On the evening of December 19, 1981, the ship Union Star suffered engine failure off the south coast of Cornwall. With a storm building, the Coastguard attempted a helicopter rescue. But the weather forced them to stand off and the RNLI launched the Penlee lifeboat Solomon Browne to help instead. Nobody from the Union Star …
Sea-sickness is a common malaise, experienced by most sailors at one time or another. But setting sail alone for even short periods can also have effects on mental health. Most sailors know the story of Donald Crowhurst. When he slipped his lines in Teignmouth to take part in the first Golden Globe race neither he …
When Vice-admiral Horatio Nelson sent the rallying cry “England expects that every man will do his duty” from HMS Victory ahead of the Battle of Trafalgar, he signalled his message using flags. In these days of electronic communication it might seem that such signalling methods are old hat – but flags, the phonetic alphabet and …
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The Shipping Forecast is practically a British Institution. It’s listened to by sailors and landlubbers alike for the poetry of its sounds. It’s also complete gibberish unless you know the special code, which is also used in many other forecasts. So what does it all mean? Before reading on, we recommend that you download your …
If Poland isn’t thought of as one of the great sailing nations, it’s understandable. After all, the country has historically had relatively limited access to the sea (at times, it’s had no land either), and for half a century after the Second World War the activities of would-be skippers and crew were severely limited by …
For most sailors, it is second nature to pull on a life jacket before slipping the lines. Modern designs are lightweight and comfortable to wear, and can last many years if serviced regularly and professionally. Early life jackets, though, were a different matter altogether. They were bulky and inconvenient, yet did the same job that …
Sail power is making a comeback, as shown by the recent example of the cargo ship that docked in Torquay bringing wine, coffee and olive oil from Portugal. Nordlys (pictured) was built on the Isle of Wight in 1873, which could make her the oldest vessel of her kind still operating. But that’s not all …
Sail Ho! co-skipper Aleksandra has so much fun creating creatures and characters for our animated videos that she wanted to do more – so her designs are now available on a range of merchandise in the new Sail Ho! online store. Visit the shop at sailhoshop.com (or just click on this paragraph), and it’s sure …
Tides rise, and tides fall. Sometimes we sail by deep water, and six hours later the same place can be dry. You are going to need to know how much water is in a given place at a specific time in order to navigate safely – and the latest episode of Sail Ho! explains just …
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Even the most experienced skippers in the most seaworthy vessels can find themselves in need of help when sailing, so it’s important to understand and recognise the internationally accepted distress signals. If you were in a distress situation on the water, would you know how to raise the alarm and get help? The International Regulations …
Read more “Sail training theory tutorial 9: COLREGs distress signals”