Practical Boat Owner March 2022

with the editor Multi-layered adventures Each week I open my inbox to find unexpected and delightful articles from all over the world. This month, Owen Moorhouse’s teenage canoe trip had me hooked. Together with his brother, he built an ‘unsinkable’ canoe from sheet metal and paddled New Zealand’s longest navigable river. “We capsized, leaving our canoe and gear circling separately in wild eddies,” recalls the now 93-year-old liveaboard. With the help of a postmaster, the boys continued their voyage, arriving to a warm welcome from the Boy Scouts and local press. My husband and I attempted the same trip back in 2001, but I’m ashamed to say Owen was better prepared as a teenager in 1949 than we ever were. He took 10 days of rehydrated food: we had a gas stove but no gas…

with the editor Multi-layered adventures Each week I open my inbox to find unexpected and delightful articles from all over the world. This month, Owen Moorhouse’s teenage canoe trip had me hooked. Together with his brother, he built an ‘unsinkable’ canoe from sheet metal and paddled New Zealand’s longest navigable river. “We capsized, leaving our canoe and gear circling separately in wild eddies,” recalls the now 93-year-old liveaboard. With the help of a postmaster, the boys continued their voyage, arriving to a warm welcome from the Boy Scouts and local press. My husband and I attempted the same trip back in 2001, but I’m ashamed to say Owen was better prepared as a teenager in 1949 than we ever were. He took 10 days of rehydrated food: we had a…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467 Recreational sailors and lifeboat crew who rescue refugees and migrants in distress off the coast of the UK will not risk criminal liability. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has welcomed confirmation from the Home Office that the amendments the Government is making to section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971 are only intended to apply to those who unlawfully assist immigration and help asylum seekers to enter the UK. A Home Office spokesman told the RYA: “Ruthless criminal gangs are putting lives at risk by smuggling people across the Channel, which is why we’re changing the law so they could face life in prison. Organisations and individuals will be able to continue to rescue those in distress at sea…

SEND US YOUR STORIES Email news editor Laura Hodgetts at pbo@futurenet.com, tel: 0330 390 6467 Recreational sailors and lifeboat crew who rescue refugees and migrants in distress off the coast of the UK will not risk criminal liability. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has welcomed confirmation from the Home Office that the amendments the Government is making to section 25 of the Immigration Act 1971 are only intended to apply to those who unlawfully assist immigration and help asylum seekers to enter the UK. A Home Office spokesman told the RYA: “Ruthless criminal gangs are putting lives at risk by smuggling people across the Channel, which is why we’re changing the law so they could face life in prison. Organisations and individuals will be able to continue to rescue those…

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that organised crime groups are turning to ever more dangerous and unseaworthy boats in efforts to smuggle people across the Channel to the UK from France. Recent months have seen a trend towards larger inflatables up to 10m in length being used. The NCA believes many of these large grey or black unbranded vessels have little or no commercial use, and are being manufactured for people smugglers. Other boats are being adapted using sub-standard materials in attempts to increase capacity and improve rigidity. On 29 November the NCA issued an alert via Interpol to worldwide law enforcement for them to share intelligence about the supply of boats and encouraging them to ask suppliers and retailers in their jurisdictions to be on the lookout. Martin Grace, NCA…

A dismasted yacht was rescued by a newlywed couple and their crew after drifting for three days in the Atlantic. Alfie and Ceylan Moore were sailing the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers Plus (ARC+) rally with friend Stu Finch and Alfie’s mum, Adele Jeal, some 140 miles from Grenada when they spotted the 28ft French vessel on 5 December. “It was tiny, beam-on, and rolling around in the swell,” skipper Alfie told PBO. “When we got the binoculars we realised it was the windex of a sailing boat, but there was no mast. There was a pole hanging over the side.” They approached in Coco, their 40ft Fontaine Pajot catamaran, and saw a man waving a pink cloth. He seemed to be in a bad way. “It was as though he had given up, he…