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 c

A kill cord and lifejacket are useless unless worn–that’s the warning from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), following its investigation into a powerboat crash that killed a 32-year-old woman and five-year-old girl on 2 October 2022. T

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 me

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 th

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 Co

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 o

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 co

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

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 prefe

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 whi

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 c

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 le

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, man

When I tell non-sailing friends how much fun you can have on the water, they typically reply: ‘Sailing, isn’t that for rich people?’ ‘NO!’ I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve debunked that myth. It’s true, owning a boat can be costly, even wh

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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 a

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 migr

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Allen Brothers has developed a set of six race packs for Topper sailing dinghies. These are designed as easy-to-install kits using top quality line cut and spliced to the optimum length, along with Allen’s high-tech hardware, including Dynamic blocks

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

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 t

Sea Start is a subscription-based marine breakdown service operating from Falmouth in Cornwall and all along the South Coast to Selsey Bill. The company has a fleet of 10 RIBs, spaced out to cover areas of most demand, and a full-time staff, includin

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 u

Considerable forces are exerted on all the elements of a sailing rig – the mast, spreaders, boom, kicker, stays and the fittings that hold everything together – when at sea. Less obvious, perhaps, is that the process of cyclic loading – the cause of

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. It is no

Maintenance little and often is the best way to look after wooden masts. ■ Repair any rot damage as soon as it appears.■ Rub back old varnish and apply new coatings where necessary. An area of damaged or rotten spar can be repaired, but it is usually

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

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 re

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

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 eb

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

Although there is a legal requirement (Safety of Life at Sea V Regulation 34) to make a passage plan, the main reason for one is for the safety and comfort of the crew. The greatest challenge facing any skipper is to carry their crew willingly with t

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 an

Although I earned my ‘Knots and Splices’ badge in the Boy Scouts, I take issue with Lord Baden-Powell who advocated clove hitches to start and finish a square lashing. These do not allow for applying enough tension to something like a rudder stock. I

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

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 win

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-maintenanc