Dick Durham

Most people don’t ‘get’ Roger D Taylor. At one time, blinded by sunny photographs of exotic ports in over-written pilot books, nor did I. Roger sails round in ever-increasing circles…

Dick Durham

I went to Mike Peyton’s wake recently. Not surprisingly, because he’s still world- renowned for his wry humour, it was not a gloomy affair. There were about 60 of us…

Dick Durham

The first thing I noticed, while leafing through the tourist board bumpf in the room of my Tallinn hotel, was barely a mention of what I’d been invited to Estonia…

Dick Durham

From my bedroom window I can see a small stone memorial in the corner of an ancient churchyard overlooking the Thames Estuary; on it are the names of four fisherman…

Dick Durham

My mother died recently and I now know why ships are called shes. I suddenly feel as though I’ve been left to swim for it, even though I’ve been old enough…

Dick Durham

Each wave hit the boat broadside with a loud slap and bashed her hull against the rocky sea wall. Her starboard bilge keel was smashed off, just a row of…

Dick Durham

There are any number of DIY weather forecasting manuals and all of them train us up the same way. There’s the overview: the plan of a weather system with its…

Dick Durham

Some sailors leave me feeling distinctly uncomfortable; they leave me with a sneaking suspicion that I haven’t sailed far enough, that I’m too comfortable in home waters, that I’m a…

Dick Durham

There is a cartoon drawn by Mike Peyton that sticks in my mind. Two boats are sailing abeam from an anchorage in light conditions. The helmsman of the one nearest…

Dick Durham

“Bittles was no sailor, but he knew a good idea when he saw one” Exactly 90 years ago this month, Yachting Monthly conceived an offspring, Yacht Sales & Charters. The…