July 2022

Practical Boat Owner

Practical Boat Owner is Britain's biggest-selling boating magazine, trusted and respected by all its readers

Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Waiting For The Tide With The Editor
When Graham Keating heard a ‘momentary change in the engine note’ (page 64) it brought back memories for me of PBO Project Boat Maximus’s shakedown sail. Fortunately no nausea-inducing filter change was required for us but I also felt that sinking fe
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Practical Boat Owner
Tel: 0330 390 6467 Email pbo@futurenet.com Editor Alison Wood News and Features Editor Laura Hodgetts laura.hodgetts@futurenet.com Features Editor Jake Frith Deputy Art Editor Daniel Franklin Art Editor Robert Owen Production Editor Julian Peckham Gr
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
TS Tenacious Sails Again – For Now
Email news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467 A surge of global support has rescued the Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST) from the brink of closure – but an urgent fundraising appeal is now under way. The sail training charity a
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Round The Island Race Village return
A full inshore entertainment programme is back for this year’s Round The Island Race. A Race Village will be held at the Cowes Yacht Haven during this year’s ‘race for all’, welcoming competitors, supporters and spectators from midday on Friday 24 Ju
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Communications Revamp For ‘Eyes Along The Coast’ Charity
The National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) is to modernise its communications system. Windsor Telecom has been chosen to manage and upgrade connectivity and communications to 57 stations around the UK, and to support innovations such as wireless monit
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
New Boatgen Ambassadors
Five new youth ambassadors have been named by boatgen, a not-for-profit initiative to encourage young people onto the water. Alex Mengham, 16, from Portsmouth, Lancaster’s Alistair Mansfield, 24, Molly Wilson, 21, from Basingstoke, Leah Gater, 21, fr
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Boats For Young Sailors
Eight sailing clubs and the RYA’s OnBoard programme received a combined boost of £185,000 as part of the John Merricks Sailing Trust’s Legacy Awards. The grants will fund 44 boats to help young sailors develop in the sport at Burghfield SC, Delph SC
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
New Life For Old Sails – To Reduce Landfill
The not-for-profit company behind the Cleaner Marina initiative has launched a new platform called ReSail to give new life and purpose to old sails, bags, sheets and other materials. Clean Sailors held a successful pilot of the scheme in the South We
Practical Boat Owner2 min read
Leisure Boaters Priced Off The Water
The company that runs the Port of Southampton has been accused of ‘pricing people out of the water’ by more than tripling charges for some recreational sailors. Associated British Ports (ABP) is introducing the price hikes ‘without consultation’. Inv
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Saved From The Waves
Animal rescues carried out by volunteer lifeboat crew around the UK and Ireland are the topic of a new book. Saved from the Waves shines a light on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) work, and the necessity of these rescues, not only to s
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Small Grants For Community Projects
Non-profit organisations and OnBoard and Sailability venues in England are once again invited to apply for small grants for projects which connect with local communities. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has been awarded £195,000 of National Lott
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Solo Sailing Record Claimed
American solo sailor Ryan Finn claims to have established a new record, sailing solo from New York to San Francisco, via Cape Horn, on a 36ft proa. His 14,000-plus mile ‘2 Oceans 1 Rock’ voyage took 93 days. The 43-year-old left Miramar Yacht Club, B
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Autonomous Ship’s Navigation Data
The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has announced that it is the provider of S-100 navigation data for the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) project – marking the first time S-100 data has been tested aboard an unmanned or autonomous marine vessel. Sea t
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Diary Dates
■ Jersey Boat Show, 10-12 June, St Helier Marina, quayside and Weighbridge Place, jerseyboatshow.com ■ Solent Crabber Rally, 11-18 June, cornishcrabbersclub.co.uk ■ Green Tech Boat Show, 16-18 June, Queen Anne’s Battery, Plymouth, mdlmarinas.co.uk ■
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Hillyard Classic To Return
One of the few remaining sailing vessels to take part in the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II is to return to her home port of Littlehampton. Windsong, a 1931 Hillyard auxiliary ketch, has been donated to Wellness Over Waves (WOW) by her owner
Practical Boat Owner4 min read
Regional News
SOUTH COAST & CHANNEL ISLANDS Send us your local news stories. Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467 The new South Devon College Marine Academy has opened within Premier Marina’s £75million redevelopment of a f
Practical Boat Owner5 min read
Letters
Email pbo@futurenet.com Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. I have just read about the danger of cheap exhausts bought online and fitted to marine diesel heaters (PBO May 2022). It isn’t just cheap exhausts that cause a problem – time, and
Practical Boat Owner2 min read
Ryan To The Rescue
Essential monthly highlights from the world of online sailing channels with Kass Schmitt Last year Sailing La Vagabonde highlighted the humanitarian issue of migrant vessels in distress when Riley volunteered with a charity which charters yachts out
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
Drop The Hook
Ever since Noah failed his Day Skipper Practical by running his ark aground 5,000m up on the peak of Mount Ararat, the quest for the perfect anchor has exercised some of the greatest nautical minds in the world. And I’ve been thinking about it too; a
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
All Sail Week
Poring over the 1871 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica the other day, we came to the entries that describe the close-quarters handling of large sailing ships. There is nothing like a description of weighing anchor in an engineless four-master of
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
Having A Finger On The Pulse
Our big pier is the lifeboat pier, Britain’s most northerly, and she’s had several ‘shouts’ this year. I was just sailing back into the marina when I heard the roar of the lifeboat engine starting, and saw yellow oilskinned men running down the pier.
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
Book Reviews
This beautifully produced book condenses the lifetime experiences of writer, broadcaster and sailing legend Jimmy Cornell into one volume. It begins with an introduction to his newest boat, Aventura Zero, and explains his thinking on zero emissions,
Practical Boat Owner5 min read
Painting a Corribee Mk2
CLIVE MARSH discovered small boats whilst 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. Ifound my Robert Tucker-designed
Practical Boat Owner15 min read
Best British-built Cruisers Around 32ft
You might think £30,000 sounds like a lot of money for a ‘starter boat’. But tracking down a comfortable and seaworthy yacht that’s over 30ft long, less than around 40 years old and capable of taking a crew on coastal cruising trips costing less than
Practical Boat Owner9 min read
Gourmet Galley
Seeking to make life on board more like that at home, by maximising comfort and convenience is understandable – as humans we’ve been doing that ever since we started creating makeshift mattresses by stuffing animal skins with grasses and leaves more
Practical Boat Owner5 min read
Alternatives To Gas
Gas cookers used to be the standard on almost every boat, but there are good reasons why they are not necessarily the best choice. The dangers of fire or explosion are well documented, yet there are still plenty of older vessels without gas lockers t
Practical Boat Owner4 min read
New Gear
A total power outage on a yacht can create problems most of us would prefer to never encounter. Equally, small weekenders with outboard motors may not have reliable means of charging batteries, especially in inclement weather when solar panel output
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
Tried & Tested
After reading the excellent article ‘Which Battery is Best for my Boat’ (PBO March 2022) I noticed that one type of battery was missing from the choices – the Optima Blue Top AGM battery with SpiralCell technology. This battery is great for many mari
Practical Boat Owner6 min read
Bearing Up Well
Being able to easily trail your little boat to new cruising grounds is a great feeling. Many owners of cruising yachts simply don’t get the time to go far from their moorings and their boats become day sailers from the one location. But the trailer-s
Practical Boat Owner8 min read
Replace Or Rebuild?
Most of us will know someone – and may have been that someone ourselves – with a rusty, rattly, oily or smoking marine diesel engine. The sort of engine that no longer fills us with complete confidence in its reliability. Many have also been in the p
Practical Boat Owner9 min read
Heads And Hosetails
With our PBO Project Boat Maximus now safely afloat in Chichester Marina, my thoughts turned to the jobs that needed doing before the two-day delivery trip to Poole. It was also the end of the school summer holidays and trips to the boat were accompa
Practical Boat Owner9 min read
A Guide To Seal Spotting
‘When angels fell, some fell on the land, some on the sea. The former are the faeries and the latter were often said to be the seals.’ While this old Orcadian view of seal origins is more poetic, modern science suggests they evolved from land-dwellin
Practical Boat Owner3 min read
PROJECT BOAT RESTORATION Refurbishing The Heads On Maximus
With seacocks previously installed in the Maxi 84, it was time to connect the hoses. The first thing to decide was what sort of installation. As Ali explains on preceding pages, there’s more than one way to do this. All options require the sea water
Practical Boat Owner7 min read
Solo sailing around Scotland’s Small Isles
May 2016 and the forecast for the west coast of Scotland was wall-to-wall sunshine for at least a week. I couldn’t believe it. This was a fantastic opportunity to sail north to the Small Isles of Canna, Rum (Rhum), Eigg and Muck and hopefully even as
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
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Practical Boat Owner9 min read
DIY Fuel Polisher Defeats Dirty Diesel
Give our diesel engines clean fuel to drink, plenty of fresh air to breathe, plus a regular jump-start of amps, and they’ll happily run pretty well forever, given a little routine maintenance of course. However, guaranteeing that crucial supply of cl
Practical Boat Owner1 min read
Mount A Stern Anchor
Sailing in the Mediterranean we needed a stern anchor for our 10m (33ft) Moody Eclipse, Aderyn Glas, so before we left Port Napoleon in southern France we fabricated this bracket. The construction is based on a commercial anchor tray, some stainless
Practical Boat Owner6 min read
Knockdown
While I was skippering Dare to Lead in the 2019-20 edition of the Clipper Round the World Race, we were diverted during Leg 5 from Airlie Beach, Australia to the Philippines, just as the opening chapters of the Covid-19 story were being written. It w
Practical Boat Owner6 min read
Ask The Experts
Here’s just a selection of the latest questions from PBO readers. For more expert advice, visit pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-answers ELECTRONICS How can I recharge my Q Pixelbook and mobile phone from my boat’s 12V electrical system? Maurice Willia
Practical Boat Owner2 min read
Finding Top Dead Centre
I base my Achilles 9m Q Lotna in Faro, Portugal, and suffered a blown head gasket on its Perkins Perama M30 engine just before the Coronavirus pandemic. I’ve been in lockdown in South Wales ever since but plan to go out to tackle the job as soon as I
Practical Boat Owner1 min readChemistry
Exhaust Elbow Clearing
Is there any way of Q cleaning a 2000 Volvo Penta exhaust system as mine is blocked with carbon and has caused overheating? Robert Domoney Blocked exhaust elbows are a common problem caused by not using engines hard enough and then salts combining wi
Practical Boat Owner2 min read
Overheating Saildrive
I have a Westerly Spirit Q fitted with a Volvo Penta 10hp and saildrive. I moor the boat on a swinging mooring in the Dee Estuary which has a very soft sand/clay/mud bed on which my boat sits when the tide goes out. Occasionally the saildrive will di
Practical Boat Owner2 min readChemistry
Outboard fuel ‘starvation’
Like many, my boat Q Isola was left unused for a considerable time during the Covid pandemic with around half a 200lt tank of fuel. When I did eventually get to use her again I found the Mercury outboard was not performing well. Starting was much mor
Practical Boat Owner12 min read
The Voyage Of The Brolga
This is a tribute to the life of Robin Brooks who recently died at the age of 83 in his self-built residence on the remote Woodhill Mountain, New South Wales. His achievements and contribution to the community are such that I’m compelled to tell part

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