Features

• Cape Horn to starboard!
  After 170,000 miles of sailing together, rounding the Horn ‘the wrong way’ was the pinnacle of Lin and Larry Pardey’s cruising experience

• Landfalls: The long way across Biscay
  The Harris family cross from Camaret to La Coruña on their Sun Odyssey 47

• Winter warnings
  Is your boat safe from winter storms, or
  are you a broken chain-link away from disaster? Mike Kopman offers tips for laying up afloat, plus four shorebased case histories

• Look back in anger
  Boats are not designed to go astern? Roger Morris finds propwalk, windage and tide conspire to make him feel backwards
  
  
• Knight sailing: part 1
  Alison Panes is unprepared for the dramas, delays and diversions involved in sailing her father’s Westerly GK24 home to Conwy, north Wales. Part one: Brighton to Padstow, Cornwall
  
  
• Old man of the sea
  Veteran blue-waterman David Lewis (85) is young at heart. Jill Knight meets a hero who can still appreciate the lines of a boat… and a woman

• Stability part 6
  In the final article on seaworthiness, Andrew Blyth offers advice on what you should consider when buying a boat for ocean or coastal sailing

• Tread softly, for you tread on my dreams
  Peter Bonsey on how cherished dreams of liveaboard sailing should not be rushed too quickly into reality

• Destinations: St Valery-sur-Somme
  Landing in the port from which William the Conqueror departed for the invasion of Britain, David Jefferson discovers a bustling, historical seaside town

• From the gift locker
  Toby Hodges finds 18 Christmas gifts fit for any sailor’s stocking, from sailing guides to satphones
  

Sailing Skills

• A Question of Seamanship
  Close encounter with a coaster
  
  
• Learning Curve
  Peter Hoggins hits bad weather in Australia’s Whitsunday Islands
  
  
• Knots
  The jury mast knot : a practical party piece by Geoffrey Budworth
  
  
• Sea Sense: Des Sleightholme
  The art of making yourself heard
  
  
• Yachtmaster Class
  Tom Cunliffe says we ignore signs in the sky at our peril

• Better Boat Handling
  Sailing downwind safely with Simon Jinks
  
  
• Sailing quiz
  Win a pair of Steiner Commander V binoculars worth ‘595
  

On Test

• Bavaria 38: exclusive first test
  A 38ft cruiser for ‘63,000? Mike Kopman finds out if the Germans are hiding anything

• Lagoon 410 S2
  In perfect sailing conditions, YM gets a preview of this spacious modern French cruising cat – making her debut in UK waters

Every Month

• Editorial
• On Watch
  The best sailing news pages
  
  
• Readers’ letters
• Any Questions?
  Buying yachts in Holland

• Next month and YM books
• Libby Purves
  Magnificent Ellen MacArthur

• YM subscriptions
  
  
• Blue Water Letter
  Colin Lowe and the crew of Wild Bird ride the Gulf Stream from Bermuda to Nova Scotia
  
  
• Blue Water Postscript