Part of Catalina’s long-lasting success is based on a refusal to follow passing fashions. Instead models have a very long production life and are constantly refined to improve finish and…
boats
C&C 27: A roomy cruising boat that is ahead of its time
Shortly after the Viking 28 was launched C&C became established as boatbuilders in their own right and went on to produce a huge range of successful racing and cruising designs.…
Half a million Sunfish dinghies sold: What is the secret to its success?
Today Britain is the world’s largest producer of sailing dinghies, but the story was different 50 to 60 years ago, when many countries produced huge numbers of small boats as…
Catalina 22: The most successful cruising yacht ever designed
When he launched this modest ballasted centreboarder in 1969 Frank Butler is reputed to have said he would consider it a success if he built 100 boats. Six years later…
C&C Viking 28: A bargain 1960s fin-keel yacht
This Cuthbertson & Cassian-designed 28-footer was built by Ontario Yachts in Canada from 1968 onwards. At that time the C&C Viking 28 still represented a radical concept, with a short…
J/24: Sailing one of the world’s most popular boats
The 1970s saw plenty of innovation on the USA’s north-eastern coasts. The wide-beam almost flush deck 24-footer Ragtime that Rod Johnston built in his garage over the winter of 1975/76…
Island Packet 350: A boat that delivers you in style
This Florida-based yard has produced a range of distinctive long keel serious cruising designs for more than 40 years. These are quality yachts, with a high level of standard equipment…
Convert a 54ft fishing trawler into a blue-water motor-sailer
When my partner, Dave, has a mad idea, he normally finds a way to make it happen. “I’d like to sail across the Atlantic,” he declared one day. “Uh-oh!” I…
Katie McCabe: “How I restored a wooden yacht at the age of 13”
My name is Katie, but I prefer to be called Sade (pronounced Sayd). I am 13 years old and over the winter and spring (2019-2020), through the pandemic, I restored…
J/105: The asymmetric fleet racer turned offshore fast cruiser
While no subsequent J-boat has matched the J/24 in sales, the brand nevertheless became hugely successful across the globe. The company went on to lead the world in adopting asymmetric…
Legend 356 sailboat: Big in Britain but born in the USA
Hunter Marine became a major force in boatbuilding from the 1980s through to the financial crisis of 2008, with the boats sold in the UK under the Legend brand to…
Becoming an Old Gaffer – How I found my ideal boat
I don’t own Wendy May, she owns me. I’m just the custodian. She was built for an army officer in 1936 by Williams & Parkinson in North Wales. Their brief…
The great hybrid-electric canal boat race – Worcester to Droitwich trials
A fleet of narrow boats powered by a mix of hybrid-electric and HVO-diesel-fuelled engines are set to ‘race’ each other along a stretch of the River Severn and the Droitwich…
Shipwrecked in a 14ft keelboat then rescued by a cargo ship
Yann Quenet is a genius from Brittany I would love to meet. He is an inventor, designer, and builder of boats, mostly of marine plywood/epoxy, a material I have a…
My first motorboat – two sailors on how and why they converted to powerboating
Retired doctor and practical motorboat owner Gilbert Park has undertaken numerous DIY challenges on board his various motorboats, publishing several of them in PBO, including: What is AIS B+ and…
Rustler 33 review and test sail – a pleasure to look at and a pleasure to sail
I read a fascinating article recently about relationships. It was a distillation of the guidance offered by over a thousand people who had been with their spouses or partners for…
Hunter Ranger 245 on test – a boat for our time?
Back in 2012, I went for a spin on the Hunter Channel 245 – a robust and chunky little cruiser that punched above her weight in lots of ways. Here…
Improve performance by understanding boat design
Øyvind Bordal explains how form stability, LOA, LWL, speed tables and polar diagrams can help you choose the right boat for your kind of sailing
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…
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…