For any sailor interested in single-handed racing, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede’s The Last Seadog, just published, is a more than welcome addition to the bookshelf. The ultimate French solo ‘navigateur’,…
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Great Seamanship: Ancestor – A Carriacou Sloop’s Voyage to Vancouver
Not many years ago I was privileged to become involved with the vernacular sloops of the Windward Islands while on the Caribbean island of Carriacou in the Grenadines. These cargo-carrying…
Great Seamanship: Knocked down at Kerguélen
Originally from Noosa Heads in Queensland, Australia, Peter Freeman finally became a Canadian citizen in the 1990s, but not before he’d completed a non-stop circumnavigation in his 32ft sloop from…
Great Seamanship: The Voyages of Pirate
Built in 1974 by Nautor in Finland, Pirate was designed by Sparkman & Stephens with oceans to cross in mind. She was not dreamed up by a commercial committee trying…
Great Seamanship: around New Guinea in a sailing canoe
When Thor F Jensen’s book, Saltwater and Spear Tips, arrived on my desk I was immediately fascinated by the subtitle, which reads: ‘The world’s first circumnavigation of the island of…
Great Seamanship: My Way Around the World
Mainstream yachting nations have produced many great authors, but as the years pass and the nautical world opens its arms to new communities, adventurers from unexpected lands are joining their…
Great Seamanship: Sailing across Europe in a 10ft dinghy
When the Great Seamanship column put out to sea 20 years ago, the extracts were drawn from classic sailing literature, much of it written before World War II. As years…
Great seamanship: When the Sea Calls
Back around 1980 I was privileged to be involved with the Robert Clark-designed 72ft ketches operated by what was then called the Ocean Youth Club. My own contribution was as…
Caught in a tropical cyclone in a 130-year-old wooden sailing ship
Perhaps the best way to introduce Shane Granger is to quote from the flyleaf of his book Cargo of Hope: ‘He has worked as a radio DJ, advertising photographer, copywriter,…
Great seamanship: Chasing the Dawn
The title of Nick Moloney’s remarkable book about breaking the Jules Verne unlimited round the world record in the 33m catamaran Orange offers a hint about the man that few…
Great seamanship: Fifty South to Fifty South
The German pilot schooner Elbe 5, built in 1883, has had a remarkable life. A few years ago, she was in the news after being sunk in a collision with…
Great Seamanship: Heavy Weather Sailing
Back in 1986, Martin Thomas and Alan Taylor entered the Transatlantic Two-Star Race in the Sadler 32 Jenny Wren. To say they didn’t have an easy trip would be a…
Great seamanship: Slow Boat to Uruguay
If you’ve ever dreamed about buying a boat and sailing to South America with no firm plan about what to do next, Slow Boat to Uruguay by Andrew Tunstall is…
What happened when the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens ran away to sea?
When a person is hit by the call of the sea – a wild call which, as Masefield observed, cannot be denied – today’s world offers many options. Varied they…
Great seamanship: inside a volcanic caldera in 50-knot winds
Joe Phelan is one of Ireland’s great sailors. With his wife and equal partner Trish he has been quietly standing out from the crowd for over 50 years, with dinghy…
Great seamanship: The Lugworm Chronicles
For anyone interested in small-boat voyaging – or indeed, any sailor wanting to get seriously close to the sea itself, The Lugworm Chronicles by Ken Duxbury is a ‘must-read’. I,…
Great seamanship: The Voyage of the Aegre
Back in July 1973, Nicholas Grainger and his wife, Julie, sailed from north-west Scotland bound for the oceans of the world. Their boat was a 21ft clinker-built traditional Shetland Islander,…
Great seamanship: Bound for Cape Horn
Read about sailing all your life and you won’t find another book quite like Bound for Cape Horn, with its interesting subtitle Skills for Expedition Cruising. Any suggestion this might…
When a sailor and a chicken took on an incredible voyage
Say what you will, but the French have got style. We Anglo-Saxons may fancy ourselves as adventurers, but then along comes an unsponsored lad from North Brittany in a 30ft…
15,000 miles around Europe’s far north in a windsurfer camping under a sail – a fascinating tale
Most of my deepwater sailing I’ve done in conventional yachts or classics. Board sailing and windsurfers, although I tried my hand years back and enjoyed it, are a world of…