Inside your February 2015 issue…

SAILING SKILLS

Expert On Board
20 tips for a happy ship

Skipper’s tips
– When to use paper charts
– Fuel additives
– Small person’s logbook
– Headsail trim
– Harbour wall bounce-back effect

How five anchors performed in a Force 7
Vyv Cox goes underwater to find out how they cope in a gale

A question of seamanship
‘Would you call her up or dodge her?’ Close encounter with a ship, mid-Channel

Any questions?
– Sea state and the Rule of Twelfths
– Which alternator?
– Whay are chart colours reversed?

CRUISING

Cumbrian cruising on Ullswater
Ex-ocean cruisers explain why the Lake District is a downsizer’s paradise

How to avoid the berthing fees in Brittany
Ken Endean’s cruise plan

Can plastic be fantastic?
Leonard Skinner ponders the status of his middle-aged glassfibre yacht

Adventure: In Tillman’s Wake
Two small classic yachts on an epic expedition to Jan Mayen % Iceland

Anchorages
Snug havens in Devon, Essex, The Hebrides and the Baltic

Cruising log
Reader’s cruising yarns from Biscay and the Bristol Channel

‘How we found a bargain in France’
Boat-hunting on the River Vilaine

BOATS & GEAR

Me and my boat: Verl 900
Theo Stocker steps aboard a remarkable example of this 1970s design in Whitby

Next season’s best new gear
Five-page report: 24 useful inventions and innovations for cruising

New boat test: Contest 42
Graham Snook tests the mettle of this long-distance cruiser on the IJsselmeer in The Netherlands

Tried and tested
– Digital YachtAIS transponder
– AIS viewer for iPads

The easy way to step a mast singlehanded
Jim Mottran’s nifty tabernacle, strut and tackle system