Sail with New Freebooters

I taught myself to scull when I was nine or ten years old. The only trouble was, I did it the wrong way. I put my oar in the sculling notch in the dinghy’s transom and held it like a rudder, with the blade vertical. From that starting position, it was easy to see which [...]

At least, that’s Bouwe Bekking’s story and he’s sticking to it. After winning Leg 4 in conditions that this veteran Volvo skipper says were the worst he’s ever experienced in all his years of competing in the race, Bekking claimed that his decision to go out to sea rather than seek the shelter of the [...]

You are lucky enough to be moored to the outside of a marina pontoon, with no more fingers between you and the open fairway. However, a fresh breeze is blowing you hard against it. The classic ‘foolproof’ way of getting off is to lay a kedge upwind and pull the boat off before motoring up [...]

by Mike K-H This is the first in a new category of posts on this blog, and I’ve deliberately kicked off with a hairy manoeuvre the basic sailing courses usually avoid. This post is based on real live experience. First, let’s make it clear that the boat we are talking about was a racing sailing [...]