Alison Wood

Features Editor

Alison Wood

Ali is a features editor of Practical Boat Owner. A yachting, outdoor and travel journalist, she’s written for a number of brands, including BBC Wildlife, Countryfile, Yachting Monthly and Radio Times. She’s also worked as a publisher in the Women’s and Craft sectors.

Sailing and watersports are her passion. As a child she raced Mirror dinghies with her parents and went on to cruise the North Wales coast in everything from a fibreglass trimaran to a 100-year-old wooden gaffer. These days she lives in Dorset and enjoys wild swimming, paddleboarding, surfing and sailing dinghies in Christchurch harbour.

Ali’s recently become the proud owner of the PBO Project Boat, Maximus. Together with her husband, she’s refitting the 43-year-old cruiser and making all the DIY mistakes her readers warned her about.

People on dinghies learning dinghy sailing skills

  • March 6, 2024

What can a lapsed cruising sailor learn from a dinghy course? A lot, as Ali Wood discovers when she returns to the water for her RYA Level 3

A boat being lifted out of the water by a crane

  • December 19, 2023

Ali Wood gets tips from the trade on how to sell your boat from a marine surveyor and a yacht broker so you can get the best price to spend…

  • December 2, 2023

If you’re one of this year’s 95 ARC+ boats who’ve just made landfall in Grenada, here’s how to stretch your legs (and revive your tastebuds) after a breezy Atlantic crossing. …

  • October 3, 2023

A 17ft trailer-sailer rescued from the nettles is preparing to cross the Atlantic. Poppet, a 50-year-old Leisure 17 is owned by marine surveyor and electrician John-Kenenth (JK) Habbershaw who, together…