Table of contents for November 2016 in Practical Boat Owner

Email pbo@timeinc.com or write to us at the address on page 5. Photos are appreciated, letters may be edited. What’s the best shoal-draught sub-30-footer? Day-sail dilemma I’m a huge fan of Hunter yachts and currently the very satisfied owner of a 23ft Hunter Duette. It’s enjoyable to sail and perfect for day-sailing on the River Crouch, with iron bilge keels to protect the boat from the mixture of mud and rubble typical of drying moorings where I keep my boat. My very cheap mooring at Up River Yacht Club in Hullbridge is perfect for the budget yachtsman, though subject to a size limitation of 30ft overall. I want to buy a bigger boat to go further afield on club cruises, but I don’t want to give up my drying mooring…

Friday 14th to Sunday 16th October Get On The Water! PBO will be returning to Scotland’s Boat Show for a fifth year, offering the latest subscription deals, Experts Live guest speakers for a second year, and – new for 2016 – we’re getting involved with the show’s inaugural Get On The Water Pavilion, showcasing affordable small boats, courtesy of the Leisure, Westerly, Moody and Hurley owners’ associations. Editor David Pugh said: ‘Last year we had a great response when we exhibited our restored Snapdragon 23 Hantu Biru and thousands of show visitors entered a competition to win her. ‘This year we’re looking forward to sharing details of our new project – building a Secret 20 plywood gaffer from a kit. ‘Once again we’ve teamed up with RYA Scotland to host…

The last time PBO tested handheld VHF radios was back in January 2011. Since then there have been changes to product ranges, updates to existing models, and some are no longer around. There’s no doubt in my mind, reinforced by lots of practical experience, that a handheld VHF radio is an essential communication and safety item on any craft heading out on the water. Fixed radios have their role, and when installed by the navigation table offer a convenient communication location. However, there are many occasions when the opportunity to communicate on deck offers great advantages, not least the ability to both monitor the boat’s position and in safety situations monitor the scene while communicating. Handhelds can be used by a tender shore party to communicate with the mother ship,…

Tech spec CORVETTE 320 LOA: 9.75m (32ft 0in) Beam: 3.96m (13ft 0in) Draught: 1.14m (3ft 9in) Displacement: 6.5 tonnes Fuel capacity: 800lt Builder: Corvette Marine If you were building a conventional trawler yacht with its raised saloon area in the centre and the aft sections full of lower-level aft cabin, where would you put the engines? Clearly the obvious place is below the saloon floor; but despite quite conservative styling, it was plainly evident upon the Corvette 32/320’s launch in 1974 that this was a far from conventional craft. ABOUT THE AUTHOR After 20 years as a yacht broker, Nick Burnham embarked on a marine media career, quickly rising to the position of boat test editor for Motor Boats Monthly. Nick is now a freelance writer and photographer covering all…

One of the best-known boatyards on the Norfolk Broads celebrated its 90th birthday this year by resurrecting the Potter Heigham Water Frolic fun day and building a new class of 7.3m (24ft) picnic boats for the hire fleet which still bears the name of its founder, Herbert Woods. The man behind the brand created some of the most significant boats to be launched on the Broads in the 20th century and in the process became a very influential figure in the development of the Broadland racing and hire fleet industries. Those who worked for Herbert Woods remember him as a firm, fair and very enlightened employer, while subsequent generations of Broadland sailors and visitors continue to benefit from his successful campaign to prevent the closure to the public of the…

In 1870, the Russian Navy launched a warship that was almost completely circular. Designed as a floating battery for coastal defence, the ironclad Novgorod and her sister ship were by all accounts a nightmare to steer. One account said: ‘They went up the Dnieper very nicely for some distance, till they turned to retire. Then the current caught them, and they were carried out to sea and whirled helplessly round and round, every soul on board helplessly incapacitated by vertigo.’Yes, you might say: that’s all very well, but what does this have to do with our Secret 20, which when built should be a long, slim gaffer? Only that should we fail to set up the boat’s backbone – the keel, stem and stern – straight, level and true, the…

We spent a busy winter repainting Polly’s topsides (see PBO Summer 2016): making the surface as smooth, shiny and reflective as possible. However, the next job on the list required us to forget everything we learned about making a surface smooth and shiny: this time we wanted to make it as rough as possible. That’s right – this time we were painting the decks. There are a few options available once your deck paint begins to lose its non-slip properties and you end up looking like Bambi on ice when you head to the foredeck to change a sail. First up, there’s the stick-on options – Treadmaster and similar. This gives a highly non-slip surface but needs careful preparation to make sure it sticks down. Next come the deck paints…

Email your projects and tips to pbo@timeinc.com or write to us at the address at the top of page 5. We pay at least £30 for each one published With a view to keeping dry The cockpit enclosure on Bob Goode’s Jeanneau 32 keeps out the rain, but still provides ample ventilation and a good view out Back when I started sailing I had a Hurley 22 and, as the family grew, I needed (but couldn’t afford) a bigger boat – so I solved the problem with a cockpit cover. Our present boat is a Jeanneau 32, but even that could seem small when it had been pouring and you needed somewhere to strip off your wet gear without making the cabin all damp. Yet another cockpit cover was called…

Winter is an bad time for boat maintenance, really. It’s cold and wet – terrible conditions for painting and epoxying – and even if you leave the boat until the spring, you’ll return to find her dirty and covered in green slime. This makes some sort of winter cover a real boon. An effective cover will keep the boat dry, aired and clean – and you can even work underneath it. Buying one, however, can be an expensive experience. A custom-made canvas cover is very pricey. Shrinkwrapping is another option, but can’t be reused – and it’s not great for the environment. While walking around METS last November I spotted the EasyTec tent from Sweden. The Swedes know a thing or two about winter – their boats are often covered…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Parker is a marine journalist who has built and restored various boats. He owns a Seaward 23 motor-cruiser which he moors on the River Hamble. This is a story which actually began over 20 years ago, but the latest chapter should start with the words ‘an old friend’. You see, that is all one old friend wrote in the subject bar of an email about another old friend, although I didn’t know that at the time. When I opened the email there was no explanation, just an eBay link. I clicked on the link, and there before me were pictures of a boat I had built but had to sell about 12 years ago. The boat had taken me some years to complete, but I reluctantly…

Testing a cockpit tent in a week with no rain forecast initially seemed like a bad idea. However, as my wife and I were on holiday I had plenty of time to fiddle with new boat toys – a rare state of affairs, and well worth exploiting. I admit I was already well disposed towards the Habitent, having experienced the original version on Ben Meakins’ Impala Polly. At the time, however, it was too wide to fit the slender beam of my Contessa 26 Red Dragon. When the company came up with the narrower Habitent Sirocco (RRP £445 plus P&P), I jumped at the chance to test it. The Sirocco is intended to fit stern measurements of 1.0m to 1.6m, ideal for the tapering lines of the Contessa. Red Dragon…

News from your cruising area Send us your local news stories. Email PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts at newspbo@timeinc.com, tel: 01202 440825, or write to the address on page 5 SOUTH BRAMBLE BANK CRICKET MATCH Round-the-world yachtsmen Geoff Holt and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston were among the players of this year’s Bramble Bank cricket match in the middle of the Solent. The annual event, which has been running for around 30 years, takes place when the low-water spring tide exposes the bank for long enough to play a game. This year, on 18 September, Island Sailing Club’s team were victorious against arch-rivals the Royal Southern Yacht Club – as it was their turn to win. Andy Beadsley, director of The Wheelyboat Trust, transported Geoff to the event in the wheelchair-accessible Coulam…

Mention longdistance cruising and most people instinctively think of sliding down trade winds and blue seas to tropical waters, secluded islands and exotic wildlife. The odd coral reef doesn’t go amiss either… and nor do regular rum punches. After all, what’s the point in casting off to escape our temperate or downright chilly climate if you end up sailing in more of the same, or worse? But cruising into Arctic or Antarctic wastes is becoming an increasingly popular pastime – especially if this is mixed in with adose of dangerous mountaineering. Modern GRP, steel or aluminium-hulled cruisers are also far less likely to crack up in ice floes than the timberplanked hulls of yesteryear, so the risk element has been reduced. Bill Tilman was one of the first to set…

Q i have always used road diesel in my boat, but after reading several warnings i switched to ‘red’ marine diesel. my Beta engine now takes longer to start, regularly requiring at least two attempts: this had never happened before i started using red diesel. i always fill up my tank from a jerrycan after every trip, but since using red i have found more water in the bottom of the tank than before (i have a drain tap), and severe diesel contamination at the end of last year. i have now drained my tank. i mentioned all of this to a marine engineer, who recommended filling the tank with diesel Extra (which i had never heard of as i do not drive diesel cars) from a petrol station. so,…

When Brian Scott, owner of the Moody 34 Jody, emailed me to ask if I’d be up for 12 days’ crewing in Scotland’s Western Isles, I leapt at the opportunity. Also on board would be another Woodbridge chum, David Shuster. The weather during the fortnight before our June departure date had been fantastic in Scotland for Brian and his family, unlike down south, so I was braced for disappointment. O ye of little faith – with gin-clear skies and a glass-like sea, it was only during the last three days of our stretch together that the weather turned boisterous, but fun. From Glasgow’s Buchanan bus station it was a three-hour coach journey to join Jody at Dunstaffnage Marina in the small village of Dunbeg, just east of Oban. It was…

I am a 62-year-old retired engineer sailing a 2001 Hunter Pilot 27, mainly single-handed in the sheltered waters of the Clyde and surrounding area. Every year I take a seven-day summer trip with my crew of two brothers, Duncan (68) and Bob (65), normally to the Inner Hebrides and the north coast of Ireland. This year we decided to strike out and sail to the Isle of Man. We left Largs Marina on Friday, May 13, sailing to Bangor Marina as a stop-off en route to our ultimate destination of Peel. It was around 61NM to Bangor, but we planned to complete the trip in around 12 hours, mainly under sail, as the winds were scheduled to be north to north-west with a strength of Force 4-5, and favourable tides…

I’ve owned a Bavaria 33 Cruiser for a year or so now and, being moored up at Gosport, have exhausted all the suitable locations for trips away along the South Coast. Going further afield was the next logical step. My wife Rose had a few reservations about this – sailing in the dark, not being able to see the land and sailing with me! We read about the inaugural ARC Channel Islands event in PBO and the RYA magazine – Rose immediately seemed more comfortable with this slightly more supervised approach. To find out a bit more about what we might be letting ourselves in for, ARC ran an excellent seminar during which Roger Seymour from the Hamble School of Yachting spoke, alongside Clare, Sally and Jeremy from the ARC.…

We flew out from Gatwick in May to begin our fourth season of sailing the Ionian Sea and exploring its islands. On arrival at Preveza Airport, we collected our hire car before driving 2km to the Ionian Marine boatyard across the water from the port of Preveza. We had already arranged with the yard that a ladder would be in place to access our boat Wild Thyme as she is a fin-keeled Westerly Falcon 34 drawing 1.5m (5ft), so when she’s ashore in her cradle it is a good climb to reach the cockpit. Everything looked fine: we had left her as always with her fitted cockpit tent in place to keep out the windborne Sahara sands that find their way in everywhere over the spring. As was also the…