Cruising
The magic of cruising
Andy Jessett recalls a bewitching passage from Falmouth to
Largs, ‘under a trillion stars on a wake of luminous silver green’

Festive fun
Nautical cartoonist Mike Peyton casts a sharp, satirical eye
over the disorientated soul that is the yachtsman at Christmas

Teenage ocean odyssey
Mike Perham, a 16-year-old from Potters Bar, sets sail in his bid to become the youngest ever non-stop, solo circumnavigator

Cross The channel with confidence
The challenge of sailing to France is a test of relationships as well as seamanship. Graham Snook reports on the RYA Sail Cruise

Christmas reading
From lighthouses to sailing legends, Dick Durham presents six
new glossy tomes that would suit the coffee table of any sailor

Blue water letter
Andy and Ulla O’Grady meet kindred spirits on the route to Rio

Cruising Turkey
Rookie sailors Jacqui Elliott and her husband Paul enjoy their best-ever family holiday on a flotilla in the Turkish Aegean

Sailing skills
Expert on Board – Look, No hands!
Can you sail a straight course without touching the wheel?

Skipper’s tips
Calibrating the log, moon tides and holding station

A question of seamanship
How do you deal with a sudden, violent broach when there are
only two people on board? PLUS: Sailing skills library

Learning curve
The fury of a tropical storm in an anchorage with poor holding

Any questions?
Sail insignia, dogs on decks, Blue and Red Ensigns …

Boats and gear
24-hour boat test – Arcona 430
We test the Arcona 430 in Sweden’s Stockholm archipelago

Used boat test – Broadblue 38
RYA chief executive Rod Carr shows Jeremy Evans around
his ‘executive suite’ and reveals his passion for multihulls

London Boat Show preview
Sneak preview of the UK’s best sailing spectacular on dry land

New gear – boat show bonanza!
A seagoing diesel-electric hybrid, two revolutionary
anti-fouling systems, talking chartplotters and more

New boats
Moody gets retro with the 41 Classic, the Fan Class 32 comes
with canting mast and keel, Pogo’s lightweight lift-keel flyer…

Your liferaft in our hands
The most comprehensive test ever published in a magazine

Regulars
Editor’s log
Alone in a crowd

Opening shot
Dee Caffari’s Vendée Globe start

Cruising News
Multi-storey berthing and more

Readers’ letters
Your views and opinions

Libby Purves
A plague of non-yachts

Cunliffe on Cruising
Sailors’ Christmas stockings

Nigel Calder
The night I fell overboard

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Around the coast
Transatlantic pensioners, yachts aground and more local news

Readers’ services
Back issues, YM photos, reserve a copy

The Confessional
Yachtsmen confess their sailing sins