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Latest Boating Articles

21 August 2012

A bit of history Thousands of years ago boats were named to honour a god, in order to safeguard them from peril. Their fear and superstition...

15 August 2012

Red diesel is simply diesel fuel with red dye added to it. In some countries it is a requirement by law that dye is added to low-tax fuel in orde...

23 July 2012

What is it? "Heaving to" or being "hove to" is a way of slowing a boat’s forward progress and bringing it almost t...

10 July 2012

The world’s first wind farm was sited in New Hampshire in 1980, but it was not until 1991 that the first offshore wind farm was installed i...

11 June 2012

Day 3 – “seasickness and going aloft” 0600 hours – up early to catch the tide and head off down the western Solent t...

11 June 2012

Day 5 – “tight turns and mud” We were not leaving Weymouth until late morning; waiting for the eastgoing tide, but were st...

29 May 2012

Nick White has been sailing for nearly 20 years on friends’ boats, doing courses and chartering both in this country and abroad, but the ch...

09 May 2012

It’s a familiar sight – a stationary rib displaying a dive flag (either a red rectangle with a white diagonal stripe or a blue-and-wh...

01 May 2012

Fog is damp, cold, uncomfortable and potentially dangerous! If you are at sea it increases your chances of running into some hazard, or of anothe...

17 April 2012

As an island nation, we in the UK are used to seeing lighthouses around our coasts, but have you ever stopped to consider when they were first bu...

26 March 2012

Fire must be one of the most dangerous and feared accidents that could happen on a boat. It is perilous enough when it occurs on dry land, but wh...

26 March 2012

Are you confused about the value of flares? I am. All the articles I read put forward such compelling arguments, some for, some against. As ...

14 March 2012

The Solent Forts Approaching Portsmouth from the sea, early in my sailing career, I was most surprised to come across four large, round stru...

24 February 2012

Whether you are an experienced sailor or a novice, it’s likely that the time will come when you have to make the decision – do you ta...

30 January 2012

For centuries people whose lives depended on the weather have relied on Folklore to tell them what to expect. Farmers and sailors in particular d...

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