Table of contents for June 2026 in Practical Boat Owner

Clever ideas do not always have to cost a fortune, and can often be achieved through creative methods and hard-won experience. The Grey Boat (page 20) is the perfect example of this. Designed and built by John Perry, I recently saw the 15ft boat at the RYA Dinghy and Watersports Show, where Perry’s partner, Josephine Street, was giving tours to visitors and sharing details of their extensive cruising adventures. A couple of the boat’s noteworthy features include a steering line that encircles the cockpit so you can helm in any position and a choice of masts. Perry is an engineer, so it’s no surprise he’s found innovative ways to make the boat’s handling more effective. But sometimes, sensible solutions come from other sources. Will Collins spent years refitting his 30-year-old…

The length of time taken by the Marine and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to implement changes made by the Merchant Shipping Regulations has been criticised by the cross-party House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. It highlights that a 2015 recommendation from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) concerning the inspection of vessels before undertaking offshore races, ‘has taken 10 years to implement, during which time a similar incident occurred in 2019.’ The MAIB recommendation came after four men died aboard the Cheeki Rafiki when the yacht’s keel detached, causing the vessel to capsize in May 2014. Committee chair Lord Watson said: “The distinct lack of urgency demonstrated by the MCA in implementing marine accident recommendations is unacceptable.” An MCA spokesperson said: “Any update to maritime regulations requires due diligence and…

This year marks a milestone 70 years for Sail Training International, the global charity that organises The Tall Ships Race and empowers young people through sail training. The first Tall Ships Race took place in 1956 as a celebration of the world’s remaining Class A ships. Its success led the Sail Training Committee to make it a regular event, which brought the international sailing community together, encouraged friendly rivalry and personal development through the sport. Over the past seven decades, more than 20,000 young people have enjoyed the adventure of a lifetime on a Tall Ship, an experience that has helped shape their futures and career pathways.…

When the first decent spring day arrived–after a week of wind and rain and the last dose of snow, known as the ‘lambie showers’ because it always arrives as the lambs do–of course I thought of a boat trip. I’d been watching the forecast for a week, and there it was: Windguru, Force 2-3, westerly, with sunshine. What more could a woman ask for a gentle excursion under motor (we hadn’t yet got masts up) with a visitor who wanted to see the Shetland landscape from the sea? When I actually went outside into the sunshine, it was a flat calm. Not a twig rustled, the lifeboat turbine was frozen, and the sea was like a sheet of polished aluminium. Even Karima S, who can move in the lightest of…

Sailing holidays offer an accessible and rewarding way to experience life afloat, whether you don’t own a boat, want to try a different type of vessel, explore new cruising grounds or simply sail with like-minded people. They also provide an excellent opportunity to build confidence, develop skills and enjoy the UK’s coastline from the water. The UK is blessed with an extraordinary variety of sailing grounds. From the sheltered harbours and busy waterways of the English south coast to the wild, dramatic scenery of the west coast of Scotland, our coastline offers something for every style of sailor. Reflecting this diversity is an equally broad range of vessels for charter, from traditional wooden craft to modern performance yachts and dedicated training vessels. For those new to sailing, holidays provide an…

Small new cruising catamarans are hard to find these days. Even if ‘small’ means under 40ft (12m), as seemingly it does to some, you’re not exactly spoiled for choice. To most of us, ‘small’ means more like 25ft (7.6m) and under. The sub-20ft market is almost the exclusive preserve of the dinghy and beach cat. To be fair, small production cats with cabins have always been something of a rare breed. We have to go back to the early 1960s to find the 20ft Cracksman, built by Newbridge Boats. Then the 22ft Hirondelle was launched a few years later. Since then we have seen hardly anything like these two. But if you enter the realm of the home-builder prepared to start with a few sheets of plywood, you will discover…

The minute you ring her doorbell it’s clear that Valent is a special boat. Yes, doorbell. Not your average ding-dong, but a catchy sea shanty that, like its owner Will Collins, exudes a sunny optimism that says, ‘welcome aboard!’ Just two days before the start of the ARC+ rally in Gran Canaria, Will is cooking lasagne for eight. His wife, Suzy, is translating a Spanish grocery menu, and the girls Lucy (12) and Sophie (10) are making outfits for the costume party. Lucy explains the doorbell: ”We kept running on deck because we thought people were calling us, and then they weren’t. But then when they did want to come aboard we couldn’t hear them.” The Collins’s are a family of problem solvers, and the doorbell, (its real use is…

When considering whether you should fit a splitter or not, to enable your AIS to share the same aerial as your VHF radio, antenna expert James Turner emphatically advises: “If you can separate the antenna systems that’s the way to go. Regarding the antenna, the most important VHF channel for voice is Ch16 because that’s the ‘help me, I’m sinking’ channel. And the frequency for AIS is absolutely at the other end of the marine VHF spectrum. So, whereas Ch16 is on 156MHz, AIS is on 162MHz,” Turner explains. “With any antenna in the world, its length dictates its centre frequency, and if you use a splitter on a VHF voice antenna that is centred on 156, it’s not going to be as good at 162–so what’s the point? If…

For years I’d set my ensign off the radar gantry, but it was time for a change. I’d seen some examples of flagstaffs in the chandlery which were nice enough, but having a suitable piece of hardwood left over from a garden bench refurbishment I decided to make one myself. I marked up and cut a 25mm x 25mm piece on my bandsaw and then got to work with the spar gauge to mark up the first stage of rounding. If you don’t have a spar gauge it’s easy to make one out of scrap and odd pieces–you can see examples of them on YouTube–but it basically involves two end stops (dowels in my case) and two sharp points evenly spaced between them. Regardless of the width of the piece…

At first glance a passage from Suffolk to Norfolk looks reasonably straightforward. If you can pick up the north flowing ebb tide (preferably a spring) along the coast and avoid northerly winds or swells from the North Sea it should be plain sailing. However, there is a 20-mile stretch between Orford Haven and Southwold with nowhere to seek shelter. If you’re starting at Ipswich or Woodbridge you will need a couple of more hours to get to the coast. Even though Morgana is now a veteran harbour-hopper, the passage from Woodbridge to Lowestoft was a bit of a stretch–45 miles or so–so we stopped over at Waldringfield on the Deben to give us a head start. Using the tide Let’s assume you are leaving Harwich for Lowestoft, capable of sailing…

Women working in the UK marine industry should have access to better-fitting personal protective equipment (PPE) after the launch of a new British Standard, but many are still struggling to access it, writes Katy Stickland. A survey of women working in yards, for boatbuilders and the marine trade, found that 90% were given ill-fitting protective clothing; most PPE is designed for men, which can make it uncomfortable and unsafe for women. It is a legal requirement for UK workers to use correctly selected and fitted PPE, but many marine companies are unaware that PPE is available in women’s sizes. The data was collated by the UK-based community interest company, Women in Boat Building (WIBB) and presented in their Women in Boat Building PPE survey report. Founder Belinda Joslin said British…

More than 9,000 visitors from the UK and around the world attended the RYA Dinghy & Watersports Show. The UK’s leading showcase for small boat sailing and boardsports saw Olympic and professional sailors, coaches and technical specialists ‘fire up’ visitors for the new sailing season with stories, strategies and practical advice across three live stages. More than 180 exhibitors filled a hall at Farnborough International.…

Jazz Turner, who is the first disabled person to complete a solo, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland, has been named the Yachting Journalists’ Association’s Yachtsman of the Year 2025. The 27-year-old sailor, who has a genetic, progressive condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which affects connective tissue throughout the body, completed her circumnavigation last summer aboard her Albin Vega 27, Fear. It took her 28 days to complete the 2,070-mile voyage, and she was greeted by hundreds of supporters when she arrived back at Brighton Marina. Her record-breaking voyage came months after she was given just six months to live; rather than remain in a hospice, Jazz decided to “get out into the English Channel and turn right”. On receiving the Yachtsman of the Year 2025 trophy, Jazz…

Aphorisms, those pithy little sayings and rules of life uttered by annoying people who are always right, are very annoying indeed. But, as they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, so with a clarity of purpose that surprised even me I grasped the nettle and seized the day, a varnish brush in one hand, a can of varnish in the other, or perhaps it was the other way round, and 27 different grades of sandpaper between my teeth. As laser focussed as a Jack Russell chasing a squirrel up a telegraph pole, I strode through my front door–opening it first–and turned left towards the boatyard rather than right towards the coffee shop which, as it turns out, would have been the right thing to do, for after marching…

Whipping the end of lines to prevent them from unravelling is a dying art, thanks to the ease that modern synthetic rope can be sealed with a so-called butane whipping. But whippings live on in other forms. Tied using 3mm or 4mm line, instead of twine, they can provide a protective layer on spars and other parts of a boat, whether it’s to prevent the boom chaffing against the rigging or to reduce the wear and tear on a pillar in the saloon. They can also provide a useful grip on slippery surfaces, such as a handrail or a tiller handle. Or they can simply be used decoratively. The simplest option is the aptly named plain whipping. This creates a plain, even surface with good grip. It’s quick to do…

Take a look into the engine compartment of any yacht and you’ll see flexible pipes everywhere. Hopefully you’ll also see them fully secured with jubilee clips or, perhaps using a more generic term, worm drive clips. It can be the same in the bilges where there can be pipework of all sorts linking up the ever increasing complexity of the plumbing systems on board. Those jubilee clips are a vital part of the safety of your yacht but we tend to take them for granted… until they fail, that is. ‘Why should they fail?’ I hear you ask. Those jubilee clips are made from bright, shiny stainless steel and they’re there for life, or at least until you need to replace the hose they are securing. Surely they are one…

The Solent recently had two incidents where containers fell off cargo ships. One had containers full of bananas, which were blown up onto the coast making roads slippery; the other filled the beaches with sliced potatoes–a chip wreck. Humour aside, not all the containers have been recovered, and when a pilot vessel struck a submerged object to the east of The Nab Tower in the early hours of one morning, I thought it was time to make myself a collision mat. A collision mat is a tough, impermeable cloth that can be secured in place over a hole below the waterline, with water pressure holding it in place and hopefully staunching the leak. I’d been thinking about this since I watched the movie All is Lost with Robert Redford, where…

ENGINES My impellers keep failing and I don’t know why Q I have a reconditioned Yanmar 1GM10 which was only put into service in 2023. Since then, I have put at least three water pump impellers in after each failed. They haven’t done many hours–just around 25 hours between failures. It’s not the vanes but the bonding of the impeller to the bronze drive boss that fails. On my last outing that resulted in an impeller failure the engine had run faultlessly for nearly 20 hours while motor-sailing. In the final hour the wind picked up so I turned off the engine for some quiet time, but when I restarted the engine the overheat alarm sounded and no water was coming out of the exhaust. I had a spare so…

Swiss sailor Renaud Stitelmann has won the 2025 Mini Globe Race, having sailed his 19ft plywood boat around the world via the Panama Canal. Seasoned racer Stitelmann, aged 62, won every leg of the race and set the inaugural record time of 180 days, 11 hours, 25 minutes and 57 seconds. His Globe 5.80, Capucinette’s average speed through all weather and oceans of the world was 5.54 knots, or 133 miles a day. In total the voyage, which began in February 2025, took 377 days, including stopovers at 15 ports in 13 countries. A ‘tired’ Stitelmann crossed the finishing line at Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, at around 0100 UTC on 8 March, having sailed 24,000 miles solo around the world. “It is unbelievable. I can’t believe what I have done,” he…

Government funding of £6.5m is to be spent on building long-term resilience across the canal network in England and Wales, ensuring it continues to operate safely. The 200-year-old waterway network, which covers roughly 2,000 miles, is facing pressure from extreme weather and maintenance costs. The funding will go to the Canal and River Trust (CRT) and will be in addition to the £52.6 million of annual government funding already provided to the trust. This investment will enable essential works to be completed on schedule, keeping waterways open and operational for boats and millions of visitors. A number of the nation’s oldest reservoirs built to feed fresh water into the canal system will benefit. CRT chief executive Campbell Robb said: “The investment in reservoirs speaks to the potential of navigable canals…

A sinking feeling To my knowledge, Marsali Taylor’s Karima S has lost her prop and shaft at least twice! My family previously owned this lovely Offshore 8M and one memorable return trip from Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel stands out for me. My dad, Henry, mum Mair, sister Ann, and I, then aged 13, were cruising in company with the Packer family, Lyn, his wife and two sons. I was enjoying the race even though we were losing to their 36ft yacht. The wind had dropped and we were motoring the last mile towards Ilfracombe harbour, when Karima S slowed and came to a stop, despite the fact the engine was still running. My parents were putting up the sails to try and sail the last mile in, when…

The customs men in the harbour office shrugged greasily. The yacht had overstayed its visa, they lied. It was necessary to impound it, and of course it would be sold to defray harbour dues. First, though, they must search it to confirm that it contained nothing illegal. We left a couple of €50 notes on the chart table, accidentally on purpose. The customs men clumped down the companionway. The notes vanished, and when the customs men came back on deck they seemed to have changed their minds. We left before they could change them back again. Outside the wall it was blowing Force 7 from the east-north-east, which was also our course. We reefed down and plugged towards Sicily, hard on the wind. The seas were a couple of metres…

Keeping my boats in various mud berths at Rye, I’ve found that it has always helped to have a grey hull. If you don’t your boat will soon end up grey anyway. Of course, grey is also the preferred colour of our own Grey Funnel Line, and they always look smart with their crisp white ensigns. They are not so visible at sea but that’s how they like it. But on a pleasure boat grey is such a restful colour, and I’ve had many. I was, therefore, delighted to see that The Grey Boat (not just any old grey boat) was putting in an appearance at the Royal Yachting Association’s Dinghy and Watersports Show. Over the years the Dinghy Cruising Association (DCA) has been following the exploits of The Grey…

Sometimes there is only room for one VHF antenna to be mounted at height, but what if you want to fit AIS as well? Do you use a splitter, or have a second antenna lower down? “There is no substitute for one antenna being connected directly to one radio system via one feed line, preferably a high-quality coaxial cable,” says Terry Slack, former senior lecturer in marine communications at Southampton Solent University. “However, it sometimes becomes necessary to share an antenna with more than one radio system. “The point to remember here, though, is that there’ll always be a degree of loss in the system as soon as you introduce another item. The degree of loss is extremely important, especially when considering the received signal strength at the radio. This…

One of the advantages of having Starlink aboard is the ability to update the software on each device, and of course, every device has its own. It’s easier to do so without having to copy to an SD card at home. Regular updates are a feature of all electronics systems and it is crucial to keep your systems updated, as this often includes fixes for issues. Sometimes, though, it just doesn’t work out well–or at least as well as it should. About updating software My Raymarine Axiom MFD (multifunction display) allows me to check each device on the network, the software version and also receive notification of any available updates. Recently I decided to follow the screen prompts and update all of the devices requiring an update, and that is…

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Heading for the start of the annual Waller–Harris two-handed race, an event in which Knight Star had proudly taken the class trophy for the previous two years, our spirits were high. It was a clear July morning in 2009, with a fresh southerly breeze, when we eased Knight Star out of Binic marina–a quiet little harbour just south of Saint-Quay-Portrieux on the Brittany coast, bound for Jersey, 45 miles away. We’d already completed the first two legs of the race, from Jersey to Granville, then on to Binic. Now we were taking on the third and final leg home. I had competed in the Waller–Harris most years since 1984 and for the past two years Knight Star had won her class. So we were looking for the hat-trick. The event…

Two years ago, Morgana had brought me from the mud of Maldon in Essex to the tidal haven of Woodbridge on the River Deben in Suffolk, at the end of the 2024 sailing season. So by April 2025 I was looking forward to exploring my new cruising grounds. Both Maldon and Woodbridge are characterful waterside towns, steeped in boatbuilding, trading and sailing. Maldon’s banks were solid with Thames barges, whether dying, deceased, in repair or alive with passengers on day trips, plus of course the legendary Queens Head for telling tall stories and enlisting new crew. Woodbridge boasted a handful of busy boatyards, an historic tide mill, and an even more historic Anglo-Saxon royal barge to restore from Sutton Hoo. You could sail nine miles downstream to Felixstowe Ferry and…