The trouble began when I bought a rowing dinghy to use as a tender instead of a borrowed sailing club dinghy. Our trusty 1980s vintage Mariner 2hp outboard engine hadn’t…
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Colregs made simple: Get your head around the most important boating rules
PBO's expert video guides to the ColRegs
14. Completing the hull skin
We’ve made great progress this month, and as a result the hull skin is now complete, save for a lot of fairing – but that’s for another month! Ben Meakins…
13. Starting on the hull skin underside
This month, the Secret’s structure is finished off with the addition of bottom stringers, bevelled chine battens and forefoot cheek pieces. Ben Meakins reports
9. Deck beams and chainplates
This month’s project boat tasks include fitting laminated deck beams and reinforcing the chainplates. Ben Meakins reports
5. Filleting all the frame joints
PBO’s Secret 20 kit boat now boasts around 250 fillets, and the transom has been fitted. Ben Meakins reports
2. Birth of a boat: truing stem and stern
David Pugh and Ben Meakins tackle the truing up of the new project boat’s keel, stem and stern – and enjoy a long-deferred sea trial in a completed Secret 20…
Rescuing Essex Melody – a classic cruiser purpose built for the East Coast
John Rogers describes the heritage and restoration of Essex Melody, a classic, Maldon-built 23-footer which originally took to the water in 1959
Applying antifouling safely
Ben Meakins discovers the importance of wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when antifouling a hull – and issues some propitious advice
Tested: 12 bosun’s chairs
Are you sitting comfortably? Let’s hope so – especially when climbing the mast. Ben Meakins tests the comfort, safety and build quality of 12 bosun’s chairs
Hatches fitted
Before the stringers, deck beams and hull sides go on was a good opportunity to add hatches to our Secret 20 build. These will allow access to the bilges -and…
Fillets galore
Once all the frames had been installed on the keel (see our last update), it was time to break out the laser level again and go around, truing up the…
Best bilge cleaners: how to clean an oily, smelly bilge
Ben Meakins gets down and dirty in the pursuance of the most effective way to clean oily, malodorous bilges
Dual-purpose cockpit table
When I bought Crusader, my Aqua Star Ocean Ranger 33, the table arrangement in the wheelhouse/saloon left a bit to be desired. Although the table itself was a beautiful piece…
Is an umbrella really the most useless thing on a boat?
David Weston shows that nautical wisdom can be proved wrong
Cockpit table for a binnacle
Stuart Carr enables onboard alfresco dining with a table mounted on the binnacle
Clever anchor ball storage
A bright idea means Jeremy White’s anchor ball is never forgotten
Anchor Ball from a giant Lindor box
Ron Stark chocs up a successful means of hoisting a black ball day signal for a vessel at anchor
Black Friday PBO subscription offer – 50% off!
We’re offering a great deal for a subscription to Britain’s biggest-selling boating magazine! Get 50% off if you subscribe before the end of the weekend! PBO is full of practical…
26 tips for winter sailing
Sailing in winter sounds like a cold and tricky business – but if you take some simple precautions there should be nothing stopping you - here's how