Wisely, a recent issue of Yachting Monthly addressed the practicalities of making your boat child-friendly: indeed many sensible adjustments are good for all, since adult humans too get clumsy and…

Offshore passage skipper

It’s easy to keep sailing in familiar waters, but a longer passage will connect you to the true spirit of seafaring, says Libby Purves

Now’s the time to traipse around boatyards and shows, dreaming of a new boat, if only the money would stretch, says Libby Purves

We may think we understand the sea, but it’s not until you get in it that you realise how volatile an element water is, says Libby Purves

A healthy fear of the sea comes with experience, but new crew remind us why we fell in love with sailing, says Libby Purves

I was a really useful bit of kit once. As handy as any new gizmo in the posh chandlery, as flexible and interactive as anything B&G can come up with.…

It was a particularly vile, early-season shakedown passage to Ostend. We crossed a North Sea which threw up its trademark jerky, irregular grey-brown chop: we hammered hard on the wind…

Good to have the pilotage notes on going round Land’s End (p40). No headland is without its nervous moments, especially with cliffs involved, and off-lying rocks suggesting that the land…

Years ago when we were young, we went to a few yacht club meets in our Contessa 26, Barnacle Goose. All the other boats were much bigger and grander, with…