New generation anchors with holding power well beyond that of the previous common shapes, including the CQR, Bruce and a whole host of their derivatives, have been with us for…
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What I learned from towing my 24ft keelboat 1,000 miles from Italy to the UK
The J24 World Championships in Italy were coming to an end and talk turned to the journey home. We’d originally flown in while another of the team towed the boat…
Freeman 22 used boat report: Comfortable motor cruiser with an interesting engine
Motor boats have never really appealed to me, simply because I can’t fix them when they go wrong, which inevitably they will. The idea of being stuck out at sea…
Best 30ft French boats: Our pick of the best options for cruising sailors
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…
Channel Hopping: Patrick Laine’s transatlantic solo sailing woe
I write this from a cafe in Jamestown, Rhode Island USA, looking out across the East Passage of Narragansett Bay to Newport, the finish port for the Royal Western Yacht…
Sloop vs cutter – which is best? From the PBO archives
At Victoria Marine they produce some very fine boats, well designed, and well built. Beyond that they also follow a policy of allowing each customer the maximum possible freedom of…
How I built a £500 marine fuel polishing system to protect my boat from dirty diesel
Give our diesel engines clean fuel to drink, plenty of fresh air to breathe, plus a regular jump-start of amps, and they’ll happily run pretty well forever, given a little…
Replace or rebuild? How to tell if your old boat engine is salvageable
Most of us will know someone – and may have been that someone ourselves – with a rusty, rattly, oily or smoking marine diesel engine. The sort of old boat…
How to antifoul a boat: What we learned from antifouling Maximus
As we’d scraped back the hull and were starting afresh, the idea of releasing biocides into the water, albeit very slowly, was something we wanted to avoid. Also, it seemed…
Special Hui Gathering to celebrate the late James Wharram’s life
A celebration of the late James Wharram's life will be taking place on 22 to 25 July (exact day will be chosen according to the weather).
“I had a banana for a mast” 300 miles offshore: Lessons learned from a mid-Atlantic knockdown
Golden Globe Race entrant and former Clipper Race skipper Guy Waites suffers mast failure 300 miles from the Azores
Prepping the rusty keel of the PBO Project boat
In our Maxi 84 boat survey, Ben Sutcliffe-Davies concluded that the antifouling needed to come off and whilst the keel joint was nice and tight there was a lot of…
Book review: The Making of Swallows and Amazons
I came across The Making of Swallows and Amazons by sheer chance not long after I had watched the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ on TV and was instantly intrigued.…
Removing antifouling – the job I’ll never do again!
After a season on the water and two years in a boatyard, Maximus’s antifouling was old and flaky. We’d been given the 28ft Maxi 84 by PBO reader Daniel Kirtley,…
Which paint for antifouling a bronze bracket? Ask the experts
Maureen Owens from Gosport asks: “The bronze prop shaft bracket on my boat regularly seems to foul up but I’m unsure what to use to coat it with antifouling. “Am…
Do you know your rudders?
Do you know rudders? Boatyards are a great place to get to know different types of keels, rudders and other underwater fittings. When Ben Sutcliffe-Davies came down to Chichester to…
Best inflatable kayaks for families and beginners
Inflatable kayaks are the ultimate way to have fun with family and friends. No boating experience needed, no faffing around with roof-racks. Just pump and go. So when Decathlon launched…
Boat trailer bearings explained: Why many trailing sailors have the wrong type
Being able to easily trail your little boat to new cruising grounds is a great feeling. Many owners of cruising yachts simply don’t get the time to go far from…
Boat food ideas: Top tips to transform your meals on board
Seeking to make life on board more like that at home, by maximising comfort and convenience is understandable – as humans we’ve been doing that ever since we started creating…
Types of seal and the best places to spot them from your boat in the UK
‘When angels fell, some fell on the land, some on the sea. The former are the faeries and the latter were often said to be the seals.’ While this old…