Nicholas Coghlan circumnavigated in the late 1980s with Jenny, his wife, on their small yacht, Tarka the Otter, before taking up a career in the Canadian Foreign Service. Many years…
Tom Cunliffe
Finishing a solo circumnavigation: An extract from Solitaire Spirit by Les Powles
If he hadn’t chosen to write a book, Les Powles could well have remained one of the unsung heroes of the ocean, men and women who dare to do in…
Sailing the Southern Ocean in a 27ft boat: Extract from Captain Bungle’s Odyssey
Captain Bungle’s Odyssey by Paddy Macklin is a great sailing book belied by its humble title. Extraordinarily self-effacing, Paddy makes light of a remarkable circumnavigation executed in truly Corinthian spirit,…
OSTAR 2017: David Southwood recounts an exceptionally brutal Atlantic storm
Competitors in the 2017 Original Single-handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) experienced the worst conditions since the race was initiated in 1960 in the era of Blondie Hasler and Francis Chichester. This…
Sailing to Jan Mayen: An extract from So Far, So Good by Paddy Barry
I first met Paddy Barry in the late 80s at a Breton traditional boat festival. I was on a raft of unrestored pilot cutters. Paddy’s and his friends’ Galway Hookers…
Sailing England’s East Coast: Extract from On and Offhore by Dick Durham
Dick Durham knows the East Coast of England better than most. He has sailed it, both deep water and shoal, since putting to sea in the 1960s as mate aboard…
North East Passage ice rescue: Extract from Northabout by Jarlath Cunnane
Jarlath Cunnane’s book Northabout is a must for anyone dreaming of ice navigation or who is fascinated by the history of the extraordinary people who have voyaged to the high…
Buster De Guingand on racing classic yacht Thalassa: An extract from The Yachtsman magazine
The name of E P De Guingand will be well known to crews on the RORC circuit. The race for the trophy known as the De Guingand Bowl is run…
Family sailing to Hawaii in a 34ft classic boat: Vixen’s great Pacific voyage
In September 2004, Bruce Halabisky and Tiffany Loney sailed from Victoria BC bound for Hilo, Hawaii, in their 1952 Atkin-designed 34ft gaff cutter Vixen. Eleven years later they have two…
1998 Sydney Hobart: Extract from The Proving Ground by G Bruce Knecht
Along with the 1979 Fastnet Race, the 1998 Sydney Hobart has become a byword for disaster at sea. Unless a writer was actually on board one of the boats and…
A bit aground: Extract from Nick Imber’s Travels With My Nan
A satisfying feature of looking after this column for the last 16 years has been the latitude granted me by editors for selecting material. This has delivered enough slack to…
Exumas to New York in a 33ft boat: Dick Carter’s extraordinary east coast voyage
In 1965 a young American designer, Dick Carter, met up with Bernard Hayman of Yachting World in the cockpit of Dick’s new race boat Rabbit. Yachting World recognised a mould-breaking…
Sailing Fiji to New Zealand: The ultimate tradewinds test?
We who write for the yachting press are deluged with tales of extraordinary achievement. Although I’ve done more than my own share of ocean walloping, I’m often humbled by the…
Sailing the North West Passage: An extract from Graeme Kendall’s To the Ice and Beyond
Every so often, a book appears that blows preconceptions clean out of the porthole. To the Ice and Beyond by Graeme Kendall is such a work. Many authorities, myself included,…
Night fall: An extract from Cully Pettigrew’s Yachting Journal of a Hebridean Sailor
Yachting Journal of a Hebridean Sailor by Cully Pettigrew offers an unusual insight into the mind of a deep-thinking man. His relationship with a small yacht over 30 years and…
Solo overboard: An extract from Miles Hordern’s Sailing The Pacific
Back in the early 1990s, a young man called Miles Hordern sailed his 28ft Kim Holman-designed Twister single-handed from the UK to New Zealand. He lived aboard in Auckland for…