Standing on the bow of our borrowed 36ft steel cutter, I watched as my four children paddled the inflatable kayak through the iceberg-laden water. The sea had been busy with…
Yachting World
Tidal streams: How to predict them and use them to your advantage
Whether racing or cruising, our first thoughts are always: ‘What is the tide doing?’ When I grew up sailing in Scotland, leaving anchorages before dawn to catch a tide was…
Yacht shipping: How to prepare your boat for a trip on a transporter ship
Bypassing seasonal weather restrictions and being able to relocate quickly are among the factors making yacht shipping more popular than ever. Cargo ships cruise well in excess of the speeds…
March 2020
This month’s issue features a full test of Amel Yachts’ new flagship, the Amel 60, plus the European Yacht of the Year judges crown the best new models for 2020.…
The inside story of Greta Thunberg’s upwind Atlantic crossing on La Vagabonde
The sky flashed a blinding white light and a spark came down just a few hundred metres to port. We were going fast, and getting faster: that kind of fast…
Road to the America’s Cup podcast: What can sailing simulators teach us?
The reason is simple: every other means of performance evaluation has been neutered – or, at the very least, significantly hampered – by the Protocol, which bans tow-tank and wind…
Sailing Hawaii: A leisurely cruise around these picture-perfect volcanic islands
We started our Pacific voyage on board Distant Drummer, our 45ft Liberty cutter-rigged sloop, from Wellington, New Zealand, in June, 2015, bound ultimately for North America and the Pacific Northwest.…
Staysails: 5 tips on using them to turbocharge your boat speed
As Mike Sanderson points out, staysails are hardly a new idea. The old clipper ships used to use multiple staysails. However, the past five years have seen staysails become a…
5 expert sailing tips: How to win a yacht racing protest
You spend so much time and money honing your craft as a sailor, making the boat go faster… and then it can all blow up with a protest. In the…
Spirit Yachts: Inside the British yard behind some of the world’s most beautiful boats
For more than 25 years Spirit Yachts has been melting the hearts of yachtsmen with its distinctive range of wood epoxy modern classics. In that time the company has built…
Caribbean sailing tips: Chris Doyle on making the most of your time there
Chris Doyle’s is a name familiar to all Caribbean cruisers, as the author of best-selling cruising guides of the region. Having explored the Caribbean for more than 40 years, there…
Invisible Hand: This Pac 52 racer sees the TP52 class return to its offshore roots
The original Transpac 52 Class (TP52) left an indelible mark on US west coast sailing, but the few that were left racing in California represented a wide range of vintages…
5 racing tips: How to win when the weather forecast goes wrong
Will Oxley is nothing if not meticulous in his preparation. Which is why he wouldn’t panic too much if the weather forecasts were inconclusive, or proved to be completely wrong.…
Solo Atlantic sailing: Lessons learned en-route to Madeira
It was just before midnight in the eastern fringes of the Atlantic Ocean, about 130 miles south-west of Cape Finisterre. To my right I could see an ominous wall of…
Sailing round Britain with the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust: The magic of Moonspray
Despite a significant drop in the breeze, our arrival at Canning Dock in Liverpool coincided with a four-knot cross-tide to make things particularly interesting. Our yacht Moonspray ferry-glided confidently towards…
Selling your boat in the Pacific: How to get full price after an ocean adventure
Buying a boat, sailing across the Atlantic and then exploring the Pacific, before selling it for the purchase price in New Zealand or Australia sounds like a dream come true.…
Sailing the Falkland Islands: A life-changing voyage on board Pelagic
In spring 2016 my partner, Magnus, and I delivered Pelagic, one of two yachts owned and run as a high-latitudes adventure charter boat by former Whitbread Round the World Race…
Anna: The modern classic yacht that conceals some serious technology
When approaching Anna moored at the dock, it’s hard to immediately tell whether she is a restored classic or a recently built replica. In fact, neither is true; Anna is…
Globalstar Spot X review: Stay in touch for less with this satellite comms system
Satellite trackers have improved enormously recently. Instead of simply pinging your position, plus potentially a small range of predetermined text messages, the Spot X is a full-function two-way messaging system,…
Road to the America’s Cup podcast episode 5: Designing the AC75’s hull
Four AC75s have now been launched, and each of these brand new America’s Cup class boats reveals the thinking of its team’s designers and sailors. There are more differences than…