Innehållsförteckning för May 2025 från Practical Boat Owner

WITH THE EDITOR Essential life skills The power of boatbuilding and sailing to transform lives will not come as a surprise to many of us who have been lucky enough to do either. But I was truly blown away by the work of Plan B when I visited their base in Gosport last October (page 40). John and Vikki Gillard and their dedicated team shape the teenagers who cross their path; teenagers who, for one reason or another, are not in the mainstream school system and would otherwise fall through the cracks onto a slippery slope towards a life of crime. Instead, these 11-19-year-olds are given a fresh purpose and, through vocational teaching, learn skills to equip themselves for life and work. The enthusiasm was evident in the workshop; two…

Twelve men and two women from eight countries have embarked on a solo around the world yacht race in Mini 19ft/5.8m ALMA Globe 5.80 yachts, their only home for the next 13 months. Departing from Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, the inaugural McIntyre Mini Globe Race (MGR) marathon will begin with leg one to Panama, 1,200 miles to the west. In total, the 26,000-mile unassisted race will include five legs, before the sailors return to Antigua in March 2026. Organiser Don McIntrye, who is also behind the Golden Globe Race, said: “Our MGR entrants’ may be sailing little yachts, but the adventure is huge and just as emotional and demanding in many ways as the big boat solo events. Yes, it is all cute and fun in the ports,…

British yachtswoman Pip Hare has been chosen to recieve the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) Seamanship Award, which recognises exceptional skill or bravery at sea. It follows her resilience and ingenuity to keep sailing when her foiling IMOCA 60, Medallia, dismasted during the 2024 Vendée Globe Race, while she was 800 miles south of Australia. Armed with a hacksaw and gloves, Hare removed most of the rig, and managed to erect a jury-rigged mast, enabling her to fly the trysail, and after 13 days in conditions up to gale force winds, she made landfall in Melbourne on 28 December. Canadian Victor Wejer received the OCC’s Lifetime Award for 20 years of service to cruising sailors venturing through the Northwest Passage. ▪ pbo.co.uk/CA_awards…

Heritage is wonderful stuff, I thought, rolling sleeves up and contemplating an ancient outboard. This 5hp 2-stroke began its life in the factory of Mr Yamaha in Japan, was bought by a man in Germany, made its way back to England on the back end of my Cornish Shrimper Daisy, and has since served as a general workhorse in places including the transom of a dinghy strapped alongside my ketch Dahlia during calms on a sail-only trip caused by her propeller loss 150 miles from home. We have so far viewed this engine with affection, but nobody has been near it with anything resembling a spanner. So it was that seeking to do something–anything–that did not involve painting boats, I decided to give it the 10-year overhaul, or anyway change…

Bavaria 40 | Jeanneau Sun Odyssey/Sun Fast 40 Dufour 40 | Hanse 411 | Dehler 39 The third generation of Beneteau’s Oceanis range, which consisted of seven designs from 32-52ft, marked a change in the expectations of what a cruising yacht can offer. Ever since its inception with the Oceanis 350 and 430 in 1986, this line proved hugely popular with private owners and charter companies alike thanks to excellent accommodation volumes and a greater emphasis on interior design, natural light and ventilation. Sailing performance, and in some cases seaworthiness in extreme conditions, took more of a back seat in early models, however, which were lightly ballasted, had relatively shallow draught and lacked low centre of gravity bulb keels. Sadly, one of these boats, a 1989 Oceanis 390, was knocked…

Harbours all around our coast will be buzzing with small motorboats on a nice summer’s day. Many of these boats will be well-known models from big yards that build them by the thousand. Many of them will also look not unlike many of the others. For the majority of the owners, it’s all about practicality: ease of use, suitability for purpose, purchase and running costs, and so on. These things matter to anyone who owns a boat. People’s priorities differ, however. For example, does it matter to you what your boat looks like? On the basis of what we see out there, appearance doesn’t enter the equation in many cases. For others, it’s the starting point–and why shouldn’t it be? More often than not for recreational owners, buying a boat…

After a couple of season’s use, we are thoroughly delighted with the new set up, which has performed faultlessly; the new cockpit displays are so much clearer to read than the old autohelm LCDs and it’s now far easier for the helmsman to assimilate important information, having only two instruments to look at, rather than the previous four. We took a while to settle the most important data to display on the i70 multifunction colour display (you can configure it to show pretty much anything from compass heading to sea temperature) but we now have five key ‘pages’ that we can scroll through at the press of a single button. Our ‘home page’ shows course over ground (COG), speed over ground (SOG), boat speed and depth and is the one…

I’ve had a 2.3m Excel inflatable tender for over a decade, but during winter storage vermin got to it and chewed holes, one in each of the dinghy’s three chambers. If the baffles had been holed as well the tender would not have been repairable, but fortunately, they were untouched. The proper way to repair these holes was to patch from both the inside and outside to make a PVC sandwich, using the appropriate two-part PVC adhesive. Single-part glue and external patches may be OK for pin sized holes, or as a get-you-home-fix, but are not a permanent long-lasting repair. It’s worth noting that some tenders are made of Hypalon, and the repair process is the same for those apart from using hypalon patches and glue instead of the PVC…

The River Thames has an inspiring past. Historically its tides carried trade in and out of the capital and it is still used to carry bulk supplies. Each high tide barge trains carry waste out–taking almost 60 lorries off the road. Commuter and trip boats ply its waters. But there is also a tranquil side to its waters that few see. At low tide, the bustling sounds fade as you journey below the bank. It is one of the few, solitary places in this frenetic city. Upriver of Vauxhall bridge the waterway is wider and less cluttered with limited commercial traffic. Trees from the riverside parks hide the city grey and wildlife thrives, herons and cormorants can be seen. There are peaceful communities of houseboats giving the banks a village…

PBO readers are being offered free tickets to the inaugural Trailer Boat & Watercraft Show. The event, held 26-27 April at War Memorial Park, Basingstoke, aims to showcase smaller boats and watercraft, and water sports companies. So far, more than 40 companies representing 100-plus brands – have signed up to exhibit their boats, equipment and services, at this ‘low cost, fun show’. For free tickets, visit pbo.co.uk/free-tickets, click ‘Get Tickets’, enter the Promo Code: PBO25, ‘apply’ and ‘check out’.…

A 73-year-old British sailor was lost at sea after his yacht capsized in rough weather while sailing off the south-west coast of France. The Préfecture maritime de l’Atlantique reported that the ETEL Regional Operational Centre for Surveillance and Rescue (CROSS) was first alerted on 24 January at 1930, by its British counterparts, that the American-flagged Tiger PA yacht was not responding to radio messages. The boat was located approximately 100 miles from Pointe de Graves. Nearby cargo ship Autosun established radio contact after several attempts. The solo British skipper on board said he was safe and continued on his way. The next day, around 1500, the Tiger PA distress beacon was detected 43 miles west of Lacanau. The CROSS Etel coordinated the response and broadcast a Mayday. The Caracal helicopter…

The RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show saw thousands of water lovers join professional sailors, expert coaches, tacticians and a host of marine brands to celebrate small boat sailing and boardsports. The event, showcasing 175 exhibitor stands, attracted almost 9,000 visitors to Farnborough International from 22-23 February, from across the UK as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, Qatar, Canada and the Falkland Islands. RYA director of sport development Rob Clark said: “It’s been great to see fans and marine businesses alike so excited and enthused about the season ahead.” Big names included Paris 2024 kite foiling gold medallist Ellie Aldridge, America’s Cup and SailGP helm Dylan Fletcher and women’s America’s Cup star Hannah Diamond. Sadly, small boat cruising doyen Roger Barnes, who is president of the Dinghy…

boot Düsseldorf is the world’s largest indoor boat show and a vital launch pad for new yachts of all shapes and sizes. Here we look at a selection of sub-40ft mono- and multihulls that made their debuts in January this year Beneteau First 30 The First 30 is billed as Beneteau’s affordable planing cruiser. At 3.1 tonnes and with 60m2 of upwind sail area, it should plane in 13-14 knots of wind. A backstay, and German-sheeted mainsail on an A-frame keep the cockpit clear and lines are within easy reach of the helm. The racing layout has an additional mainsail traveller and trim controls. Down below are two cabins which sleep four people, heads, saloon and galley. Dragonfly 36 This is essentially a scaled-down Dragonfly 40 but has some new…

Sailing heroine Cass – from my Shetland murder mystery series – was needing somewhere new to solve crimes. I thought it was time to pick on Clousta, the village just over the hill from Aith: four miles by road, but a good sail up to the end of Aith Voe, turn left into the Røna, then go half way round Vementry Isle and into Clousta Voe. There are hazards either way: going past Vementry and in from the far side means threading past the Black Stane, through a set of little islands then going dead-centre of the channel to miss invisible deadly rocks called the Icelanders, but coming this side of Vementry means Cribba Sound, a narrow, shallow channel with strong tides. I’ve sailed that way twice, and neither time…

The once great British Merchant Navy was in decline. Ships were being mothballed and shipping companies were closing down. London Docks were emptying and my own employer, Canadian Pacific Steamships, was down to only one passenger liner. So, it didn’t take much imagination to see that employment and promotion prospects were bleak. Perhaps it was time to go back to school and find another career. It was December when my little general cargo ship was leaving the St Lawrence before the freeze to head out into the wild winter North Atlantic. Around 1600 it was getting dark and my job was to keep the ship’s log, stand by the telegraph and attempt to interpret the instructions for relaying to various parts of the ship. For the most part I did…

Remove the backstay please, requested the yard manager as my Maxi 84 was due to be craned out. My stomach sank. In all the time I’d owned my first yacht I’d not even tweaked the rigging, let alone removed any part of it. I was aware of the importance of rig tension, but the rig had been declared safe and seaworthy, so I was satisfied. I had no intention of going racing, so as long as the mast wasn’t going to fall down I was happy. But now I was embarrassed to admit I didn’t know how to do it. Fortunately, the yard came to my rescue, but it did draw to my attention an essential part of my boat I’d mostly ignored. It was time to get to grips…

Some forestays on yachts with headsail furling are a fixed length but all other shrouds and stays are usually adjustable and this is achieved by tightening or loosening the thread on the bottlescrews at the bottom of the stays where they are attached to the deck. For the initial set-up, the boat should be level. A finger berth will allow you to get off the boat to assess whether the mast is upright. Over the page is a guide to tuning your rig. While experienced riggers will be able to check tension by feel at the dockside, the simplest way to check tension as you wind down the bottlescrews is to use a rig-tension meter, such as the Loos or Spinlock Rig Sense. Once you know the diameter of the…

The next time your boat is on the hard for a scrub, antifoul or whatever, have a look around and you will see quite a lot of different propellers on your neighbours’ boats. Made of aluminium, brass or bronze – even plastic in the case of small outboards – some have two blades, some have three and some, very occasionally, have four. While most propellers have fixed blades some have blades that fold. Propellers can be right-handed, where they turn clockwise as you go ahead, or left-handed where they turn anticlockwise to go ahead. Look from the stern to determine your rotation; mine is left-handed. These differences come about because different types of propellers are suited to different types of boats, engines and transmissions. How it works How a propeller…

Since retiring a couple of years ago I have been sailing around the UK. Mainly they’re day sails, leaving the boat in places, going back to it and carrying on. I’m trying to visit all the beautiful ports around the coast, and am having a great time. I’ve got a 42ft boat, which is about as big as you want to sail single-handed. A good friend of mine often sails with me but on this particular leg, I was single-handed. It was the end of August, I’d been enjoying the Irish coast that summer and had left the boat in Fleetwood a couple of weeks earlier. So I returned to Fleetwood Marina on 30 August and set sail at about 0930 the following morning, bound for Liverpool 50 miles away.…

Experts behind the Cruising Association’s (CA) Regulatory & Technical Services (RATS) group will be sharing their knowledge and findings on a range of topics. ‘Evening with RATS’, will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 19 March and attendees can watch via a free Zoom webinar or in-person to the event at CA House, Limehouse, London, with entry £4 members, £7 for non-members. Key topics ▪ The CA Orca Project: John Burbeck will talk about the latest activity and yacht interactions of the groups of orcas off the coasts of France, Portugal and Spain, avoidance tactics and safety advice. ▪ Sailing with pets: Tania Nieveen will discuss regulations, guidance and advice to consider when cruising to Europe and beyond. ▪ Low voltage electrics on small craft: Rick Ballard will share technical…

The quest for the ultimate marine sealant is over. For just as Isaac Newton found gravity by being hit on the head by it, my discovery came about purely by accident. Archimedes had his eureka moment soaking in a bath, and that in a sense is how my revelation came upon me as I motored up the coast on a windless day three summers ago watching a steady trickle of water come through the plank seams I’d poorly caulked in the spring and into the after end of the cockpit of my 1953 Blackwater sloop. As I gunned the throttle in an effort to keep pace with the larger boats on the cruise, Snipe of Maldon’s stern was squatting down and submerging seams that would normally be above water. When…

There inevitably comes a moment on most summer cruises when you must decide when to turn around and head home. The pressure of schedules and responsibilities reminds you that your holiday has a finite end. But imagine if you could continue exploring new waters? While the idea of venturing into exotic, far-off waters may be tempting, turning that dream into reality often requires major sacrifices – like selling your home. However, we tend to forget that some of the world’s most spectacular cruising grounds are right on our doorstep. A circumnavigation around the UK and Ireland, or a Round Britain adventure, offers the perfect challenge. Advantages of a circumnavigation close to home ▪ With so many harbours to choose from, you can easily hop along the coast, with only a…

Plan B, and how its staff and the programmes they run help to prevent dozens of children and teenagers from falling through the cracks, giving them a renewed purpose for the future, is clearly illustrated by the words of former student Adam Pankhurst. “I was a delinquent in the community when I was younger. I wasn’t a school person, I preferred doing things with my hands rather than studying,” said Adam. “I was in and out of schools, and then I found John in 2019 running his previous organisation and moved over with him to Plan B in 2022. I started as a student, working my way up to an apprenticeship at 16 and then became a member of staff at 18. Maybe, I could have found my own path…

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The original 25-year-old autohelm instruments aboard my Vancouver 38 Pilot were beginning to worry me – the odd, unexpected communication errors with the newer chart plotter always happened at crucial moments! So we decided to replace them with new Raymarine colour displays. Many of us are faced with the challenges of maintaining fantastic boats; they are generally aging gracefully but we’re probably all finding that some components are reaching the end of their working lives. At 25 years old Maunie of Ardwall is looking very good for her age (especially considering the 60,000 miles on her log) and we are working hard to keep her in prime condition, with major upgrades completed as and when required. This big project, undertaken in September 2022, aimed to address her 1997-vintage autohelm network…

Early in 2021 I was desperate to find another boat. I’d been forced to sell my beloved Moody 33 the previous year, as I was haemorrhaging cash thanks to the Covid lockdowns. Thankfully by 2021, my finances had started to recover a little. I was still on a tight budget and my eye kept getting drawn to photos of a pretty plywood and GRP ketch called Seven Summers at Cobb’s Quay in Poole Harbour. Described as a Santa Barbara 32, no-one seemed to know much about her origins. It turned out her sweet 1970s lines had been drawn by East Coast designer Charles Greene, founder of Cruiser Kits Ltd, based in Bunghay, Suffolk, though she wasn’t built until the 1990s. Her elderly Bukh DV20 engine was plagued with problems, however.…

1 In rough weather, vent pipes in low coamings might let in sea water which contaminates the fresh water or fuel tanks. 2 If they need to be vented overboard, try to get the vent as high as possible with a swan-neck. 3 Some boats vent water tanks inboard, over the sink or into the bilge. 4 I heard of one boat with tanks that vented inside coaming lockers – but unfortunately, the locker drains blocked and it filled with seawater! 5 So the engine will still run in big seas, some fuel vent pipes have been taken up high inside boom gallows legs. 6 Others have been routed up inside radar posts… 7… or even through pushpit legs or stanchions. 8 If the water tank does get contaminated, flush it…