Innehållsförteckning för March 2026 från Practical Boat Owner

Relationships are important when sailing; you need to be confident that your crew will act in the best interests of the boat and others. I recently read The Tuesday Boys by Lady Rozelle Raynes (reprinted by Golden Duck Publishing), which recounts how she taught sailing and seamanship to eight young boys living in a children’s home. I was struck by how the boys, initially suspicious and wary of Lady Raynes and her Folkboat Martha McGilda, grew to love the freedom of being on the water and, for some, provided them with a means of a better life; many of them kept in touch with Lady Raynes long after the weekly sailing sessions stopped, a testament to the impact she made. As Will Spencer explains on page 38, building a crew…

An EU Commission study on boat licenses backs European Boating Industry concerns about the ‘fragmented and inconsistent framework’ governing recreational boating licences across the EU. The study says a lack of recognition creates unnecessary challenges for boaters, charter operators, marinas and training organisations, and advises mandatory recognition of the International Certificate of Competence (ICC) to streamline cross-border boating, ensure safety and ease tricky admin. ■ pbo.co.uk/EU_study…

Britain’s Andy Davis has the number one slot in the 20th anniversary release of the OK Dinghy World Ranking. In 2005, the first OK Dinghy World Ranking list showcased 287 sailors. Now, the 58th world ranking list has grown to 664 sailors. The single-handed dinghy is 4m long, 1.5m wide and has a hull weight of 72kg. It has a hard chine construction and is either home-built or professionally built of wood, GRP or composite. Over the last two decades, some 1,754 sailors have been included on the World Ranking List. After a couple of years sitting within the top 10 sailors, Davis joins an elite group of champions to claim the top spot. The inaugural world number one was Britain’s Nick Craig, who in the latest rankings sits in second…

SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Guernsey moorings Guernsey Ports and the island’s leisure boat owners have come to a four-year agreement over mooring fees, ending a long-running dispute. The Guernsey Boatowners Association (GBA) welcomed it as ‘stability’ for boaters in the hope that this would help to calm down their growing concerns and enable them to decide whether they can afford to continue enjoying leisure boating. This was announced at the GBA’s annual general meeting. GBA president Nick Guillemette said: “After lengthy talks with our local authorities, coupled with our successful petition we raised last December, I am very pleased to report that Guernsey Ports and the States Trading Supervisory Board have at last listened to our concerns and various arguments. Although we didn’t agree with any rise above our…

This is a time of year when one reflects on one’s past errors and failings, both as a human and as a sailor, and resolves to become a better person and learn how to tie a rolling hitch without making a monkey’s fist of it. For me, it’s Groundhog Day all over again, because the one thing I’ve learned is that I never learn anything, and am caught in a doom loop of recrimination and shame. Sailing does that to me. Making New Year’s resolutions would only make matters worse. Why, you may ask, am I beating myself up so much? Well, I don’t know what your politics are, but one way or another the hospitality industry is on its knees, and it’s all because of me. Pubs and restaurants…

Between Dover and Portsmouth in the south-east of the UK, there are few places better for dinghy cruising than Chichester Harbour. For those unfamiliar with this harbour, it is a large natural harbour in West Sussex and Hampshire and a protected area of outstanding natural beauty. It’s only a few hours’ drive from London and provides ideal saltwater launching sites. It has 17 miles of channels and direct access to the Solent and Isle of Wight. There are 10 villages within the harbour, anchorages, sandy beaches and some excellent hotels and restaurants that are all accessible by boat. The harbour has 15 sailing clubs, six marinas, moorings galore and is home to more than 9,000 vessels. As you’d expect you’ll encounter every type of boat, but luckily we don’t all…

Charter holidays were about lazing around in the sunshine, I’d always thought, but when my PBO colleague Laura Hodgetts invited me on a spring charter holiday to the Polish lakes it was a very different experience. Our Antila 33.3 was a fairly simple yacht with no electronics, but it did have something I considered extremely luxurious… heating! After fun-packed days exploring historic towns, pine forests and World War II bunkers, we’d cosy up at anchor with a bowl of freshly cooked pierogi (dumplings) and sauerkraut, and play cards with our charter hosts, Patrycja and Wojtek. Aching from the exhilaration of pulling ropes and grinding winches, it was wonderful to retire to a warm saloon, later to be lulled to sleep by the quiet whir of the blown-air diesel heating. I…

When preparing for a long-distance passage, most skippers naturally focus on the physical boat – the systems, the rig, the sails. But one system often neglected is the crew; it’s the people who make the real difference in a successful adventure. Choosing and managing the right crew is as vital to safety and enjoyment as any technical upgrade, and this article will examine how to build, prepare and lead a capable team at sea. Every winter, boatyards are full of skippers making the final push toward their next big adventure. Lists are checked, fittings replaced, systems upgraded, and hours are spent selecting sails and servicing winches. But the question I always ask, as an ARC safety inspector and bluewater preparation coach, is: ‘How much time have you spent preparing your…

Even the leggiest of us can struggle getting on deck from a low pontoon or a dinghy when at anchor. The solution is often an expensive, commercially-made step or steps, which can break after very little use, exposure to sun and exposure to people living with largeness. Here is a one-step DIY method that costs anything from: ■ Nothing, if you are a marina bin surfer. ■ Around £10 to buy new wood and rope. It should not take more than a morning to make, or all day if your splicing skills are as dodgy as mine. Extensive and detailed research was carried out to ensure suitable thicknesses of wood and rope, which involved checking that the step didn’t flex much when I stood on it. You may need to…

With so many types of rope coils to choose from, how do you decide which one to use? Well, it’s partly about the type of rope you are coiling and in what context – is it a halyard hanging off a cleat, for example, a line being stored in a locker, or a mooring line sitting on deck? But it’s also about personal preference. For me, if a halyard is cleated off at the base of the mast, or even on a pin rail on the side of a traditional boat, then I would use a halyard coil every time. Simply coil the rope, then pull the standing part (in this case, the line nearest the cleat) through the coil and attach it to the cleat with a simple half…

I bought my 2004 Bavaria 38 in 2017 and it came equipped with a 1,000W Lofrans Cayman windlass. During that first summer of boat use, I noticed the glassfibre platform supporting the windlass was cracked. Every time I raised the anchor, the whole assembly would move, making the deck feel unstable. I decided to reinforce the base in the simplest way possible. I cut a shaped glassfibre plate to match the original, including the angle. I took care to preserve the bolt hole in the same place as well as the opening where the chain drops into the anchor locker. Once prepared, I glassed the new plate onto the underside of the existing base. Two years later, in 2019 corrosion on the windlass base had become a serious concern–I suspect…

A. The radar horizon is just over the visual horizon. So if we mount the radar scanner at about 20ft (6m) we should see a buoy at 6 miles, and a radar reflector mounted at 20ft (6m) at about 12 miles. Bigger things like ships and mountains, which poke above the horizon, will show up at a much greater range. B. Mounting the scanner where the lowers meet the mast is a good stable position and looks right. But make sure it doesn't mask any mast-mounted deck floodlights. If it’s not too high, it can be reached with a normal ladder for maintenance. C. If it’s too high, the weight and windage will create too much movement. D. I've seen a couple of boats with scanners that can be hoisted…

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has been presented with the Pindar Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Association of Cape Horners. Sir Robin has been inspiring sailors the world over since becoming the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world aboard the 32ft 6in traditional wooden yacht Suhaili in 1968-69. And he continues to do so through the Clipper Round the World yacht race, which he co-founded the in 1996. Last year, aged 86, he led old friends on a cruise to Greenland and back. Andrew Pindar, who presented the award, said, “It would hardly be a stretch to think of Sir Robin as the David Attenborough of sailing, recognised and respected by a public of all ages who have enjoyed his exploits over a long and incredible nautical career.”…

The annual National Historic Ships Awards saw winners and Flagships of the Year revealed in a film recorded in Bristol and shown on YouTube. James Crisp from Heybridge in Essex, was named Photographer of the Year out of a record 750 entries for his ‘Top Down Triangulation’, while Dan Brand, from Suffolk, was Highly Commended for ‘Tollesbury Saltings Sunrise from Above.’ Norfolk Wherry Trust won the group volunteer award category, while the individual accolade was shared by John Aitken from Tall Ship Glenlee in Glasgow, and Richard Brown of Britannia Sailing Trust, Devon. Raybel Charters of Kent won an excellence award for their conservation of the 1920 Thames Barge Raybel. Judges also commended Mike Barnes, of Norfolk, for the conservation of the Edwardian Broads racing yacht Sparklet. The Flagships for…

Weather helm is a plague. There you are, everything trimmed up, reaching furiously along, and a puff comes through. Haul the tiller to keep straight. A roar from the transom as the rudder stops being a rudder and starts acting as a drogue. Other boats come whipping past with the insolent briskness of swallows mobbing a dog. Rage, fury. Which is why I have spent much time in recent years fantasising aloud about bowsprits and fingertip control. “The problem here,” I tend to say, loudly, so as to drown the yawns of my companions, “is one of moments about a point. Aft of the mast we have the mainsail, which is always trying to lever the boat’s nose up into the wind, using the keel or centreplate as a fulcrum…

Sailing north from Scotland takes you into a different world. Towering cliffs, remote islands, and empty, white sand beaches await sailors willing to suffer cooler temperatures, rain, and strong currents that demand careful planning. Boats leaving the Clyde can transit the Crinan Canal as a shortcut to the Sound of Jura, home to some of the most diverse marine life in Scotland. Yachts heading for Norway can hop to Fort William from Oban, and transit the Caledonian Canal to Inverness. From there, it’s around a three-day passage to Stavanger, or approximately two days to Bergen if you visit Shetland first. Those with more time can head north-west through the Sound of Mull, taking in the wild beauty of Skye before picking their weather to round the aptly-named Cape Wrath and…

Having grown up and been educated in an engineering environment, it surprised me how many boat owners have very little knowledge of electricity and the electrical circuits on their boats. Much of the confusion about electricity stems from the fact that it can’t be seen, and I address this later, but let’s start with the basics. PART 1: THE BASICS Volts (V) As water needs pressure to move it along a pipe, so electricity needs an electromotive force or pressure to move it along a wire and through electrical and electronic equipment. Volts are the units we use to define the amount of electrical pressure that forces electrical current around an electrically active circuit. Take a look at the sketch, right. On the left is a simple electrical circuit with…

SeaSmart toilet sanitiser Smelly marine toilets are a common complaint. Could this device provide an easy-to-fit, cost-effective solution? Many boaters will be aware of the unpleasant odour which emanates from the flushwater of their onboard loos, especially if the boat has been left for some time. Whatever products you use to clean it, it never seems to go away. Why? Because sanitising products are typically applied to the bowl. However, the root cause of the problem lies deeper down in the system between the input side of the pump and the seacock, where water is held in the pipework between flushes. Bacteria thrive in this stagnant environment and busily set about generating their odious pong, which ends up released into the atmosphere the next time the loo is flushed. So…

‘How are you getting on with selling your boat?’ It was a simple question, which launched an endeavour to grant new life to a classic wooden 22ft Yachting Monthly 3-Tonner. My friend, Trevor, had enjoyed the 1953-built Sparrow for around 10 years but, despite routine maintenance, she needed some serious work. A boatbuilder had estimated £9,000 to ‘fix the problems that I can see’, so Trevor reluctantly decided to sell her. With no takers, he asked the boatyard for a price to break her up, at which point I heard about it and thought there must be an alternative. The princely sum of £1 changed hands, and I went to take a good look at her. Initial assessment The online world is awash with tales of people buying yachts for…

Our friend Stepke recently had a job preparing a small wooden yacht for transport by road. Getting her ashore would be easy at the local boatyard in Milina, Greece, which can handle much larger boats. The problem was the mast – the yard takes boats out with a tractor and trailer, and there’s no crane. Hiring a crane would be prohibitively expensive, but there is an alternative. All you need is another two yachts, and with just three people the mast can be taken down on the water. My partner, Aleko, was roped in to help, along with his boat. The technique, which the two of them have employed many times before, is to use the masts of two other boats as a crane. Kelani, a 1947 Johnson and Jago,…

Early July 2025 found my wife, Veronica, and I sailing in our Dufour 40, Spook from Falmouth in Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly, blissfully unaware of the dramatic rescue we were soon to be involved in. The small archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean is about 25 miles south west of Land’s End, the most south westerly tip of the English mainland. The Scillies are a popular tourist destination and boat owners flock there each summer to enjoy the big open skies, green islands, friendly locals and white sandy beaches lapped by clear water that changes colour from pale turquoise to indigo blue as it deepens. We sailed into a remote bay and anchored for a couple of nights before motoring round to Hugh Town, the capital of St Mary’s,…

The skipper of a 57ft steel yacht died in Solent waters off the South Coast after becoming entangled around an electric winch drum, a Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) preliminary assessment has concluded. Lyall Babington, 74, was 2.8 miles south-south-west of the Needles Lighthouse off the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, with three crew when the fatal accident happened. He lived on board the yacht Mollie, having left New Zealand three years ago to sail around the world. On 5 August 2025, Mollie left West Wittering for a passage to Poole. In the Western Solent, Babington informed the crew that they needed to raise the storm jib to try to improve the boat’s upwind progress. To do this, the halyard was usually taken to the cockpit’s aft pedestal electric winches, which…

Lydia Mullan has been named as the Yachting Journalists’ Association (YJA) Young Journalist of the Year 2025. A lifelong sailor, Mullan is SAIL magazine editor-in-chief, having taken the helm in 2025 after eight years working on the American magazine. She said: “It’s a tremendous honour to be recognised by my peers in marine journalism.” Mullan was also a race commentator for the 2025 Transpac and Marblehead-Halifax, a 2024 Magenta Project graduate, and the media manager for Cole Brauer’s circumnavigation. Her award submission was a first-person account of the loss of the J/122 Alliance during the Newport Bermuda Race after an impact with an unidentified object and the crew’s rescue by the J/121, Ceilidh. The YJA shortlist included Annie Means, Loreto Rodriguez, Freya Terry and Jazz Turner. The awards, sponsored by…

World Sailing has made a change to its offshore special regulations (OSR), clarifying the use of storm jibs as essential safety equipment. The new rule prohibits storm jibs from being set in conjunction with any other sail forward of the foremost mast, closing a loophole exploited in offshore racing. The update, which came into effect on 25 November 2025, follows a recommendation from the World Sailing special regulations sub-committee and was approved by the oceanic and offshore committee. For several seasons, some offshore racing teams – particularly in Grand Prix circuits – have used their OSR-compliant storm jibs as staysails when reaching. These sails, typically exempt from IRC rating limits as safety gear, were custom-built with high-tech materials and battens for performance rather than survival conditions. A World Sailing spokesperson…

A campaign is under way to raise £250,000 for a monument to honour the bravery and innovation of small boat crews who fought during both World Wars. The 4m-tall ‘long overdue’ monument will stand inside Victory Gate in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to commemorate the Royal Navy’s Coastal Forces and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). Project director Richard Farrington said: “In the 1930s, fearing war and knowing that we would need skilled small craft operators, the Ministry of Defence and Transport encouraged recreational yachtsmen and fishermen to qualify as small craft skippers. Those men subsequently joined the RNVR and Coastal Forces. The stories are phenomenal.” The ‘hit-and-run’ crews drove small, high-speed motorboats carrying torpedoes, mostly at night. Their average age was 21. ■ pbo.co.uk/coastal_forces…

Beaches really matter in Shetland. We don’t have the usual sort of villages clustered round a main street or crossroad; the old Norse pattern was houses spread along the shore, each one with its own patch of beach for hauling the boat up. Every household had a boat, and as recently as the 1950s it was needed for transport, and for getting food from the sea to supplement the meagre crofters’ diet. There are still a couple of stone-faced ‘boat noosts’ in Unst, dating back to Norse times, but wander along any inhabited stretch of Shetland shore, and you’ll find one: a vee-shape hacked out of the banks at the edge of the beach. Look around a bit more and there may be a rusting winch which once helped haul…

How expensive is owning, or ‘keeping’ a boat in the UK? On average, maintenance and running costs will set you back somewhere between 5% and 20% of what you paid for your vessel. Annually. And in case you’re feeling smug about your ‘free’ boat – anything below £10,000 still costs between £500 and £2,000 per year. So at what point does the boat-sharing club start to make sense? I spoke with some of the key players in the boat-share-club business to find out. Sail or power The majority of boat clubs are powerboat only, or heavily skewed towards offering powerboat options. This is simply a reflection of the marine industry overall – there are five or 10 powerboats for every yacht on the water. So what’s on offer for those…

How does Sulnox Eco improve engine performance? Sulnox Eco is a 100% organic fuel conditioner that delivers complete combustion by emulsifying water particles with hydrocarbon fuel, whether petrol or diesel. In other words, it takes the water content and disperses it into microscopic droplets within the fuel, forming a stable emulsion. As a result, fuel is burnt far more efficiently and completely. There are three key benefits. The first is you can expect a 5% improvement in fuel efficiency, with around 1% being the break even point where improved economy outweighs the cost of the product. The second is an enormous reduction in emissions–up to 90% reduction in exhaust particulates, so if you’ve got black fumes coming out of your engine, then this will help reduce that significantly. Plus, lower…

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CUTLESS BEARINGS What’s wearing my cutless bearing? Q I was hoping you could help with a cutless bearing problem I’m having on my Westerly Fulmar. The problem is I have had to change my cutless bearing three times in two seasons. Boatyard staff have checked the shaft and P-bracket alignment several times and say everything is as it should be. But they do say there is a build-up of limescale. The boat is on a swing mooring on the Deben River in Suffolk. Last season I used the boat regularly apart from one spell where I didn’t visit it for a month. On return, as soon as I put it in gear the prop shaft started knocking. Other boats nearby do not seem to have a problem as severe as…