Sailors who look around 21st century boat shows won’t come across a single big volume British yacht builder. The occasional Oyster, Rustler, Swallow Baycruiser or Cornish Crabber is about all…
Peter Poland
Best 30 foot boats: Seaworthy British cruisers available for under £30k
You might think £30,000 sounds like a lot of money for a ‘starter boat’. But tracking down a comfortable and seaworthy yacht that’s 30 foot long, less than around 40…
Best Scandinavian boats: Our pick of the best models around 30ft
Any sailor looking for a solid and seaworthy boat around the 30ft size is likely to put some of the best Scandinavian boats on their shortlist. Leading manufacturers such as…
Best cruising boats under 30 feet: Is this the ideal size for a yacht?
Cruising boats of around 30ft can often become a ‘boat for life’. Having graduated from dinghies to small cruisers, many sailors decide that something around 30ft will give them enough…
Fairey Swordsman 30: A crowd-pleasing jet boat with James Bond connections
Willie Bewes, retired director of Transworld Yachts, had a successful career selling large numbers of Swedish Hallberg-Rassy cruising yachts to the British market. But despite this commercial success his boating…
Parker 660 Pilothouse review: Impressive performer is surprisingly versatile
Before the introduction of its range of sports fishing boats and fast cruisers in the early 2000s, Parker Poland had been one of the leading suppliers of RIBs since the…
Best Hallberg-Rassy sailboats: The evolution of a Swedish sailing icon
Hallberg-Rassy has been in the same family ownership since Christoph Rassy bought Harry Hallberg’s boatbuilding business in 1972 and formed Hallberg-Rassy. And 49 years later it’s still going strong and…
3 great british motor-sailers: boats that you buy by the pound
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…
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…