainsaws or outboard motors – started to encounter some issues straight away. E10 petrol contains 10% ethanol, and you guessed it, E5 contains 5% ethanol. Ethanol is a form of alcohol, which like other forms of alcohol can be produced from crops and added to fossil fuels to reduce their carbon footprint. This is why governments worldwide have legislated for adding successively larger quantities of ethanol to forecourt gasoline…

After an idyllic family cruise in the Solent in glorious sunshine and light winds, I felt inspired to take my Hurley Silhouette offshore. My wife, two children and I, plus our dog, had spent just over a fortnight bobbing about the Isle of Wight aboard Emma Too. Emma Too is 5m long and was made by Hurley Marine in 1970. Robert Tucker had designed the Silhouette as an affordable family cruiser for estuary and light coastal work. My father owned two in the 1960s and I remember playing under the tarpaulin of one in our garden as a child. At his recommendation, I’d bought Emma Too from ebay for £1,500 in 2010 to sail at our home port of Rutland Water and to trailer-sail to Suffolk or the Solent. The…

There is rarely anything better than the day when you buy your boat, the prospect of future cruises with family and friends stretching out ahead of you. But for some buyers, the dream can become something of a nightmare that only becomes apparent when he or she decides to sell their boat. As broker and ABYA member Chris Ibbotson from boatpoint explains, some sellers have fallen foul when they are unable to produce the title documents for the boat, and therefore unable to prove ownership. Through the years of Covid-19, boats in the UK exchanged hands rapidly as people tried to make the most of a holiday in British waters. Many boats were sold privately, sometimes without the correct documentation. Through the years of Covid-19, boats in the UK exchanged…

Inflatables can be improved by glueing on new fittings where you really need them. Several companies can supply a range of accessories, but do ask for advice on the correct glues to use. Different materials like PVC and Hypalon can be glued together provided they are primed correctly. Rigid tenders last longer if they are given a lick of paint and the bottom scrapes are attended to. An unusual colour scheme might save her from being ‘borrowed’ and bottom boards are easier to look after if they are painted rather than varnished. Sprinkle some fine sand or sawdust on to wet paint for a non-slip finish. But if you are kneeling while sailing, take care with non-slip because you could end up skinning your knees!…

The Seadogz rigid inflatable boat (RIB) crash on Southampton Water, which killed 15-year-old Emily Lewis ‘would likely not have happened had the trip been conducted in line with industry good practice.’ This is the conclusion of a Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) investigation. The tragedy happened on 22 August 2020 when the commercially-operated boat hit the North-West Netley buoy head-on at a speed of 38.4knots. The force of the impact briefly threw the bow of Seadogz upwards, while the starboard engine stopped; the deceleration forces caused all the seated passengers, who were wearing lifejackets, to be thrown violently forward. The 53-year-old skipper, who had been standing, was thrown into the steering console. All suffered impact injuries; two passengers from the front row went overboard. Emily, aged 15, who was in…

A yacht that dismasted in the ARC+ rally has safely returned to Gran Canaria. Swedish flagged Hilma was 540 miles west of Cape Verde, heading for the Caribbean, when the port stay of the Wauquiez 47PS came loose. “I realised we had about a minute before the mast came down,” said skipper Henrik Linder. “We only had time to furl in the genoa before I heard a slow murmuring sound followed by a crash on deck.” The mast fell onto the glassfibre cockpit arch, fortunately avoiding any injury to the four crew in the cockpit, including Henrik’s wife Lotta. The fifth crew member, who had run to the starboard side during the drama on 21 November, was pinched by the guardwire when it impacted the boom, but otherwise uninjured. Henrik,…

Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers, edits The Marine Quarterly, and is perpetually patching up a 30ft ketch: samllewellyn.com The Scottish island of Gigha is a charming spot, famous for its white beaches and its subtropical gardens. Its best anchorage, Ardminish Bay, faces east, away from the prevailing westerlies. Smug after a rounding of the louring Mull of Kintyre, I picked up a visitor’s mooring in the bay, rowed ashore to buy an ice cream and some Guinness, and returned to Dahlia, confident of a night’s repose well earned. It did not happen. The wind went round to the east and blew hard into the bay across various eddies of the tide. The rig howled and the sea stood on end. Dahlia’s best sleeping place is in the aft cabin, but…

Many years ago I started cruising with my wife and young daughter in a 24ft woodie, covering some 7,000 miles in her over several years. This was with a homemade double bunk, a camping stove, cool box, one small car battery and a 30-year-old car engine that ran sporadically. We moved onwards and upwards, saving every penny we could, and were soon enjoying the delights of the massive aft cabin in our 42ft Moody. However, we’ve never forgotten the fun we had in our old Falmouth Pilot and still entertain the grandkids with yarns of our early travels. A boat is what you make of it and, no matter what your budget is, can nearly always be made to suit your requirements if needs must. Since the turn of the…

Rarely in 50 years have I been caught out in rough weather at sea. Indeed, in recent years it has become even rarer with improved weather forecasting. However, not only does avoiding rough weather mean longer stays in harbour, it also means I’m not experienced in dealing with it if caught in a localised area of rough seas; such as happened recently when approaching Portland Bill. I decided that perhaps it was time I got some training so I could handle big (for me) waves. I approached various training schools – some wouldn’t do it – but in the end I was able to settle on Mendez Marine. My boat is a Mitchell 28, only 8.5m long and just under 3m in beam, similar in design to a Nelson semi-displacement…

When buying our first boat in November 2018, a fin-keel Moody 37 built in 1985 by Plymouth Boat Projects, the surveyor told us Paper Moon had a slight case of osmosis and needed to be stripped back and dried out. Not knowing what this entailed, we had her hauled out on the day we took ownership and hoped to maybe go sailing one day. We left her to dry out over the winter of 2018, frustrated that our sailing dreams were sitting on the hard in Oreston, Plymouth. But we had the advantage of a very professional team who grit-blasted, filled and faired the hull, and re-primed both the keel and the hull. Then in the spring came the big question: shall we use traditional antifouling or instead apply that…

We pay for published cruising stories, email pbo@futurenet.com, read more at pbo.co.uk/cruising What better way to spend the record-breakingly hot summer of 2022 than to take our cruiser on the 115-mile, 41-lock voyage from Shepperton Marina to the source of the River Thames and back, or at least as far as we could go? Our beloved powerboat is just 22ft long and the journey would take 22 days, although we didn’t know that when we started. What we did know, since we are both in our seventies and I am disabled, was that I was not planning to disembark until we were home. Our goal was Lechlade in Gloucestershire. The bubble of spring water generally considered to be the actual source of the Thames is further on in a field…

For more expert advice, visit pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-answers BOATBUILDING What’s the best way to stick down teak planking? Q I’ve tried to replace the teak planking in the cockpit on my Sadler 32. The original planking was held in place with screws and plugs, but when I replaced the teak I tried to glue it in place as I thought it would give a better finish. I’ve tried several different types of glue but none seem to hold for long and just come up leaving the glue stuck to the wood or the glassfibre. Can you recommend a glue that works? Les Broughton Lyndon March replies: When glueing down any timber to glassfibre it’s a great idea where possible to limit or completely remove fastenings – not only are they often unnecessary…

“This goes to show that accidents can happen to anyone – even those of us with lots of experience,” said British ocean racer Pip Hare after her IMOCA 60 ran aground. The Vendée Globe sailor praised the Fowey RNLI crew who towed Medallia, off a beach near St Austell, Cornwall, after the grounding at 0530 on 12 December. Sailing back to her home port of Poole, Pip said: “I’m pretty devastated about everything that happened this morning. I managed to sleep through a lot of alarms and run aground off the coast of Cornwall on my delivery home from the Retour à La Base race.” She added: “My decision to sail home alone is largely based on the fact that we are a very small team and always need to…

The first female Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) commodore has been elected. Dr Deborah Fish took the helm of the London and Cowes-based club on 1 January. Next year will be the RORC centenary anniversary. Deb has been active in her role as a Rear Commodore, chairing the membership committee and championing youth sailing through the Griffin initiative. Deb has raced offshore with the RORC since 1999 and completed the Rolex Fastnet Race 11 times. Deb and Rob Craigie sailed Bellino, Rob’s Sun Fast 3600, doublehanded to overall victory in the 2023 Season’s Points Championship. ■ www.rorc.org…

Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Limited, which owns and runs the tall ship SV Tenacious, has closed due to a lack of funds. The company, and its charity arm the Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST), have been facing difficulties due to the financial burden of running SV Tenacious, which costs £150,000 a month to run. Since it was formed in 1978, JST has enabled 56,728 disabled and non-disabled people to sail on a tall ship. The JST will be reviewed by the Charity Commission to see if it can continue to operate. The charity’s Deed of Trust could allow it to operate differently in the future. In a statement, the trust said: “The last four years have seen two large-scale funding appeals, refinancing, several restructures, and a reduction in fleet size to…

Got a news story that would interest a fellow PBO reader? We want to hear from you! Email PBO news editor L aura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS King’s award The Disabled Sailing Association, in Torquay, Devon, has been awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest honour that can be awarded to voluntary groups in the UK. The association is run entirely by its team of 70 active volunteers and supported through charitable donations and sponsorship. Established as a charity in 2005 to provide safe, affordable sailing opportunities to disabled adults and children, their families and carers, it now has more than 400 members and is affiliated with the Royal Yachting Association Sailability Group. Volunteer skipper Linda Hitchcox said sharing the uplifting activity…

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. The days are beginning to lengthen, the shalders (oyster catchers) are peep-peeping on the football pitch, and my mind is turning to getting my boat back. Time for the mast up horror. I don’t mind that as much as the mast down. For a start, it’s going upwards. Then there’s time to prepare everything meticulously, place correctly-sized clevis pins ready with temporary R-rings (engineering’s greatest contribution to mast movement), completely unscrew all bottlescrews, spray everything that’s supposed to move with WD40, tape up everything that’s not. The washed ropes have been in separate bags for ‘before mast up’ and ‘after’ since November. Also, there feels less…

The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), and its sister event the ARC+, is the ultimate gear test – often to destruction – of everything from sails to self-steering, cookers, communications and electronics. I first visited St Lucia in 2005, and have since covered the event five times. While crews are inevitably exhausted when I meet them on the docks, so is their kit. COMMUNICATIONS Distress calling Weather apps Radar AIS DSC/VHF radio SSB radio Starlink Iridium SAFETY Safety at night MOB recovery Danbuoys Throwing lines EMERGENCY KIT First aid Medication Seasickness Dive equipment LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS Cooking Watermakers Refrigeration Batteries Wind, sun and hydro power Generators Fuel STEERING Autopilot Hydrovane Windvane Running equipment day and night for three weeks in Atlantic swells and squalls, often with tired and inexperienced operators,…

We’ve all heard the stories of the automotive sector suffering from runaway premiums and major underwriters pulling out of motor insurance altogether, but the good news is that the marine sector remains more robust. While basic ‘third party’ liability insurance is not yet mandatory for leisure craft in the UK, the world is becoming more litigious, so it’s a very good policy to have. The Royal Yachting Association’s (RYA) trusted insurer Bishop Skinner, part of the Marsh Group, says third party claims are by far the most frequent type it receives. In addition, marine mortgage companies will insist on comprehensive insurance to protect their investment before a loan can be made. Most modern marinas will also demand proof of insurance to cover themselves for the costs of their berth holder’s…

After a period of being without a boat, I started looking through both the classified ads and the websites offering plans for boats for amateur construction. Having already built two small boats, I leaned towards a build, rather than a buy. I get as much enjoyment from being around boats as I do being in them when they are on the water. My previous builds were both open sailing boats, so building a boat with a cabin would make for an interesting project. A cabin would also provide some welcome cover for those wet and windy days. Power or sail I’d been in small outboard-powered fishing boats as a teenager, and RIBs when I helped out at the local sailing club, but I’d never owned a motorboat. When I completed…

I’m not a big fan of paddle wheel log transducers – they seem to attract marine life and mud, and are especially vulnerable to damage from marauding slings at boatyards when owners like me forget to remove them at lift-out! To add to the fun, freeing them up when stuck usually results in a water fountain into the boat, needing lots of bailing and sponging in awkward bilge areas. So I was pleased to discover that NASA Marine has produced an electromagnetic log transducer (EML3) that has no moving parts and, most importantly, includes a ‘black box’ that turns the transducer output into pulses that mimic those from paddlewheels. My boat has a full array of Navico displays fitted in 2005, which still work well, but the transducers have either…

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