BOATS & GEAR
Me & my boat: Amel Santorin 46
We go for a sail in Snowdonia and discover a blue-water bargain
Backing up GPS
How to make your GPS failsafe. Alastair Buchan reports
New gear
What a sailor really wants for Christmas: our festive gift ideas
New boat test: Sunbeam 28.1
Graham Snook heads to Austria to sail Sunbeam’s new pocket cruiser
Group gear test: Breathable coastal oilskins
We test 10 new suits
New boats
We review the latest crop of French yachts from La Rochelle
Tried and tested
Emergency VHF aerial
LED cockpit light
CRUISING
The infamous Bideford Bar
Bob Aylott discovers how to cross ‘Britain’s second-worst harbour bar’
From sea to shining sea
Tom Partridge takes his Hylas 46 through the Panama Canal in its centenary year
Why tides behave weirdly
Norman Kean explains strange tidal anomalies
Anchorage
The picturesque harbour of Crookhaven, County Cork
Cruising log
Yachting Monthly readers share their experiences, including a warm welcome in Corfu
Anchorage
Île Dumet, a real-life treasure island in South Brittany
Sailing by… or not
Behind the scenes of the Shipping Forecast
SAILING SKILLS
‘Is it worth putting the kite up?’
Poled-out genoa, spinnaker or cruising chute? Chris Beeson finds
out which sail to use and when
A gruesome find
Hundreds of miles from the nearest land, Dave and Marie Ungless find a body at sea…
Skipper’s tips
When all else fails…
Save your laces
Sleep easy
The shape of the sea
Back-to- front ventiltion
What a pong!
A question of seamanship
‘Rocks don’t move much, but have they shrunk?’ Can you help our crew?
Any questions?
Why not in-boom furling?
How to calculate true wind speed?
What is a bow spring?
REGULARS
View from the helm
Editor’s letter
News
Yachts stolen to traffic refugees
Dredger collision
Fisher yachts back
Letters
Star of the slipway
Waves in shallows
Check you gooseneck
Tom Cunliffe
Doldrums madness
Libby Purves
All at sea with gadgets
Dick Durham
Rough guide to Essex
Analysis
‘What has the RYA done for us?’ we ask the ‘yachting establishment’
A good read
Wandering under Sail – The loneliest place in the British Isles
The Confessional Readers own up…