Flying alone, I was due to meet our friends Janet and Richard in Rhode Island for east coast cruising, as our proposed UK crew had cancelled at short notice. Given…
Yachting Monthly
How to optimise sail trim
It is difficult to describe ‘correct’ sail shape, but the three most important things to consider are: sail draft (the fullness of the sail), draft position, and twist (controlled by…
Maiden’s all-female crew win the Ocean Globe Race
Maiden has beaten 14 teams to win the Ocean Globe Race on IRC handicap, becoming the first ever all-women crew to win an around-the-world yacht race, it was confirmed early…
Hallberg-Rassy 69 first look: bigger and better?
Go big or go home? Well Magnus Rassy has decreed that Hallberg-Rassy needed a new flagship, and this is it – the largest yacht that the Swedish has ever built,…
The sailing rules you can ignore… and those you can’t: an expert guide
Saying ‘International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea’ is something of a mouthful, let alone learning all of them verbatim. Commonly called the ‘Colregs’, they are a fine…
Moody DS48 first look: unlike any other cruising yacht
Indulge me. I know £1.2million is a lot of money, but this boat is unlike any other cruising boat on sale at the moment. The Moody DS48 spares no expense,…
A Hebridean Swallows and Amazons experience
When I was age 12 , we went on a family holiday on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s west coast. I was pottering around the…
Maiden poised to win Ocean Globe Race
The all-women crew crossed the Royal Yacht Squadron finish line shortly before midday to whoops and cheers from a large crowd gathered on the parade, then quickly hoisted the spinnaker…
‘Our boat was full of water’ – lessons learned from one sailor’s sinking
Britannia, my 45ft twin-masted schooner, almost sank, not from storm damage or from hitting rocks, but from within. A water pipe broke in her pressurised shore water supply system while…
French dominate Ocean Globe Race finish at Cowes
Lionel Regnier and his crew aboard the veteran French Whitbread Race yacht L’Esprit d’Equipe returned to Cowes late on Saturday 14 April to take second place on elapsed time for…