The author of Illustrated Sail & Rig Tuning, Ivar Dedekam, provides his expert advice on how best to optimise sail trim High performance cruising yachts that are comfortable, fast and easy to handle do exist! It is difficult to describe ‘correct’ sail shape, but the three most important things to consider are: sail draft (the fullness of the sail), draft position, and twist (controlled by the kicker/vang and leech tension). Sail draft Sail draft (chord depth) is an imaginary line from luff to leech called the chord. Chord depth can then be expressed as the ratio percentage between the maxi ..read more

Andy Du Port explores which rules need to be followed to the letter to avoid collisions at sea and considers those which can be safely ignored Saying ‘International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea’ is something of a mouthful, let alone learning all of them verbatim. Commonly called the ‘Colregs’, they are a fine example of comprehensive, logical and unambiguous rules which have been adopted worldwide by almost all countries with coastlines (the only two which have not are the Western Sahara and Taiwan). In case you are yawning already – ‘Not another sermon on the Colregs ..read more

James Stevens considers a problem sent in by a Yachting Monthly reader who asks how do you recover a man overboard Paul and Emma own a 10m yacht and are day sailing with Paul’s parents on a fine day in early May. The weather is fair so they are all wearing fleeces and lifejackets but no wet weather gear is needed. The wind is about 10 to 15 knots coming off the land. Paul’s father, Jack, was an enthusiastic sailor in his youth and is keen to get involved. He notices that the mainsail leech line is fouling the upper mainsheet block on the boom. Before Paul can do anything, Jack is standing on ..read more

After the engine breakdown on board his Nicholson 35 Lady Blue in the Kiel Canal, one of the busiest commercial channels in the world, Harry Dekkers explains how they resolved the situation The Kiel Canal provides a convenient shortcut between the North Sea and the Baltic, or as the Germans call it, the Nordsee and the Ostsee. We Europeans call it the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, or NOK for short, while you Brits just call it the Kiel Canal. Going from west to east you enter the Kiel Canal via the Elbe River where you enter the locks at Brunsbüttel and you leave the Kiel Canal at Holtenau locks where y ..read more

A sextant and the sun is all you need to find your position, says Tapio Lehtinen. It’s easier than messing around with stars and much more satisfying than GPS Mark Sinclair on the GGR, shooting the sun When you read this, I will be somewhere in the depths of the Southern Ocean, bound for Cape Horn aboard the Swan 55 Galiana WithSecure. Supported by a crew of young Finnish sailors, I’m taking part in the Ocean Globe Race, a fully crewed round-the-world race that eschews modern technology, including GPS, to recapture the spirit of adventure of some of the early offshore races. I actually first s ..read more

James Stevens considers a problem sent in by a Yachting Monthly reader who wants to know whether you should leave harbour with an unsettled forecast Bill is in Plymouth in September planning a passage to the Med. He has decided that the first leg is to sail to Camaret near Brest in Brittany. His yacht, Aries, is a 12m cruiser racer. He has three crew. The forecast gives a low off south-west Ireland with SE 5-6 winds becoming 6-7 and veering south later for sea area Plymouth. The long-term forecast is for unsettled weather, so Bill is anxious to set off and sail south as soon as he can. The co ..read more

When Andy Pag was planning a 450-mile solo passage, sleep was the biggest source of worry. Here’s how he created an effective solo sleep routine When I was planning my first solo offshore sail on my Lagoon 410 Cushla, from Grenada to Bonaire, my biggest concern was not the risk of pirates off the coast of Trinidad, or the night-time squalls that might sneak up unseen in the trade winds. Even the risk of falling overboard and watching the boat sail away as I drifted alone in the current wasn’t giving me restless nights. The concern I was losing sleep over was sleep, and how I could ensure I’d ..read more

For their size, trimarans can punch well above their weight in speed, cruising potential and fun. Monohull sailor Theo Stocker gets to grips with how to handle one Getting a float fully submerged is when it’s time to back off Humans tend to gravitate into tribes of like-minded enthusiasts, enjoying the encouragement, support and sense of identity, while often looking askance at others; sailors at motorboaters, cruising sailors at racers, monohull sailors at raft, I mean, multihull sailors, and everyone looks askance at jet-skiers. Large cruising catamarans (40ft now counts as a small one) are ..read more

Radar is now more efficient, more affordable and far more advanced than even a few years ago. Rachael Sprot explains how to use rader to keep clear at sea The life of a radar on board a cruising yacht is an easy one. Aside from a few hours of action when it’s misty or foggy, its younger sibling, AIS, does the heavy lifting of collision avoidance for most yachts. Once the preserve of large yachts and commercial vessels, however, radar is increasingly found on yachts under 40ft. It’s become more affordable, easier to install and more intuitive to use, but how about its operators? Have we advanc ..read more

James Stevens considers a problem sent in by a Yachting Monthly reader who wants to know whether to proceed when a navigation light is obscured Sue is cruising around the small ports of north Brittany singlehanded on board a 9m cruising yacht. She is intending to enter a small harbour with a visitor’s buoy for an overnight stay. The harbour has leading marks which are lit at night to guide yachts between the drying rocks which extend either side of the channel for about half a mile. The sea conditions are flat calm and the forecast is for light offshore winds overnight. The tidal height is 6m ..read more