Yachting Monthly

Yachting monthly is at the heart of the British yachting market and is for people who actively sail their boats - whether cruising across the channel, around the coast or further a field in blue waters

Yachting Monthly2 min read
A Burning Question
Sailing has to be the cleanest mode of transport, right? Certainly, when boats were wooden, sails canvas and engines undreamt of, they were. Today’s boats are rather a different matter, from the resins they’re made of to the oilfields, mines, factori
Yachting Monthly3 min read
News
If you have a news story to share, contact News Editor Heather Prentice Email [email protected] Tel 07751 746468 Italian crews have taken line honours in both the ARC and ARC+ rallies after sailing thousands of miles across the Atlantic
Yachting Monthly1 min read
RNLI Commends 13-yr-old For Mayday
The RNLI has praised the courage and quick thinking of 13-year-old Henry Richards who raised the alarm with a Mayday call when his grandfather David fell overboard from a sailing boat, helping save his life. On 23 September, 70-year-old David Richard
Yachting Monthly1 min read
News In Numbers
The record attendance at the annual METSTRADE show 2023, with 28,900 visits and 1,540 exhibitors Boat sales were still elevated in 2022 despite inflationary pressures and demand for new boats outweighing supply, the ICOMIA industry report shows. Ther
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Neuschäfer & Slingsby Win Sailor Of The Year
South African Kirsten Neuschäfer was named female 2023 Rolex World Sailor of the Year, while Australian Tom Slingsby won the award in the male category for the third time at the World Sailing Awards 2023. The prizes are the highest award a sailor can
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Dr Fish Makes History At RORC
After nearly 100 years, members of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) have elected the first woman Commodore, Dr Deborah Fish, OBE. Deborah has played an active role as a Rear Commodore, chairing the membership committee and championing youth sailing
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Lone Yachtsman Rescued Mid-Atlantic During Storm Ciarán
A solo sailor onboard a critically damaged yacht over 600 miles west of Cornwall in the midst of Storm Ciarán was saved as part of a two-day rescue operation led by HM Coastguard. The 14m (46ft) yacht had lost its mast in the midst of the storm and w
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Team GB Helm Jailed For Tragic RIB Death
A Team GB helmsman has started a three-year prison sentence after driving a RIB at 35 knots at night and colliding with a buoy in Poole harbour, causing the tragic death of a passenger. Morgan Smith (21) from Northampton was sentenced to three years
Yachting Monthly4 min read
Letters
Send us your questions in less than 200 words by email to [email protected] or by post Yachting Monthly, Future PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR A reminder on the importance of clipping on is always valuable. Ho
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Yachting Monthly
Editor Theo Stocker 07984 026406, [email protected] Deputy editor Heather Prentice 07751 746468, [email protected] Technical editor Dennis O’Neill 07928 506927, [email protected] Senior sub-editor Sarah Williams Group
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Why I’m embracing Starlink
Admittedly I’m an old duffer, but it still amazes me how communications have developed over my lifetime. The budget for my first single-handed race couldn’t be described as tight; it simply didn’t exist. What wasn’t there was squeezed by a rule that
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Passage Planning Is A Dangerous Game
Passage planning is more a leap of faith than hard fact. Yes, we study the passage charts, tides and currents, prevailing winds as well as the forecasts and use a modest average speed, but how often is it that the plan survives contact with reality?
Yachting Monthly9 min read
First Test Dufour 37
You don’t have to be a dedicated follower of fashion in the world of offshore racing to have noticed the arrival of the scow-bow. The new generation, scow-bowed IMOCAS, Class 40s and Mini 650s are the ones leading the way. You might also have seen bo
Yachting Monthly1 min read
SKIPPERS’ TIPS & YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Send your questions to our experts at [email protected] for the chance to win a bottle of Chilgrove gin MIRANDA DELMAR-MORGAN is an Ocean Yachtmaster, delivery skipper and author. She has logged more than 100,000 miles and owns a Hallberg
Yachting Monthly1 min read
The Emergency Fix Drawer
If there is one certainty when sailing, it is that unexpected problems or gear failure will inevitably happen at the most inconvenient and potentially stressful moment imaginable. Very often a rapid ‘first aid’ response is needed to prevent an unfort
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Correct Line Set-up
Fairleads are designed to give your mooring line a fair lead. This fairlead is at risk of losing control of the stern spring which is trying to rise up out of the jaws. Running a line through a fairlead and then counter to the direction in which it w
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Keep A Detailed Maintenance Log
We all keep a list of jobs we know we need to do on our boats but it is really useful to keep a detailed note of what we did or learned when we finally got around to doing them. It takes a bit of effort to write down what we did when we did it becaus
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Why Do Tide Times Vary So Much?
Q I wanted to know the tide time for a Solent trip on 14 February 2023. I started with the pocket tide table with Reeds Almanac. It told me that HW was at Dover at 0401 with a +0020 correction to Portsmouth, so HW Portsmouth would be 0421. Admittedly
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Prevent Chafe Concerns
Leaving your boat for any length of time is always a cause of concern, particularly if you are going to be located some distance away. Chafe is a major source of worry, particularly if you have teak toe rails. In this instance I’ve inserted a small f
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Check Your Depth
Knowing the depth is still an incredibly useful navigational tool. For your depth instrument to be usable you need to know whether it is reading from the surface, the keel or the sensor. It only takes a few minutes to drop a weight over the side on a
Yachting Monthly2 min read
A Question Of Seamanship
Q Mike has sailed to Salcombe in his 11m long keeled yacht called Boundless with two friends. He took the east-going spring tidal stream yesterday from Plymouth, 22 miles to the west, arriving just before high water. There was a fresh westerly wind,
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Loving Life On Three Hulls
Humans tend to gravitate into tribes of like-minded enthusiasts, enjoying the encouragement, support and sense of identity, while often looking askance at others; sailors at motorboaters, cruising sailors at racers, monohull sailors at raft, I mean,
Yachting Monthly2 min read
On The Water – Sail Trim
My first inclination was to point the boat as high upwind as possible, pin the sails in and go for height. Doing that resulted in a not-terrible boat speed of 5-6 knots and a good pointing angle. Free off by a handful of degrees however, and ease the
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Downwind
Upwind cruising may be fun in a multihull, but bearing away and going with the wind is what it’s all about. Easily-driven hulls, a generous sailplan and light weight mean you can be up and planing, leaving displacement boats wallowing in your wake. T
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Tacking And Gybing
Everyone knows that multihulls don’t tack as well as monohulls. Straight hulls and wide beam don’t lend themselves to turning, especially when coupled with the displacement and fixed keels of big cats. Trimarans are a little easier, with a single cen
Yachting Monthly2 min read
More To Learn
We’ve been able to do a few things over the season that we couldn’t do on the day, and a few that will need more practice. The great thing about a draught of 34cm is the ability to go right in to the beach, and dry out if the bottom is suitable. The
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Anchoring And Mooring
While mooring a catamaran is complicated by the lack of a central bow, things should be simpler on a trimaran, and they are, mostly. Picking up a mooring buoy from the main hull bow with a low freeboard and dropping the pick-up line onto a cleat is e
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Coming Alongside
A 650kg boat with no draught and plenty of windage feels dreadfully skittish when manoeuvring in confined spaces. Straight hulls with no forgiving curves and fragile-looking sharp bows make berthing tricky. You’ve got a couple of advantages on your s
Yachting Monthly1 min read
How To Manage Sleep On Solo Passages
When I was planning my first solo offshore sail on my Lagoon 410 Cushla, from Grenada to Bonaire, my biggest concern was not the risk of pirates off the coast of Trinidad, or the night-time squalls that might sneak up unseen in the trade winds. Even
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Solo Sleep Essentials
I do find it easy and beneficial to nap, and on the advice of a friend I downloaded an app called Interval Timer onto the boat’s tablet. It sounds regular alarms throughout the day. I set this to go off every 15, 30 or 45 minutes, depending on the ci
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Lessons Learned
While we hope to never have to repeat such a crazy midnight race, it taught us a few lessons. Don’t delay functional repairs. We never aim to sail in darkness, so hadn’t fixed the steaming light. Likewise, the malfunctioning genoa reefing-line jammer
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Tips For Sailing To Shetland
The weather windows are very tight, and you must set aside ample time. On our crossing I considered it a 50/50 chance that we would actually be setting off on a good forecast. And I was prepared to wait on Shetland for the return – so long that I mig
Yachting Monthly4 min read
Power Is Instrumental
As well as keeping your own batteries charged, the boat batteries also need to have reliable charge. As the power drains, the autopilot can become unreliable, disconnecting at low voltage. Cushla, our 1998 Lagoon 410, has 1kW of solar panels and alth
Yachting Monthly8 min read
Cruising sailing In The Wake Of The Vikings
For generations, Norwegian sailors have crossed over to the Shetland Islands. As Vikings, resistance fighters during the war, businessmen with an eye for fishing and oil profits, and adventurous sailors, we have set sail toward a new coast. Now we no
Yachting Monthly7 min read
Adventure last Stop Guadeloupe
The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe is the most southerly of the Leeward Islands. Shaped like a butterfly, it is split into two halves, the wings forming Basse-Terre in the west and Grande-Terre to the east. Its varied coastline provides curios
Yachting Monthly7 min read
Who The Hell Is Stokey Woodall?
Despite growing up in the landlocked town of Dudley with no desire to sail, Peter ‘Stokey’ Woodall has become one of the most experienced, renowned and admired celestial navigators in the world. He has clocked up more than 300,000 miles, with 31 tran
Yachting Monthly6 min read
‘We Were In A Race Against Time’
Five hours into our madcap race, we feared that we weren’t going to make it. We knew the odds were stacked against us, but we had no choice but to motor on, slamming against a five-foot swell that shook High Flight, our Bavria 40, to its 25-year-old
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Tips For Cruising Guadeloupe
The best period to cruise here is from December to May. The nearest yacht charters are available from Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, at www.12knots.com and www.dreamyachtcharter.com. The Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands, Antigua to Dominica by Chri
Yachting Monthly4 min read
Your Cruising Community
Two years ago Northumberland sailor Adam Waugh took the plunge – he entered the 2025 Mini Globe Race and started building a ClassGlobe 580 yacht, the smallest class of boat ever to race around the world. The 5.8m (19ft) sailing yacht is a new design
Yachting Monthly1 min read
Must-sees
This is one of our favourite spots in the eastern Caribbean. It’s a nature-lover’s dream, and is teeming with seabirds, iguanas, turtles, stingrays and sharks. The anchorage is in the middle of it all – you simply need to flop over the side and enjoy
Yachting Monthly2 min read
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Best New Gear For 2024
www.oceanvolt.com £61,000 New large electric saildrive. Reliable and extremely quiet 48V electric solution from Finland, designed for yachts from 45ft-70ft. The pitch of the propeller can be adjusted and the pod rotated 360° to maximise efficiency fo
Yachting Monthly2 min read
Book Club
Mark Evans, Amazon £6.99 This is subtitled ‘An honest log of two everyday people sailing round the UK’ – immediately posing the question what’s an ‘everyday’ person? Mark Evans comes across as thoughtful, meticulous, honest, capable of wonderful flas
Yachting Monthly4 min read
A Hard-earned Wage
www.yachtingmonthly.com/books With a stack on board we needed to tie up the foot of the mainsail so it could pass clear over the deck cargo. We had a fair wind down the Medway, but soon we came out into Sea Reach where it was once again to be tack an
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Trailer Sailing At The ‘Top End’ Of Australia
The Kimberly Coast of Northern Australia has the largest tidal range in the southern hemisphere. In Derby, to the west of Darwin, the tidal range has registered as much as 11.8 metres. This range is tricky for trailer-sailors like ourselves: you must
Yachting Monthly2 min read
CARS versus BOATS
One of the big assumptions the report seeks to interrogate is that because electric cars, or ‘battery electric vehicles’ (BEV), are thought to be the most environmentally friendly solution for land-based transport, the same will apply on the water. T
Yachting Monthly5 min read
Technical The Carbon Cost Of Sailing
A white sail on a blue sea. What could be cleaner than that?’ Sailing nerds might recognise this quote from the all-time greatest sailing film, Wind. Or maybe that’s just me. Anway, it’s easy to assume that drifting around with the breeze has little
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Supply Chain Carbon
The research analysed the carbon contribution, or global warming potential (GWP), of each stage in the supply chain and lifecycle of each propulsion system, for each of the vessels being considered. It assumed a like-for-like comparison of energy sto
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Realistic Comparisons
The five power systems weighed up were all systems that use existing technologies currently available commercially. These were: conventional petrol or diesel internal combustion engines (ICE) as a baseline; sustainable fuels used as drop-in alternati
Yachting Monthly3 min read
Surprising Findings
Once the use cases and optimised propulsion systems have been taken into account, for many recreational sailing yachts that match the assumed use case, opting for electric propulsion in a new yacht or converting a used boat to hydrogen, hybrid or ele
Yachting Monthly9 min readChemistry
Technical Corrosion
One of the most worrying things that can happen to a boat owner is to discover vital and expensive metallic underwater items such as propellers, prop shafts and saildrive legs are actively dissolving or being eaten away for no apparent reason. But th
Yachting Monthly4 min readChemistry
How Much Do Boats Get Used?
While ‘battery electric on-road automotive vehicles’ (BEV) reduce CO₂ emissions by between 50% and 70% relative to conventional fossil fuel engines over their lifetime, the initial CO₂ created during the production of an electrical vehicle (EV) can b
Yachting Monthly2 min read
The Confessional
OWN UP TO YOUR SAILING SINS Email [email protected] Post Confessions, Yachting Monthly, Future PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6JR Send us your stories in less than 200 words James Turner A few years ago, I was tea

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