The responsibilities of a boat’s skipper was brought home in the news the other day and the story would, surely, be a bit of a surprise to many. Small craft owners, whether sailors or motorboaters will know that underway, the skipper is in charge and not only that, is responsible, under law, for the well…

As each year rolls over into the next, the numbers of small craft, fibre glass boats on the whole, abandoned by owners has grown steadily. Old wooden boats get abandoned too, however, these, in time, will break down and in any case, as a last resort an owner can ‘safely’ burn. I wrote an article…

A few days into the New Year and an email tumbled from my letter box from a reader of my latest book, Sailing through life… The chap and his wife have been in regular contact over the past decade or so and upon the sad death from cancer of a sister, they had donated her…

At the beginning of 2023, although the mate and I were unhappy with the way the Island Yacht Club on Canvey Island were treating our ‘boy’ and that we have never forgiven the club at the way we had been treated over a ‘problem’ in 2019, we weren’t about to cast off and sail away…

Calor’s crazy decision of a couple years back now caused more than a stir in the boating circles, but it was in the caravan and motorhome world that the storm of dissent was loudest, and, earliest onto the block. I tried my luck with the traditional boating press to no avail before getting the South…

A little while ago there was a warning in the ‘yachting press’ about boat safety and in particular safety on inland waterways craft. This is nothing new: Marine Industry Federation and MAIB (Maritime accident investigation branch) of the MCA have raised concerns earlier this year. While down in deepest ‘land locked’ Wiltshire recently visiting family…

As soon as the book hit the streets, people began asking for signed copies, which is nice. Interestingly the hard copy was as much in demand as the soft cover … I’ve had two glitches: a few weeks ago, I sent all my stock to Salty Dogs Christmas season shop in Maldon – fronted by…

Whilst away down in West Sussex a little while back during the early autumn, I alighted on a book that looked interesting in a historical way. Great Years in Yachting by John Nicholson. It was published by Nautical Publishing Ltd, of Lymington in 1970. It is therefore still under copyright and I acknowledge with thanks…

On the book’s launch day, a box packed full of the finished article arrived. Even though this is my seventh book, it was still an exciting moment to carefully open the box and lift out and hold a copy for the first time. It was a book that was very nearly ‘binned’ due huge angst…

Some many years ago we fitted a carpet into the main cabin aboard Whimbrel – it was something we did after I read in one of Francis B. Cooke’s books about ‘comfort afloat of an evening…’ In any case, it is almost a common sense action. Cooke believed in carpet slippers too! A carpet makes…

Last year when on a road passage between Arundel and Devizes, we passed through Midhurst, a delightful little town situated in the West Sussex National Park. Investigating later, it was discovered to be not so far from Jane Austen’s childhood home. Bingo: a place both myself and the mate have wanted to visit… So, a…

Autumn marks the end of the sailing season for most boaters. Others stay active. For many years now since my enforced early retirement from sea, Whimbrel and her crew fall into the latter category. After my return from taking my youngest brother and a cousin away for a great late summer early autumn weekend on…

At long last, I can ‘release’ the title to you: it is out there in the wider world of book sales. The publisher said in their letter when accepting the book and offering a contract: ‘…your submission was found to be a powerful, poignant memoir, an admirable chronicle of overcoming extraordinary odds…’ ‘…keen to comment…

This project has seemingly just meandered atrociously from one edit to the next at a pace that can only be described as snail-like. I have reached ‘final edit’ so many times, I’ve almost approached despair. The edit was returned some while ago, corrected, I was told, but absolutely nothing had actually been done. There were…

I have visited the Nottage Institute once before. It was some years ago when sailing with my sister and two other friends as crew. We’d come up on the tide for some stores. We enjoyed an early morning sail up to Wivenhoe on the last of the flood and managed to get into one of…

We have had a couple of visits to Maldon by water so far this summer, but on our last, we berthed at the mud marina and yard which is part of the Marine Store empire. There is a relatively decent loo and shower facility available and a very friendly and helpful team ashore.. I soon…

Of course, Leigh Ray a pen name and it is widely thought to be the lead author of ‘Swin, Swale & Swatchway’, Herbert Lewis Jones, actually co-written with Charles Barrett Lockwood. Ray Leigh, as many old sailing hands will know, often wrote articles for early issues of Yachting Monthly magazine. Interestingly if one does a…

During last autumn, I came across a book about the ‘lost’ route to Portsmouth from the R. Thames. The Wey and Arun navigations formed the backbone of this route from the ‘east and west’ respectively (although it was almost north-south). The route was effectively closed around the time of the trip made and problems were…

Some weeks before the early days of August 1983 we had cycled from Canvey Island, up Benfleet Hill and along a leafy lane cutting through extensive woodland to the yard of A F Platt Ltd, based in its own woodland paradise on the Daws Heath/Hadleigh border. Our son did the trip too, at a little…

After much thought we have at last made the break with the Island Yacht Club, Canvey Island. An incident over the Bank Holiday weekend in August 2019 is at the root of this decision, which I will publicly discuss further down, but has been further driven by other more recent events. The final straw came…