I’ve just watched a film about the Hiscock’s round the world trip in 1952 to 1955. Here’s the link – Beyond the western horizon It’s a 90 minute step back in time to an age before GPS and chart plotters, digital cameras and social media, refrigeration and other mod-cons. This journey was undertaken on Wanderer …
The RNLI statistics are out for 2013. They show that around the UK’s coast there were 8,304 launchings, 325 lives saved and 8,384 rescues made. 1,827 of the launchings were to assist leisure power boats of all types and 1,557 were to assist sail powered leisure craft. The remainder of the launchings were to assist …
Here’s a bit of a monster post about bilge pump systems. It’s a fundamental prerequisite of safe boating that the water be kept on the outside of the boat. I hope this helps you to achieve that goal: The task You’re bilge pump system has to handle two situations; pumping out the normal accumulations of …
Here’s a post I made earlier – actually a few years ago – I hope it’s still of interest.. I like walking around marinas, there’s just so much to see and reflect on. As I stroll around I tend to settle on a theme for the day: Drooping spreaders, types of bow or stern, cockpit …
Nelson may have overdone the celebrations a bit…. Ships have derricks to hoist cargo aboard and our cruising boats can certainly benefit from a similar convenience. We need to hoist provisions aboard, the outboard motor, bulky sail bags and countless other heavy and awkward loads. On sailing boats you have a ready made derrick in …
Here’s a link to an informative article on choosing a VHF radio. It’s by my favourite radio company, Icom, but is by no means Icom oriented, the advice applies to selecting any VHF radio. http://www.icomuk.co.uk/Choosing-a-VHF-Marine-radio Once you’ve selected your radio you’ll need a top quality antenna and cable to extract its full potential. A Metz …
Adriana had a batten-less, roach-less, headboard-less main for our first three-year adventure. It was the antithesis of the sail in the picture which is designed for speed without regard to cost, longevity or maintenance. For tweaking the last ounce of performance out of a mainsail it needs the roach to add sail area high up, …
From the steering oars employed by the earliest sailing vessels rudders have evolved into the centrally mounted foils we see today. On a production boat you don’t usually have the option of specifying the rudder configuration – you get what you’re given – but the design of the rudder will certainly affect the suitability of …
I always thought that “the whole nine yards” was an American expression related somehow to American football but it’s actually a nautical term: A typical square rigger would have three masts each with three yards. When all sail was set it would be maximising its full potential – to use an American expression – flying …
I’ve only ever had a fire on board once, when the alternator controller burst into flames as a result of a lightning strike. A dry powder extinguisher did the business, putting out the fire efficiently even though the resultant snow storm of white dust took a long time to clean up. Fire on board needs …