Our team of testers and consultants have thousands of miles of sailing experience and a host of RYA qualifications, from Yachtmaster Instructor/Examiner to sea survival
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Yachting Monthly Team
Paul Gelder – Editor
No stranger to disaster at sea, Paul is editor of the
best-selling anthology of sailing nightmares, ‘Total Loss’ and its companion
volume, ‘Sunk Without Trace’ (Adlard Coles Nautical). His longest passage was
5,000 miles, crewing from Southampton to Rio on the British Steel Challenge.
Skipper Chris Beeson
Over 30 years’ sailing. 40,000 ocean miles logged including
three Fastnet Races, two Transatlantic crossings, one non-stop Round Britain
and Ireland Race. Author of the Handbook of Survival at Sea.
Andrew Brook
Yachting Monthly’s Geoff Pack Scholar has sailed for 15
years. Worked on Mediterranean charter yachts: one season instructing with
Sunsail, one season as flotilla engineer with Setsail.
Kieran Flatt
A sailor for three decades, Kieran is YM’s production editor
and had spent the last ten years cruising a 28ft sloop around the English
Channel, Bay of Biscay, Bristol Channel and Irish Sea. He has also worked as a
sailing instructor in the UK and France.
Consultants
Mike Golding OBE
(Consultant on Capsize)
One of the world’s top ocean sailors, awarded an OBE in 2007
for his contribution to the sport of sailing. Mike has sailed singlehanded
around the world five times. Once called ‘the unluckiest yachtsman in the
world’, he has been dismasted several times and once lost his keel but still
managed to finish the course.
Paul Lees
(Consultant on Dismasting and Jury rig)
Founder and principal of Crusader Sails, in Poole he has been sailmaking for over 40 years.
Veteran of the 1979 Fastnet Race, former skipper of J Class Velsheda, highlyexperienced
inshore and offshore racer. Has also been a boatbuilder – 32 boats launched.
Mark Lees
(crew on dismasting and jury rig)
Mark, 19, is a former Optimist junior national champion, RYA
youth national match racing champion and has held many other junior titles.
Currently, he is a helmsman for the British Keelboat Academy, racing Niklas
Zennstrom’s Farr 45, Kolga.
Stuart Carruthers
(Consultant on Grounding)
More than 40 years’ sailing, thousands of sea miles both as
crew and skipper. Detailed knowledge of technical and regulatory issues that
affect leisure sailors.
Paul Stevens
(Consultant on Seacocks)
Paul is the whistleblower behind YM’s ‘Safe Seacocks
Campaign’. A lifelong sailor and yacht surveyor he is author of Surveying
Yachts and Small Craft (Adlard Coles Nautical) and a passionate believer in
hands-on surveyor training at the International Boatbuilding Training College
where he lectures.
Simon Jinks
(Consultant on Grounding)
Ran the RYA Yachtmaster programme, navigation and safety
courses, now a partner in SeaRegs LLP, specializing in MCA codes, safety
management systems, RYA training, accreditation and charter. Used to write
Yachting Monthly’s Practical Seamanship series.
Martin Lodge
International Fire Training Centre
(Consultant on Fire)
Sub-officer Firefighter Martin Lodge teaches at the
International Fire Training Centre, Warsash Maritime Academy. Together with
Firefighters Andy Baynham and Barry Marsh, who assisted on our fire test they have over 100 years’
fire-fighting experience.
Jerry Henwood
(Consultant on Dismasting)
A lifelong sailor, Jerry runs his own rigging business
from his workshop in Gosport. Every year, Admiral Marine Insurance (owners of
the Crash Test Boat) send Jerry to Las Palmas to check the rigs of yachts
taking part in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.
Photography and Filming
Graham Snook
Photographer Yachting Monthly
Over 32 years’ sailing experience and more than 10,000 sea
miles logged. Has cruised in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the
Mediterranean. Owns a Sadler 32 sloop, Pixie.
Lester McCarthy
Photographer Yachting Monthly
40 years’ experience, many extended passages around the UK
and Europe. Owned many boats, from a tugboat to a classic wooden Vertue sloop.
Steve Adams
With 20 years’ experience in TV production, Steve now makes
videos for his company YachtingTV, which has included Atlantic and
Biscay crossings. He’s a passionate sailor and always looking for exciting,
adventurous ways of bringing sailing to life on TV.
