There is a saying that the two most useless articles on a yacht are a Naval Officer and an umbrella.

As a former Engineer Officer in the Merchant Navy, I will avoid comment on the utility of our friends in the Grey Funnel Line. I do believe however that there is a place for the humble brolly.
Our family cruising yacht was equipped with the old type of port and starboard navigation lights, mounted on the pulpit. These needed attention every few months to clean the corrosion from the bulb connections.

This fiddly operation was always a worry, as anything dropped swiftly ended up in Davy Jones’ Locker. We have now replaced the old units with LED lights, which are  brighter and should hopefully be maintenance free. In order to ensure these did not become victims of my fumbling during fitting, the brolly was deployed as a safety net ‘just in case’.

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Loose locker lids? Strut right this way

PBO reader Tim Marsden shares a practical project to ensure the smooth closure of locker lids

Cheap but effective anchor light

John Macdonald makes a low-wattage anchor light from odds and ends – plus an outlay of 99p

Keeping birds off your mast

Building site spikes keep tricolour clean - Willem Bijl keeps his tricolour light seagull-free

Six IKEA hacks for your boat

Whether it's making an instrument panel from a tablet stand, turning bed slats into a dinghy floor, creating a wine…

Waterproof your trailer light plug

Boat trailer electrics, especially trailer light plugs are very susceptible to damage, either through the wires being pulled out or…

Pushpit gate

Peter Crick makes a gate in his pushpit - which then goes on to save a life!

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

Clever anchor ball storage

A bright idea means Jeremy White’s anchor ball is never forgotten

A cure for leaky chainplates

The illustration shows the only way I have been able to stop through-deck chainplates from leaking. The ‘bonnet’ is made…

Antifouling – how to remember how far you’ve got

It is amazing how crew always seem to disappear when boat maintenance time comes. I always end up painting the…

Mooring line chafe protection for stony quays

Rough quays are a problem now and again and certainly something to be mindful of when mooring up for the…

‘It’s over there!’

Ron Sykes adds numbers to help avoid confusion when identifying ships and marks

Clever socket for mounting tiller pilot

Robin Benjamin goes on a one-man mission to eliminate unnecessary holes, starting with mounting his tiller pilot using an antenna…