Expert delivery skipper Ben Lowings offers his top tips to help improve boat performance and handling. Efficient helming Sailing starts – and ends – with the human element. You may…
Seamanship
What we learned picking up our first motorboat
Looking back at our disastrous first trip aboard our motorboat Kay, we were under-equipped and complete novices who were convinced we could bring her down the river from Wargrave to…
How a ‘Sécurité’ warning and a 33 hour continuous sail saved this 87-year-old solo sailor
Solo sailor owen Moorhouse built his first 11ft Vee Jay as a teenager and has enjoyed a lifetime of yacht ownership. At 97, he lives aboard Sandpiper, a 38ft Roberts…
“I was on Lyme Bay harbour wall in only my soggy underpants”: how a test voyage became a crash-course in seamanship
My first test voyage onboard my boat Draken was, to say the least, quite a rude awakening. After years of dinghy sailing and kayaking, I had bought Draken, a 1969 Snapdragon…
10 checks for sailing offshore
What should you look out for before sailing an unfamiliar yacht? Nathan Zhart explains to Erin Carey the essential checks before putting to sea
Making history in an Albin Vega 27 – Jazz Turner’s story
Adventurer and disabled sailor Jazz Turner reflects on her recent record-setting UK and Ireland circumnavigation
Force 10 in the Channel: ‘We took a colossal wave broadside, and the cockpit was suddenly knee-deep in water’
A routine Channel crossing became a nerve-shredding passage when a ferocious storm hit, as Ron Stride recalls
Avoiding boat collisions: understanding COLREGS
If you’re at the helm, can you spot a risk of collision with another boat? Do you know when to ‘stand on’ and when to ‘give way’?
How to cope when marina berthing goes wrong
Nobody gets every tricky marina manoeuvre right first time – but what do you do if things don’t go as planned? David Harding presents an escape route
Manoeuvring in shallow waters with a bow thruster remote control
Andrew Morton explains how a bow thruster remote control helped him manoeuvre safely alongside a new jetty in potentially shallow water.
Prop walk: how to use it to your best advantage
Daria and Alex Blackwell share the close-quarters manoeuvring techniques they’ve picked up at the helm of a 57ft, heavy-displacement classic ketch
Why you should race your cruising boat
Ben Meakins finds out why – and how – PBO readers from around the UK go racing in their cruising yachts
How important is headsail trim?
PBO reader Jenny Spear wants advice on how to improv the performance of her boat's headsail. Ian Brown has this brief guide to headsail trim
Embracing electronic navigation – one reluctant boater’s tale
Celestial navigation instructor Paul Jones reluctantly got to grips with electronic navigation and is now "out of the fog and into the future"
How to use a shore line to secure a boat at anchor
Genevieve Leaper explains why, in some circumstances, using a shore line to keep the boat secure makes perfect sense
Sailing in a hurricane: How I escaped Hurricane Beryl
When I bought my first boat, I didn’t imagine that I’d soon be sailing in a hurricane, writes Ben Williams. The anchorage in Tyrell Bay was perfection. Good holding for…
Summer sailing: how to have the best time afloat!
Ali Wood gets some top tips from experienced cruisers on preparing for the perfect summer cruise
Rigging pile mooring pick-up lines
If you have a pile mooring, permanent and properly rigged pick-up lines will make life a lot easier. David Parker explains how to rig them
Tidal races, overfalls, and headlands: how to prepare for challenging waters
Sailing around a headland in the British Isles will nearly always involve an encounter with tricky tidal races and overfalls, a ‘commotion of the sea’, best visualised as broken or…
How to free a fouled anchor
A fouled anchor doesn't have to mean losing costly ground tackle. If the conditions are right, you can save the day with a mask and snorkel, says Richard Hare