Over a career spent as a boatbuilder and latterly as a freelance journalist, I have noticed that some owners of sportier yachts tend to trade up to bigger or more…
boats
New Year, New Boat? Watch footage from 23 boats on test
Thinking of changing your boat for the 2021 season? Don’t visit your broker without first checking out PBO’s YouTube playlist of boat test footage. Although compiled some years ago, the…
Devon Yawl test sail and review
A friend and I once decided that instead of sailing, an August hike might do us good. So we took the coastal path from Branscombe to Bigbury. On the leg…
Jaguar 27 review and test sail
Boat testing is fun. But testing in the Ionian under an October sun is even better. Quite a few years ago I was invited to join a flotilla as part…
Nicholson 32 review and test sail
The Nicholson 32 was one of the first production-built GRP yachts of its size. It quickly gained a reputation for being an ultimate go-anywhere cruiser that was also fitted out…
Big new small yacht: Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 tested
Thirty years ago a small boat might have been anything less than around 24ft. However, that number has since leapt upwards, with many large manufacturers paying scant attention in the…
How I built a bespoke aluminium powerboat at home
Late in 2015, just as James Oakley was finishing the hull of his home-built aluminium speedboat, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “I’d been to see my doctor for something…
Yacht design in the 2010s – radical ideas and a new golden age?
A common complaint about the latest generation of new yachts is that they just represent ‘more big, white plastic.’ While it’s true some simply continue existing design trends without offering…
The 21st century yacht designs that have already become classics – part 1
By the beginning of the 2000s it was the norm for new yacht designs to have low centre of gravity keels, with generally bigger bulbs than previously, which dramatically improved…
Popular yacht designs of the 1990s
The 1990s began with a recession that saw a massive dip in the number of new boats sold, in a marked contrast to the boom years of the 1970s and…
Popular classics – 1980s yacht designs that are still making waves today
The 1980s ushered in more change in the marine industry. A key trend was that boats were rapidly becoming larger and more comfortable, especially towards the end of the decade,…
Coming of age: the 1970s yacht designs that have stood the test of time
Sailing in the 1970s was characterised by innovation, enthusiasm, mass participation and home boatbuilding. Rupert Holmes reports
The age of discovery – what we can learn from yacht design of the 1960s
The 1960s saw a huge increase in sailing participation, fuelled in part by the DIY boatbuilding boom. Rupert Holmes reports
Sailing for All – the 1950s: a short history of yacht design
Although the post-war period was a time of scarcity – food rationing in the UK continued until 1954 – it was also a period of great optimism. There was more…
Boat show success for Oarsome Chance despite not finding bidder for Project Boat
Oarsome Chance, the youth support charity that took over building the PBO Project Boat in late 2018 has declared the PBO Project Boat stand at the Southampton Boat Show a…
Free boat plans – update plus extra plans and photos published
Four weeks on from the relaunch of the Nigel Irens designed Western Skiff, we offer our first round of updates. In addition to the 39-page set of A-zero paper plans…
Return of the sporty trailable cruiser
A performance weekender built in Britain has been missing for a long time – which is why it’s good to meet the BTC-22, says David Harding
Free boat plans – Build your own Nigel Irens 14ft rowing and sailing skiff
Fancy building your own Nigel Irens-designed 14ft rowing/sailing skiff? Nic Compton explains how to get the plans for free
How I designed and built my own 24ft sloop in steel
Mike Camp charts the trials and tribulations of designing and building his 26ft steel sloop
Sailing for all
Rupert Holmes charts the innovations and developments in yacht design that marked the post-war years through the 1950s