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The dangers of running aground in a motor boat

by Stuart Batley | Boat Handling, Communications, Crewing skills, Emergencies, Navigation, Preparation

Picture this: you’re out on a serene lake or cruising along a beautiful coastline in your motor boat, enjoying the wind in your hair and the gentle lapping of the water against your vessel. However, amidst the bliss of boating lies a lurking danger –...

2023 Rolex Fastnet Race – Part 2

by Simon Jollands | Boat Handling, Communications, Crewing skills, Emergencies, Navigation, Preparation, Yacht ownership

Simon Jollands took part in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race. This is the second of his articles on the race aboard Lancelot II, a Beneteau First 40. The first night of the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race proved to be a major challenge for the fleet, including us. Many yachts...

2023 Rolex Fastnet Race

by Simon Jollands | Boat Handling, Communications, Crewing skills, Emergencies, Navigation, Preparation, Yacht ownership

Simon Jollands took part in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race. This is the first of several articles on the race and focuses on the start. The 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race proved to be a classic offshore sailing event that lived up to its reputation as being one of the toughest...

The Round The Island Race 2023

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Emergencies, Navigation, Preparation

This year’s Round the Island Race turned out to be a really thrilling and competitive event. 1100 boats entered the race, which took place on Saturday 1st July. The race started from the world famous Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes UK, with the largest and...

Going aground – what to do if it happens to you

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Emergencies, Navigation, Preparation

It is one of those sailing facts of life that, however hard you try to avoid it, sooner or later you will most likely find yourself aground. It has happened to me twice. Once when I was on a RYA training vessel near the entrance to Beaulieu River in the Western...

Tidal heights and the rule of twelfths

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Navigation, Preparation

In our previous article we looked at tidal curves and how we can use them to find the time of a specific height of tide. Following on from this we now take a look at how we calculate a height of tide for a specific time. This is not a complex calculation but it helps...

Understanding tide tables and tidal curves

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Navigation, Preparation

No two coastal places have exactly the same tidal pattern. There are many factors that influence this, from the shape of the coastline, the funnelling effect of channels and estuaries, the depth of the sea and the proximity of oceans. The times and heights of tides...

Tidal terms and definitions

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Navigation, Preparation

In a previous post, we looked at some of the basic principles involved with understanding tides, including what causes their rise and fall, the resulting tidal streams and the tidal range that varies according to coastal topography. For those who are learning or...

Fixing position at sea using traditional methods

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Navigation, Preparation

Following on from previous posts concerning traditional navigation methods, this post looks at some traditional methods used for fixing a vessel’s position at sea, within sight of land. Electronic fixes using chart plotters are very straightforward to record,...

Estimating and plotting your position at sea

by Simon Jollands | Communications, Crewing skills, Navigation, Preparation

In a recent post we discussed the importance of being able to estimate your position at sea if the vessel’s GPS fails. In this post we go a little further with a reminder of how we go about estimating and plotting our position using traditional methods, when out...