Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2024 från Practical Boat Owner

Like many people, I didn’t have my own boat when I started sailing. Instead, I relied on the generosity of my friends and family to build my sailing miles, as well as saving for charter holidays to gain experience. In this issue, we look at how you can get on the water if you don’t own a boat (page 28). For the future of the boating industry, this is a crucial pathway. Research commissioned by British Marine in 2017 on the future of boating revealed a gap between those who already own a boat and a new generation not on the yacht ownership ladder. Many factors contribute to this, including a lack of time and money (still an issue in 2024), and the fact boating has to compete with sports…

Nine months ago, solo round-the-world yachtswoman Pip Hare celebrated having “a fighting chance” against the 13 new-build boats in the 2024 Vendée Globe race, following a six-month refit of her IMOCA 60, Medallia. Now, with just months to go until the race, two of her sponsors are ‘unable to re-sign contracts for the final year of the campaign due to the world economic climate’, so she is appealing for urgent funding support for the final boat work. A new commercial partner could make all the difference to help Pip to be competitive when she reaches the ‘Everest of sailing‘ starting line at Les Sables-d’Olonne, France on 10 November. Pip told PBO: “We will make the start line of the Vendée Globe but if we don’t find new sponsors, we can’t…

Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding Ltd has told PBO that a fire which damaged its production facility in Falmouth will have a ‘limited effect’ on the boatbuilder’s production of Duchy Motor Launches and Hardy Motor Yachts. Multiple crews from Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service responded to the fire in the early hours of 16 May. The company, which is based at Mylor Creek Boatyard, confirmed that the fire occurred at its pre-production manufacturing site at Ponsharden–not at its new South West Shipyard across the road. In a statement, the company said: ‘No one was harmed in the incident but multiple firefighter crews attended to tackle the blaze, supported by Devon & Cornwall Police. The fire is now extinguished, hotspots are being monitored and the damage is being assessed.’ Cockwells’ managing…

More than 450 shares have been sold to the public in a bid to revive Hengistbury Head Outdoors Centre. During its heyday in 2019, 15,000 people used the centre on the shores of Christchurch Harbour, but following the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown the council-owned building fell into disrepair and Brockenhurst College ceased operations there. However, local users–including the Sea Scouts, Pink Champagne Dragonboat and Hengistbury Head Sailing Club–continued on-site by storing equipment in a shipping container. Now, in what would be the club’s 60th year, the Hengistbury Head Outdoors (HHO) community group has launched £4 million plans to rejuvenate the centre and has applied to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council for a community asset transfer. In addition to fundraising, HHO has launched £10 member shares, and now has more than 450…

When I got Karima, she was a hard-worked racing yacht with a full set of sails, including three coloured ones, which have had very little use since. I did have a notion in the early days that having my husband, Philip, crewing meant he could helm while I messed about on the foredeck (this was before I realised he was a Non-Sailing Spouse). The spinnaker is a beautiful rainbow-striped one, and I didn’t think I could work with it single-handed, so taking him out was my chance to try it. I didn’t have experience with yacht spinnakers. Some 20 years before, as a teenager, I’d crewed in a Hornet dinghy which involved handling a spinnaker from a trapeze. I put up the pole, my helm, Colin, hoisted it from aft,…

Many of the world’s best ideas result from visionary individuals with a dogged determination to see their projects come to fruition. François Tissier is one such person. His passion is to make sailing as easy as possible and therefore accessible to as many people as possible. Yet he believes much of the marine industry is looking in the wrong direction. Tissier argues that so many people today are time-poor that a boat that’s hugely enjoyable to sail–whether alone, or with the whole family–but that can be rigged and de-rigged with the minimum of effort is long overdue. He even extends this thinking to the skills needed to be competent and safe on the water. Chatting over a beer after we came ashore from the test, off the Ile de Ré…

Our Avon eight-person liferaft was last inspected in 2020, and as it came from a charter boat its certification was only valid for one year, rather than a more usual three years. With that in mind, we confidently didn’t put it in for inspection for three years. Aside from the cost of a professional inspection and certification, sending it off takes time and the delivery can make the whole process add up to more than the cost of buying a used in-date replacement. Relying on my experience of repacking emergency parachutes, I looked inside to see if I felt confident taking it offshore without a formal certification. Opening up I cut through the ribbon bands and peeled off the seam tape that made the hard case watertight. I could see…

A DIY boom brake for £8.95 David Holmes reflects on the success of his simple boom brake I recently installed a DIY boom brake on my Westerly Merlin – a Kong figure-of-eight aluminium descender, appropriated from the world of rock climbing for the princely sum of £8.95 from ebay. I looked at various boom brakes on the market, many had good reviews and most had eye-watering price tags. There’s often confusion between the role of a boom brake and a preventer. They’re actually complementary to each other, but carry out different roles. The preventer is essentially a length of rope that extends from the end of the boom, goes forward to the bow, and then back to the cockpit. Its primary function is to prevent the boom from gybing, and…

Light multihulls achieve high speeds downwind by running an asymmetrical spinnaker and flying it shy. By building up a high apparent wind (keeping the breeze that is felt either on or just forward of the beam) it is possible to carry the apparent wind direction forward. Very often the multihull will be heading well downwind (from the true wind) yet the apparent wind remains beam on. The wide beam of multihulls enables traditional spinnakers to be set without a pole. By bracing the spinnaker with a line from each outboard bow and one from the middle hull (or beam) the spinnaker tack is variable in position. A short spinnaker pole (termed a ‘prodder’) can be permanently mounted on the middle hull (or middle of a catamaran forward beam) to provide…

https://www.pbo.co.uk/seamanship/cruising-chute-or-spinnaker-we-compare-both-sails-on-the-same-boat-on-different-points-of-sail-86328 Cruising chute or spinnaker? We compare both on the same boat https://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/battery-maintenance-for-boat-owners-how-to-look-after-your-boat-batteries-63421 How to look after your boat batteries www.pbo.co.uk/more https://www.bit.ly/pbofeed https://www.pbo.co.uk/reviews/boats/westerly-konsort-space-security-good-performance Second-hand boat focus: the Westerly Konsort Boat glassfibre repair: a beginner’s guide https://www.pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/boat-fibreglass-repair-a-beginners-guide-83953…

Kill cord safety We’re always being told to fit the kill cord to our outboard motors when in use but I wonder if this is always the safest thing to do. While driving my dinghy with a 2.5hp outboard and one passenger it struck me that if I fell overboard the dinghy’s inertia would carry it away from me and my passenger would not be able to use the motor to come and pick me up. If there was a strong wind or tide running the passenger might find it difficult to row the dinghy hard enough to collect me. If I’d not been connected to the kill cord and the passenger is aware of being the backup helm they’d be able to use the motor. The kill cord must…

Safety at sea is something you can never ever take too seriously, as I well know as a sometime third hand in a customer service role on a Thames sailing barge that operates in the highly perilous cream-tea trade. In general, most barge skippers prefer less explosive cargo… such as explosives, for example, as the sticky tea business has landed many a skipper and crew in a jam and driven them to easier professions, like smuggling brandy from France. All in all, the terrors of cream teas are enough to make you yearn for the good old days when barges carried hay and bricks outward and returned with a load of steaming horse dung from the streets of Victorian London. Sadly those days are ‘long scone’. On land, cream teas…

Looking at the prices of good quality traditionally-styled GRP sailing dinghies recently I noticed that it was easy to spend well over £20,000 on a good one. While the standard of finish of these top models is superb it’s still possible to buy old lesser-known GRP boats made 30 or 40 years ago that are in excellent condition for just a few hundred pounds. Often, they have been languishing in garages for decades unused by their owners. Responsive day boat One such boat is the Foreland sailing dinghy. I came across my Foreland in online new and used boat sales pages and I travelled across to Hampshire to take a closer look. Tucked up in a garage under sheets, she was owned by the skipper of a South Coast ferry…

Gran Canaria is a crossroads for transatlantic sailors. For many young travellers, the vibrant Spanish island marks the start of an adventure. But for others, it’s the end of an ordeal, an ordeal some never make it through. Last year over 36,000 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands by sea, more than 4,000 of them unaccompanied minors. Some of the exhausted refugees from sub-Saharan Africa ended up at Atlas Hostel, a rustic backpackers hostel traditionally used by crew or ‘boat hikers’ looking to find boats across the Atlantic. Each year, when I interview participants of the ARC rally, I scan the noticeboard in Gran Canaria where would-be crew advertise their skills in everything from sailing to medicine and childcare. I see backpackers slipping into gated pontoons after boat owners, and…

A modern marine diesel engine won’t let you down – you’ll let it down. These words from a time-served marine engineer tend to get to the root of the most common breakdowns, especially when underway – little preventative maintenance, poor quality fuel, or the absence of spares (or knowledge) to help fix the problem in situ. With a few notable exceptions, such as Bukh and Yanmar, marine diesel engines are almost entirely based on commercial or automotive blocks that have been marinised. This introduces some extra complexity, usually by using seawater as a coolant and fuel that can sit for long periods in the tank between outings. The environment the engine lives in is also working against it. Salty air, lack of use and changes in temperature can age your…

Bringing ice is an excellent gift for sundowners. Ours is made from the sun and wind because we are an electric sailboat: desalinating our own drinking water and then freezing it into cubes and novelty balls, requiring not a drop of fuel anywhere in the process. We consider this about as righteous as it gets – ice made from the sun is better than any other kind! One day recently, a queasy humid warmth met James’s questing hand when he reached into the refrigerator box. In the tropics, icy cold water had kept us hydrated and motivated and we’d made heavy use of the fridge. In the cool winter of Terceira Island in the Azores, the fridge held mostly condiments, juices, and the brilliant Azorean butter and cheese. Consternation was…

ELECTRICS Stray currents and corrosion Q Some boats in the marina allow their shore power cables to go into the water between berth and vessel. I’ve heard it said this causes or helps galvanic corrosion, and that the earth wire contributes to this in some way. For shore power, the boat is grounded to the shore via the earth wire, but boats typically use shore power to run the battery charger and possibly some outlets, which are not connected to the boat’s ‘earth’, at least for wood/GRP hulls, typically a bolt on the inboard side of the zinc anode. So, the shore power earth only refers to the 240V devices, not the 12V related devices, engine/generator and metalwork in contact with the seawater (seacocks, propshaft etc) which, if anything, are…

One of my favourite harbours is the River Yealm. It has the wooded steep-sided atmosphere typical of many harbours in the south-west. Although the entrance can be tricky, Plymouth is close enough for a late change of heart. The Yealm is a pleasant harbour close to the east of Plymouth. The entrance has a bar across most of the entrance with a minimum depth of 0.9m. Not recommended in conditions of significant waves, swell or an onshore wind over an ebb tide. There are two pontoons and four buoys for visiting boats over 6m. Call the harbourmaster on 01752 872533. Tides can flow up to 2 knots, making boat control difficult in the confined space among the moorings. Time your entry if necessary. Speed limit 6 knots (and minimum wash).…

Even day sailors who rarely lose sight of land could enjoy learning the skill to fix a position if your chart plotter or electrical system decide to join the choir eternal. And for those sailors who find yourself in blue water with terra firma beyond the horizon, making a celestial observation of the sun at meridian passage (aka ‘mer pass’) is one of the simplest, yet most useful navigation tools to possess. With just a sextant, a chronometer and a nautical almanac, you can get a very good estimate of latitude and a fairly good estimate of longitude. Taking a night-time observation of Polaris (the North Star) is another straightforward way to determine latitude alone. This simplified primer and accompanying pro forma are designed for locations with latitude >23.5°N and…

Spain’s maritime rescue service, Salvamento Maritimo, has reported that a 15m (49ft) yacht sank in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar following interaction with a pod of orca. It happened on 12 May, 14 miles from Cape Spartel. The two crew members aboard Alboran Cognac, who were able to notify the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Tarifa, were rescued in an operation involving a passing oil tanker and Moroccan authorities. The Cruising Association provides guidance for sailors on passage planning, deterrent measures, safety protocol and other information to avoid orca encounters. A Salvamento Maritimo spokesperson said: “Extreme caution should be taken between May and August as during these months the probability of the presence of killer whales in this area of​the Atlantic is higher. “In the event of interaction,…

Following months of planning and preparation, quadriplegic adventurer Geoff Holt set sail from St Katherine Docks, London, on 13 May in a challenge to circumnavigate the UK coastline. Geoff and his team are motoring west along the South Coast, calling in at 19 accessible ports across the country in a wheelchair-friendly Cheetah Marine power catamaran. The Finishing the Dream goal is to raise £1.2million for the Wetwheels Foundation via the team’s Just Giving page, to buy four Wetwheels accessible boats and fill the charity’s locational gaps around the UK, so that more disabled people can enjoy the thrill of being afloat and taking the helm. The route, estimated to take four to six weeks, will stop at the eight Wetwheels locations at Edinburgh, Whitby, Dover, Jersey, Portsmouth, Hamble, Falmouth and…

SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Tractor appeal A children’s sailing centre at Littlehampton has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help keep them afloat. Members of Arun Youth Aqua Centre are seeking to raise the last £5,000 needed to replace their crumbling 40-year-old tractor, which tows the one-tonne safety powerboats from the AYAC Jubilee Compound to the waterline and back up the beach each sailing session. Chairman Jason Brockhurst, said: “We desperately need a safe and reliable tractor to enable us to keep our young sailors safe and deliver the sessions we dearly want to.” ◼ www.pbo.co.uk/tractor Kill cord reminder Following near-fatal incident in Plymouth and a boat hitting the breakwater in Cowes, Cowes Harbour Commission is reminding powered watercraft users to wear a kill cord. A graphic video highlighting the…

Reading about a new wizzo superyacht nearly put a bit of a cramp in the summer cruise. Dahlia is all ready to go, gleaming with polish, Woodskinned to golden perfection, antifouled in a Cambridge blue which if less than charming was at least pretty cheap. Then along comes this superyacht, and we have been forced to see our ancient ketch with new eyes. Unlike the superyacht, henceforward to be known as Concept Zero, Dahlia is not 73m long, limiting herself to a more discreet nine. But does she, we ask ourselves, reflect Concept Zero’s seminal notion of dominant minimalism, whatever that may be? Let us examine the facts. Dominant minimalism seems to require (I quote) low bulwarks and intensive use of glass, with access via sliding doors to alfresco spaces.…

There’s no such thing as a free boat is an oft-repeated expression in the world of boat restoration and, sadly, it’s usually not far from the truth. I’ve lost count of the number of ‘bargain’ boats I’ve been offered over my many years of sailing, many of which I’ve been sorely tempted to make an offer on. But having brought three ‘oldies’ (including a 1950s woodie) back to life over the years I too have learned the hard way that the cost of returning a near wreck into a sound and seaworthy condition can often be way more than its end value–and that’s without factoring in my time. That said, there’s no reason not to try if you’re passionate about boat craft and enjoy the restoration work as much as…

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Another preventative measure is to invest in a boat monitoring app. There are plenty to choose from and they keep an eye on things such as voltage, fuel levels, solar charging, bilgewater and the boat’s position. Sensors feed into a central hub and updates are sent to your mobile device as shown with this kit (right) from Siren Marine. One of the founders of Sea Start, Alistair Crawford, moved to America and set up Boatfix. This is his list of what triggers the most alerts on his system, and which initiates a 24/7/365 human response. ■ 11% of alarms are for unauthorised use or theft. ■ 70% of boats sink while unattended. ■ 32% of assistance calls are from boats less than six months old. ■ 23% of Boat Fix…

Keep a maintenance log of your boat’s rig. This should include details of inspections, replacement parts, wire sizes and expenditure so that at a glance you can be aware of what is likely to need doing and when, and what the costs should be. Wooden masts, booms and spreaders It is no secret that varnished wooden spars require a lot of maintenance. Even the best quality varnishes are unlikely to last two seasons given their exposure to the sun and UV, especially in hotter climates. For this reason, some wooden spars are painted on the upward-facing surfaces, particularly spreaders. In some cases, the whole mast is painted. While a painted mast may not be as attractive to look at as a traditionally varnished one, it can last up to five…

1 Clear the work area and look for signs of corrosion or debris. Here the connectors on the compressor control module need cleaning of light corrosion. 2 Clean up terminals where possible and replace them where necessary. Dena is here crimping the replacement disconnect terminal for the DC negative. 3 With everything cleaned up, reinstall the wiring to the PC board, reassemble the unit and test. 4 Inthe absence of diagnostic LED blinks, isolate the thermostat by connecting the C- and T-terminals on the compressor control module. If the compressor kicks on, the problem is in the thermostat or its wiring (here there’s corroded wiring between the cat-3 plug and the PC board). 5 If only the fan starts (audible as a low hum), bypass the PC board by wiring…

One of the inescapable truths about owning an old boat is, well… it’s old! If you’re pushing 45, like my Down East schooner Britannia, many things need renovating or completely replacing. One of the more common things that often need attention is the restoration of the boat’s headlining. Let’s start by using the correct terminology for ‘headlining or ceiling’. On a boat the ceilings are not the headlinings or ceiling at all, the correct nautical term is deckheads. Don’t ask me why, but ‘ceilings’ are the wooden slats that are fitted on the sides of a hull, usually in cabins – notably in the focsle. They do make a small cabin seem wider, but they can be devilishly difficult to clean behind – but that’s another story. Faded vinyl The…

There is nothing, absolutely nothing more useful on a boat than 3mm line. I stretch it across my chest with one arm out to the side, the other bent at the elbow – and that’s a metre. Then add a bit for luck. Put a bowline in one end and you can do anything. You can stop the halyards slapping. You can hold up lee cloths – dangle rechargeable lanterns over the cockpit for Happy Hour, stop the bottle opener from getting lost (you need a bottle opener once you get past Barbados). The 3mm line is to the modern yachtie what Stockholm tar was to Joshua Slocum. And it has held my rudder together for 1,500 miles. More, actually, because eventually I was so confident I put into Carriacou…