Is it time to swap your boat batteries? We look at the pros and cons of lithium-ion vs standard, installation dos and don’ts, bust the…
Practical Boat Owner
May issue – out 14 March
15 fixes at sea: sailors share how to deal with a range of problems afloat from a dismasting and rudder damage to chafe, the essential…
DIY lithium battery: 2 years on, my homemade setup has passed test of time
All our energy needs, for two of us, living full-time aboard Cushla for the past two years have been met by the lithium battery bank I assembled from individual lithium…
Smoking boat engine? Our expert explains what could be wrong
Gunter Bock from Norway writes: “I read in PBO’s November 2021 issue about exhaust elbow problems. You recommended replacing the reader’s damaged iron elbow with a new one in stainless…
Is it worth re-activating copper antifoul? Ask the experts
Brian Williams writes: “I read with great interest the article on different antifouling treatments in the May 2021 edition of PBO. “Based at Suffolk Yacht Harbour I had Coppercoat professionally…
Conquering the cold – from sea dipping to aquatic yoga and Wim Hof
“My grandfather taught me to enjoy cold water dips,” says Helena, shouting over the noise of the surf. “I used to do yoga with him at dawn, he was like…
Channel Hopping: Sailing La Vagabonde in Svalbard
Our resident YouTube aficionado catches up with Sailing La Vagabond to see why they’ve managed to maintain their seemingly unassailable position at the top of the sailing vlog pyramid
January issue – on sale 24 November
GRP classics; Trailer-sailers; Asymmetric furlers; Birdwatching for boaters; Kit out your seadog; 5,000 miles in a 22ft yacht with a cat; PBO Project Boat sail loft visit; and 17 pages
Choppy start for ARC 22 as yachts set sail across Atlantic
The fleet departed Las Palmas, Gran Canaria yesterday for Saint Lucia on the 37th edition of the ARC, with over 800 crew taking part, in monohulls, multihulls and one motorboat.…
Anchoring a boat: Top tips from a scuba diving sailor
Drifting in a hot air balloon over variable terrain and needing to drop an anchor, you’d surely try to select a good spot. When anchoring a boat, however, many people…
Maximus sets sail – Chichester to Poole shakedown
The day was finally here; time to take Maximus, our Maxi 84, from Chichester Marina to her new home in Poole. After many sleepless nights, last-minute trips to Force 4…
Passing planning for a shakedown voyage
With Maximus, our PBO Project boat ready for her shakedown voyage from Chichester to Poole, I turned my attention to passage planning. I dug out my old logbook and realised…
New electronics on the PBO Project Boat
The day was approaching for Maximus’s shakedown cruise, a two-day voyage from Chichester to her new home at Cobbs Quay Marina, Poole. Before then, however, we needed to understand our…
Launching the PBO Project Boat
Chichester’s Dell Quay boatyard had been Maximus’s home for two years – and felt like our second home too, since we’d acquired the Maxi 84 project boat. We’d spent long…
Upgrading electronics on the PBO Project Boat
Upgrading electronics on Maximus seemed like a huge leap in the first weeks of ownership. We were still discovering new leaks and lockers, choosing antifouling and scraping the bottom. I…
What is an in-hull transducer?
On our PBO Project Boat Maximus we need sonar simply for measuring depth, but the advanced electronics of fish finders and forward-looking sonar can show shoals of fish and give…
What is NMEA 2000, SeaTalk 2, STng, Simnet and other systems?
NMEA 2000 uses the CAN (control area network) designed originally for the automotive market, but adapted for the marine industry. The older version, NMEA 0183, allowed a GPS or chartplotter…
‘Orcas are playing with the yachts’ – experts’ theories after sinking
Marine biologists say evidence suggests that orca interactions with yachts are ‘playful’ rather than aggressive, but at risk of becoming ‘learned behaviour
Best British cruiser-racer boats: Our pick of the secondhand market
Many sailors tend to steer clear of yachts dubbed as cruiser-racers when they’re browsing classified ads or brokerage lists in search of their first (or next) cruising yacht. I often…
Two pilots rescued from liferaft after plane crashes into the sea
Pilots Paul Clifford and Duncan Laisney were rescued from a liferaft after engine failure caused caused them to ditch their light aircraft in waters off Jersey’s south-east coast. All three…
Video footage of shipwreck identified as steamship Virago
Six divers from Guernsey are celebrating ‘the discovery of a lifetime’ after identifying a wreck as steamship Virago that disappeared 140 years ago.
Channel Hopping: Outer Passage – formerly known as Sailing Panda
Our resident YouTube aficionado Kass Schmitt ponders if “as seen on YouTube” charters could be a new trend.