December 2019

Sailing Today

Sailing Today is the magazine for hands on cruising sailors

Sailing Today2 min read
Skipper’s View
AFTER SPENDING SEVERAL DAYS at the Cannes Boat Show, followed by a full day of strolling the pontoons at the Southampton Boat Show, I was feeling just a hint of bling overload. Don’t get me wrong, the yachts on show are all very impressive and it’s g
Sailing Today1 min read
Jubilee Sailing Trust Saved After Raising £1m In A Week
The Jubilee Sailing Trust’s accessible tall ship Lord Nelson has returned to Portsmouth for decommissioning, in spite of recent emergency fund-raising activity that boosted the charity’s coffers by £1m in a week. STS Lord Nelson has become a familiar
Sailing Today2 min read
First Rate
This fabulous original artwork shows Lionheart leading the way, albeit very briefly, at the start of the RYS Bicentenary Regatta ‘Round The Island Race’ in 2015. Velsheda very quickly overhauled her and never looked back, taking the race and the over
Sailing Today2 min read
New Boats
French manufacturer Amel raised a few eyebrows when it launched the Amel 50 without a mizzen mast as the ketch rig had become synonymous with the brand. Its latest model is also sloop rigged and looks like an enlarged version of the 50. It therefore
Sailing Today7 min readEarth Sciences
Away From It All In The Canaries
As part of our longterm plans to get to Senegal and then onwards to Patagonia, we made for the Canaries. See Sailing Today [March 2019] for our passage via Brittany and Galicia. For us, the Canaries conjured up images of apartment blocks, hordes of t
Sailing Today1 min readEarth Sciences
The Sailing
Sailing in the Canaries is diverse. We obviously cannot write this article without mentioning the acceleration zones – areas where the wind is often multiplied by a factor of two or three. They are well documented but also feared by many sailors. In
Sailing Today2 min read
Anchoring In The Canary Islands
Before we get into our adventures we felt it best to touch on the anchoring situation in the Canary Islands. There are plenty of really great anchorages but mostly people don’t use them because they’re not marked as anchorages or they’re worried abou
Sailing Today6 min read
Tom Cunliffe
In the days of plenty before the Financial Crash, I met a man sitting in a boatyard skip sorting through its contents. I lobbed my bag of mixed rubbish clear of him and we fell into conversation, as one does with strangers in dumps. ‘Looks like rain
Sailing Today3 min read
Paul Heiney
I got the bathroom scales out this week. It’s never good news, is it? And this time it was exceptionally bad. I was curious as to exactly how much my pile of anchors weighed and what they might be worth, so I took the scales and placed the anchors on
Sailing Today3 min read
On Bravery
I suppose it must be true that sometimes it takes seeing yourself and your life through another person’s eyes to admit and accept certain facts. I don’t consider myself to be a particularly brave or intrepid person. Ten years ago I had never even set
Sailing Today10 min read
A Mini Adventure
When I found out that my friend was sailing across the channel and up the coast in a ‘very small’ boat, I was excited for him and his chosen companion, but very jealous. When he told me he needed a return partner and asked if I’d like to come, I didn
Sailing Today9 min read
Rudder Disaster
First things first, before we kick off this article – boats that have wheel steering should have an emergency tiller that works. All too many emergency tillers are useless. Go out in heavy weather and test your emergency tiller, not only going to win
Sailing Today7 min read
In Excess
The term ‘focus groups’ is not the most fascinating way to open a review of a new yacht, but it’s too late... I’ve gone and done it. Focus groups are, essentially, gatherings – groups of people thrown together in a meeting room, slowly losing the wil
Sailing Today6 min readAutomotive
Winch Perfect
Among the most stalwart and least loved pieces of kit on any boat must be the winch. If you’re like me, then servicing is a rare event, discouraged by the quantity of grease involved and the propensity of small parts to leap over the side in protest.
Sailing Today1 min read
Winch Maintenance
‘How often should I service it?’ is one of the most common winch-related cries from sailors. Naturally, more often than you’d wish. Harken recommends servicing each winch before the boat is relaunched in the spring, while Andersen specifies a longer
Sailing Today1 min read
Going Electric
If you want to take the strain out of raising the main or trimming the genoa, consider powering your winch. In reality, this will usually mean switching from manual to electric, as there is considerable cost and complication to installing an entire h
Sailing Today5 min read
Great Escapes
It’s a cruel fact that UK-based sailors can have a pretty lean time of things over the winter months. Some love the hardship of a bracing thrash in crisp winter gales, but let’s be honest, it’s not for all of us. Even the magnificent playground that
Sailing Today5 min read
Swift Swallow
It’s not always easy being an innovator. Take early automobile designer EL Cord, who, in the 1920s, introduced front-wheel drive, pop-up headlamps and a plethora of other revolutionary touches. Unfortunately, Cord did not survive the economic vagarie
Sailing Today6 min read
Conwy Quays Marina
WALES 53° 17.5’N, 003° 50.3’W With the mountains of Snowdonia as a backdrop, and set within in an area of outstanding natural beauty, Conwy Quays Marina is an ideal base from which to cruise the North Wales coast. You need to be ready for the tides:
Sailing Today7 min read
Sloop Doggy Dog
When our two beagles – Cap’n Jack and Scout – first stepped aboard our 43ft (13.1m) steel ketch Seefalke, they walked around the small vessel and sniffed every corner. Then, tails wagging, they looked up at us, and it was as if they shrugged their sh
Sailing Today4 min readEarth Sciences
Spinnin’ Around
When two currents collide, they wrap around each other and a whirlpool is formed. The most common place for this to happen is near a structure like a rock, bridge leg or island – the theory goes that a fast current will hit the obstruction and flow a
Sailing Today3 min read
Launched
If you want to get a warm head, get a cosy hat. This one from Gill should do the trick, as it’s knitted from an acrylic and polypropylene mix that not only keeps you snug when wet, but floats if it ends up in the drink. So you can keep your hat when
Sailing Today5 min read
Time Out
The Cruise of the Kate is an absolute classic, charting the extraordinary voyage of one of the great pioneers of yacht cruising. The trip was undertaken by Empson Edward Middleton in 1867 and was an ambitious voyage around Britain in a 22ft (6.7m) ca
Sailing Today3 min read
Three Of The Best
Our middle-sized pick, Skua, is one of Marc Lombard’s popular designs for Jeanneau’s Sun Odyssey range, a fractionally rigged sloop with classic main (with stack pack and lazy jacks) and furling jib, which had a new drum fitted in March. She has a wh
Sailing Today1 min read
Dispatches
It was March and the Mistral had been screaming for about a week solid. Roaring down the Rhone Valley and descending with fury on the marina we were hunkered down on L’Ile des Embiez. We were right in the firing line between Marseille and Toulon and

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