Due to our move to a new mooring area, we did not sail into Faversham last year. Future visits are highly likely to be less frequent than we have enjoyed in the past. So, it was with seemingly fresh eyes that we entered the creek a couple of days ago, managing to largely lazily sail…

Familiar or what! The problem of unwanted craft around our UK moorings and boatyards along with discarded and abandoned vessels along creeks and riverbanks has been an increasingly sticky problem. It is something our European cousins have cottoned onto too. A figure placed on such craft sits at around a million vessels. Of what minimum…

Whilst in Scotland during May and early June, Christobel bought me a book she found in Fort Augusta about Scottish boat types. I wasn’t too sure, but looked interesting with a cursory flick through – ‘I am glad I said yes please…’ The author Ian Stephen has had a long association with Scottish craft, being…

The Mate and I have been on a two week heist to the West Coast of Scotland with a Northumbrian stop-over on our way home. We have had two sessions in the western isles waters aboard the fifty-foot gaff cutter Eda Fransden (One is told about in my recent book: Sailing through life…) After a…

Some while ago now I serviced the four lifejackets carried aboard Whimbrel and renewed our lifebelt. These jobs are just part of the well trodden list of ‘must do’ things all boaters enjoy! But, do all boaters do these ‘simple’ checks? When the RNLI is called out so often to people crewing vessels with shortcomings,…

‘So…’ my good mate began to say, adding, ‘what are you going to do when I’m in London on Wednesday?’ And without pausing, grinning wickedly, added, ‘why don’t you have a night down river with your mistress…’ Having recovered from a blush: I’ve never ever had ‘the enjoyment of a mistress’ I wasn’t sure the…

Something in a Marine Industry News bulletin came to my attention recently; Spirit Yachts of Ipswich are building a new ‘mini’ J Class. The class was known as the Q Class. These were an American designed yacht specifically used as club racing and as a test bed for the J Class yachts and their crews.…

The story of how we decided to purchase a new build Finesse 24 is told about in Chapter 2 of my book, ‘The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-crawler’ published by Amberley Publishing, 2011. It remains in print and available. The story also wraps up the history of the Finesse classes after Alan Platt (and…

A sailing friend, Paul Mullings, and supporter of my books in far off New Zealand, Auckland, to be precise, on the North Island, where he has lived a contented life with his wife for many years. Paul hailed from Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, England and has always been a friend of the sea and its coastal…

The Marine Industry News online news magazine has reported on serious troubles with Cornish Crabbers Ltd. Without beating about the bush – they are broke and owe some £1M to creditors. See: The article reports on possible reasons for the problems encountered by the boat builder – largely around the fact that there are a…

The last time Whimbrel came out of the water we suffered from exceedingly bad treatment from a large minority of Island Yacht Club members and we ended up leaving our club of forty years… There was a little more to it than that: it rekindled the rancour following a complaint we’d made about a ‘RIB…

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…