It’s often said that while old boats may be full of character, they don’t sail like the latest models. This boat left almost everything standing in the Round the Island Race recently. She was built in …
Stuck in the mud?
If you’ve run aground in soft mud and she won’t back off the way she went on, try spinning her 180 degrees around on her keel. Once turned, you should be able to blast off the mud into deep water …
Safety in extremis
Different countries have varying regulations, but at the time of writing it is legal to sail into a wind farm within UK territorial waters, so long as you don’t anchor or come closer than 50m to an …
Overtaken by time
‘Spot the entrance by looking just east of the Martello Tower’, warbles the pilot book. The trouble is, any pilot is only as good as its compiler’s most recent visit. In a place with massive …
The destination waypoint
It’s understandable that many skippers navigating with plotters make only minimal use of waypoints. The destination waypoint is still well worth plotting, however, even if you don’t bother with any …
Man is not lost
With GPS so reliable, it’s easy to become complacent in fog. Looking for Chichester Bar beacon, for example? Just bung in a waypoint and hit ‘GoTo’, we think. The trouble is, the beacon was moved last …
