Messing about in boats
4,000 visitors, 200 sailors, 50 traditional boats and great weather Around 4,000 people attended the Sea Salts and Sail festival, Mousehole, Cornwall, over the weekend 13th to 15th July. And more than 200 of these were sailors, who had sailed there on a variety of the 50 traditional craft which attended this unique two [...]
Neil Payter, his boat, Solent 1, is a 33ft Yamaha, with a small added bowsprit for the reaching sail John Clarke, the Principal of Team Sailing, interviews Neil Payter RYA Yachtmaster instructor, following Neil’s completion of the 2017 OSTAR transatlantic race. A video of Neil's homecoming is below “I feel that the [...]
Great film, if a little blurry for the net, this is the biographic story of Robin Lee Graham who took off from Los Angeles aged 16 in 1965 to sail around the world in a 23 ft GRP production sloop designed by Bill Lapworth. The true story, as told by Robin in the 1972 book [...]
Useful video from the RNLI on the immediate actions to take if you fall in cold water (especially in the seas around Britain) without a lifejacket, by forcing yourself to be calm and to float for the first few crucial seconds. [/fusion_youtube] The five steps are: 1. Fight your instinct to thrash around 2. [...]
Legendary Sunday Mirror photographer Bill Rowntree poses by his famous photo of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston taken on Suhaili's return to Falmouth in 1969. Bill is onboard the Wm Atkins ketch as part of Sir Robin's crew this week and sailed down from Portsmouth to be here.
The romantic, fascinating, gypsy-afloat-life story of houseboat living is largely unknown and one with no detailed written account. Based on photography, archive research and oral history interviews Life Afloat draws together the past and the present – for the first time ever the public will have access to a hundred years of this untold history. [...]
Over the bank holiday weekend, 19 Sunbeams enjoyed excellent sailing conditions in Chichester Harbour at a special 95th anniversary regatta. Originally designed by Alfred Westmacott in 1922, the Sunbeam class has enjoyed such longevity that the weekend’s races saw competitors aged between 1 and 95 years old. The first day of the competition started with [...]
The schooner Mariette was built 101 years ago and is still being raced competitively enough to win at regattas against younger boats. So what is she like to crew? David Abramczyk finds out; photos by Andrew Wright A gaff schooner’s rig can seem complicated at first; eyes are aloft here as a light weather [...]
Inflatable Paddle board review: trying one of these was something of a revelation The double barrelled Titan pump is a revelation making pumping up an easy thing to do – with a switch valve to add the last couple of psi Not many boaters will have failed to notice the rise of paddleboarding [...]
