Practical Boat Owner

Tel: 0330 390 6467 Email pbo@futurenet.com Editor Alison Wood News and Features Editor Laura Hodgetts laura.hodgetts@futurenet.com Deputy Art Editor Daniel Franklin Art Editor Robert Owen Production Editor Julian Peckham Group Art Director, Marine Ne

■ Ensure you have in-date fire extinguishers – look to fit an automatic extinguisher in the engine compartment, ideally a clean-agent type. ■ Be aware that the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) is launching guidelines on fire protection in engine ro

Heavy weather and big waves took their toll on boats and sailors alike, soon after the Golden Globe Race (GGR) 2022 start, causing injuries, electrical shorts and leaks. Sixteen sailors are taking on the race that limits vessels and equipment to thos

Figures from across the marine world have paid tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on 8 September, aged 96. The Royal Family has a long history of seafaring. Over the centuries the Monarchy has sailed aboard 83 royal yachts, in

Three years and five months after setting sail on his voyage to meet every Harbour Master in the British Isles, Mark Ashley-Miller has returned to his home port of Dartmouth aboard his 34ft Nauticat 331, Good Dog. He was welcomed back on 27 August by

In a thrilling climax to the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race, PBO’s Rupert Holmes and Richard Palmer won overall by just seven minutes, after 15 days of racing. The double-handed 1,805-mile race, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, saw 1

The first low-emissions Crew Transfer Vessel serving the UK’s growing fleet of offshore wind farms has been launched, promising efficiency savings in fuel consumption of 30%. BAR Technologies handed over the first BARTech 30 to offshore energy suppor

Professional adventurers Hugo and Ross Turner, also known as the Turner Twins, have set off on a 100% emission-free sailing tour around the UK. They left Portsmouth Marina at the end of August and will be visiting 10 coastal cities, including Portsmo

Swedish electric car maker Polestar is to provide battery and charging systems for Candela’s revolutionary hydrofoiling speedboats. The deal lets Candela tap into automotive battery technology, rather than depending on smaller, boutique vendors of ma

■ #boatgen get afloat day, 16 October, Andrew Simpson Centre Birmingham, Midlands, for young people. Register at boatgen.co.uk ■ Paris Boat Show, 3-10 December, salonnautiqueparis.com ■ boot Düsseldorf, 21-29 January 2023, the world’s leading boat sh

Got a news story that would interest a fellow PBO reader? We want to hear from you! Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com With less than two years to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics, an opportunity to join the British Sailing Tea

Imagine a sailing channel where, instead of world-travellers discovering sailing, a couple of sailors discover world travel. Luke and Adam Martin are brothers in their late thirties/early forties who were raised sailing Mirror dinghies out of Cardiff

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 Having read PBO’s exhausting Big Antifouling Test (PBO, May 2022) and understood some of it – page numbers,

Sam Llewellyn writes nautical thrillers, edits The Marine Quarterly, and is perpetually patching up a 30ft ketch: samllewellyn.com This is a true story, but I have changed the names to prevent embarrassment, lawsuits and so on. There I was in America

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 end of the sailing season is a bit like the end of the summer holidays – there’s the poi

Efficient control of the mainsail is not solely something for racers and other speed freaks to worry about. If you can’t easily trim the mainsail of a cruising boat then it’s impossible to depower in gusts, which will make the boat more difficult to

While motoring from Yarmouth to Poole with my husband, James, and friend Gilbert Park, something strange happened. The rev counter on our Maxi 84 dropped to zero, yet the engine, a Volvo Penta MD2020, was still running. There was no drop in speed. Co

The engine control lever on my Westerly Fulmar Eoriän was – as is the case on many cruisers – in an impractical place, at the rear of the cockpit behind the helmsman. This means bending over and momentarily turning your back to operate it, which ofte

All our energy needs, for two of us, living full-time aboard Cushla for the past two years have been met by the lithium battery bank I assembled from individual lithium cells. I used 16 LiFePo4 cells, each rated 3.2V and 120Ah. Connecting four cells

The ‘service life’ of the adhesive used to attach floors and transoms to the tube collars of most small inflatable yacht tenders is generally agreed in the industry to be 10-15 years, but this is an issue that can usually be fixed. Firstly, let’s con

After several enjoyable years sailing out of Chatham Maritime Marina, I was doing so for a final time aboard our Beneteau Cyclades 39.3. It was time for pastures new at Premier Marinas in Eastbourne. The move was motivated by seeking new destinations

Creating a reverse osmosis (RO) system had long been a pipe dream as a liveaboard yachtie on a swing mooring, but the cost had always been out of my reach. However, one day, after topping up my water tanks, a A$25 (£15) water charge was added to my b

Email your projects and tips to pbo@futurenet.com including high resolution photos where possible. We pay at least £30 for each one published Federico Ramirez repairs his old but serviceable cockpit repeater mic The cable of the cockpit second statio

Here’s just a selection of the latest questions from PBO readers. For more expert advice, visit pbo.co.uk/expert-advice/expert-answers Q I read in PBO’s November 2021 issue about exhaust elbow problems. You recommended to replace the reader’s damaged

A. On some small boats any extra line, or even the anchor cable or rode, can be wound nearly around a reel fixed under the anchor locker lid. B. A deck brush to clean mud off the cable, and a pair of gloves to protect your hands, can often be stowed