Avoiding 'The Seven Deadly Sins'

You can have your cake and eat it too, if you plan , think carefully, be honest and avoid the ‘seven deadly sins’. To have a partner, better still, your whole family on board enjoying a quiet spot is what dreams are made of and can be attained with a lot of initial effort. During this initial journey, one should never push the psychological envelope and this takes careful thinking, word choices and does take time, a lot of time, even years.

1. Crew must Crawl before they can Walk

While fear of water rates second to fear of flying, heading on the water can be a very scary idea for the uninitiated and any wrong step will set one back years, not days or ... Register or log in to read the full article

I’m sitting on my yacht in Coffs Harbour (Australia) this morning scratching my head in disbelief at what happened last night.

Sailing north along the NSW coast yesterday in a 10-15 knot southerly, I wanted to put out my new spinnaker but the forecast was for the southerly to pick up to 30 knots. Not wanting to get caught out with too much sail, I opted for the safe option of a ‘blade jib’, stowing the mainsail. Speed was slow, only 5-6 knots. I’ve been caught out too often over-canvassed and it sucks.

Around 8am I past the town of Camden Haven (aka Laurieton) and joined up with a flotilla of other yachts (around 40ft), heading north up the east coast. Content with sailing in company I ... Register or log in to read the full article