Category: Europe
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‘Dodging ships can feel like being a chicken crossing a very busy motorway’
It seemed odd when container vessels mysteriously started keeping clear of Peter Webb’s yacht, but the AIS-related answer only appeared in harbour. The North Sea at night: I love it. It can turn wild, like any mountain or desert, but that’s not all the time. When it’s calm, fishing lights appear, dodge about, and…
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Training in a time warp
Nick Quirke answered the call for some adventurous hands-on schooner training, with no experience necessary to sail around 3,500 miles from Cape Verde to Rotterdam. I have always wanted to sail on a tall ship; to experience night watches on the high seas, to make sail changes, to helm. Although I’ve done all these things…
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How to recover from a violent gybe at sea?
James Stevens considers a problem sent in by a Yachting Monthly reader who asks how to recover from a violent gybe at sea? It is the roughest sea Simon has ever experienced. He and his four crew are sailing eastwards on his classic 1960s 12m wooden sloop, Sea Thrift, towards the Azores with about 500…
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how to tune the rig of a yacht
Ivar Dedekam is the author of Illustrated Sail & Rig Tuning brings us this guide on how to tune the rig of a yacht and make your sailing better It is important to have a correctly tuned rig. Boats that have poorly tuned rigs are slower, point lower, heel more, make more leeway and may…
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How to get your boat home if you experience an engine failure
We rely on the engine a huge amount, but when it stops, do you know how you would get yourself back on track and into harbour? Rachael Sprot works through the options Yachts engines are like bodies; we only appreciate them when they stop working. On more than one occasion last year, the engine on…
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How to squeeze a yacht into a tight marina berth
James Stevens considers a problem sent in by a Yachting Monthly reader who asks how to squeeze a yacht into a tight berth? Jane is on a cruising holiday on board Storm Petrel, her 10m yacht. The boat has a long fin keel and skeg. When engaging astern there is a strong prop kick to…
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How to optimise sail trim
The author of Illustrated Sail & Rig Tuning, Ivar Dedekam, provides his expert advice on how best to optimise sail trim It is difficult to describe ‘correct’ sail shape, but the three most important things to consider are: sail draft (the fullness of the sail), draft position, and twist (controlled by the kicker/vang and leech…
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The sailing rules you can ignore… and those you can’t: an expert guide
Andy Du Port explores which rules need to be followed to the letter to avoid collisions at sea and considers those which can be safely ignored Saying ‘International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea’ is something of a mouthful, let alone learning all of them verbatim. Commonly called the ‘Colregs’, they are a…
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How do you recover a man overboard?
James Stevens considers a problem sent in by a Yachting Monthly reader who asks how do you recover a man overboard Paul and Emma own a 10m yacht and are day sailing with Paul’s parents on a fine day in early May. The weather is fair so they are all wearing fleeces and lifejackets but…
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‘We suddenly heard a loud noise from the engine. We had no idea what it was and it got us worried ’
After the engine breakdown on board his Nicholson 35 Lady Blue in the Kiel Canal, one of the busiest commercial channels in the world, Harry Dekkers explains how they resolved the situation The Kiel Canal provides a convenient shortcut between the North Sea and the Baltic, or as the Germans call it, the Nordsee and…