Charter special

• Mediterranean
  
  Charter special The Med and Beyond – 18 pages of charter destinations. On-the-spot reports from Italy, Turkey and Greece, plus Med guru Rod Heikell’s Top 12 hotspots. Plus: James Jermain investigates buying a charter yacht

Features

• Adrift!
  
  A boat owner’s worst nightmare – Dick Durham describes his yacht’s 16-hour unmanned crossing of the Thames Estuary. And her seven near-misses!
• Blue Water Letter
  
  Annie Hill’s Playtex party in Port Owen, South Africa
• Destinations
  
  Peter Cumberlidge visits the popular North Brittany port of Tréguier
• New Gear
  
  Winter warmers, wireless electronics, and a self-righting liferaft
• Which DSC set?
  
  Simon Jinks puts seven VHF DSC radio sets to the test and picks the best value for money
• A romp to the west
  
  James Jermain embarks on a spring shake-down cruise from the Solent to Torquay
• ARC 2000
  
  Families across the Atlantic: Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, or Armada for Retired Capitalists? Paul Gelder reports from Las Palmas
• Homeward bound
  
  Sixty-seven-year-old Clive Imber completes his solo Atlantic circuit, from Antigua to Falmouth, via the Azores

On test

• Bavaria 40
  
  James Jermain finds out if the price is right for Bavaria’s latest centre-cockpit cruiser

• Dragonfly 920 tri
  
  Fast and furious fun on three hulls: James Jermain reports on Denmark’s sporty cruiser

• Sadler 29
  
  Second-hand boat test goes aboard the Sadler 29 – the company’s first unsinkable yacht

Regulars

• Editorial
• On watch
• Subscriptions/Next Month
• Readers’ letters
• Any questions?
• New Boats
• Blue Water Letter: Annie Hill in Port Owen, South Africa
• Libby Purves
• New Gear
• YM books: Armchair reading
• Around the coast: The latest news from our correspondents
• Waterside property
• The Confessional: Readers own up to their sailing sins

Sailing skills

• Question of seamanship What would you to do if a bank of fog rolled in as you approached Alderney’s Braye Harbour?
• Learning Curve Hit by a ship! Reader David Langley recounts his close encounter in fog in the Solent with a ‘blue wall of steel’
• Yachtmaster Class ‘One line for each job,’ says Cunliffe
• Pilotage quiz – answer The winner of November’s quiz
• Better boat handling Part 3: The art of going astern
• Quick Tips Rope handling; slowing down downwind; earrings and necklaces
• Des Sleightholme Taking the anxiety out of anchoring